Given the current state of the world with a global pandemic, increased attention to issues of justice, and continuing areas of conflict and adversity, mixed methods researchers have a critical role to play in the development of strategies in design that can support use of the research process and findings for transformative purposes (Mertens & Wilson, 2019). These purposes in the international context have been reinforced by the approval of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and have come to reflect the importance of considering how evaluations can, by design, support economic, environmental, and social justice. Ethical and logistical issues need to be taken into account when the purpose of systematic inquiry shifts to support these types of transformations. While design of mixed methods studies to support transformative change aligns with the international community’s commitment to achieving the SDGs, the implications go beyond supporting the achievement of the SDGs; it includes the design of stuides that are action-oriented and supportive of increased justice. Designs of this nature raise a number of questions: What are the strategies that can be incorporated into the design in order to support inclusion of the full range of stakeholders who are impacted by contextual factors that impede the pursuit of justice? How does the design include plans for including contextual and cultural factors to identify and support stakeholders in ways that lead to a more accurate understanding of the nature of the problem and development of culturally responsive interventions? How is the heterogeneity of communities addressed in the design so that marginalized voices are respectfully included and power relations are shifted to support the desired transformations? This webinar will explore these issues and illustrate how the mixed methods community has addressed these questions through examples taken from many different countries.
