Evaluators work in contexts in which social inequities create tensions with regard to decisions about programs and their evaluation. In this article, Donna Mertens explores the meaning of ethics for evaluators who consciously position themselves as promoters of human rights and social justice. The transformative paradigm is offered as a framework for considering the assumptions that guide evaluators who take such a position in terms of methodological implications. This brings evaluators into the complex territory of cultural beliefs and norms that might support or inhibit transformative social change.
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