The Program Evaluation Standards in International Settings

22 Sandy TautIn this context, research as a communicative process becomes highly relevant. Evaluatorsneed to pay attention to cultural differences in the nature of knowledge (as a group rather than anindividual notion in collectivist societies), the right to opinions (only group leaders and elders asbeing legitimate opinion holders in collectivist societies), the expectations toward theconstruction of interviews and surveys, ingroup versus outgroup dichotomies, sex and agefactors (see Berry et al., 1997, Vol. 1, chapter 8, for further elaboration).It is beyond the scope of this paper to deal with issues of cross-cultural applicability ofresearch methodology in more depth. Regardless of the difficulties evaluators face when tryingto comply with the Accuracy Standards, they seem to mostly contain goals for evaluatorsacceptable across cultures. However, further investigation needs to address (1) what isconsidered accurate information in different cultures (i.e., what is considered ‘valid,’ ‘reliable,’and ‘systematic’) and (2) how emphasis on either qualitative or quantitative methodologicalapproaches relates to cultural values.A2 Context Analysis The context in which the program exists should be examinedin enough detail, so that its likely influences on the program can be identified.Besides these general, admittedly sometimes speculative concerns, the AccuracyStandards as goals for proper conduct seem to be cross-culturally transferable. Nevertheless, afew relevant comments will be shared. Standard A2, Context Analysis, creates problems in thosecultural settings where some context information, e.g., on the political and organizational contextof the program being evaluated, is hard to obtain and to share because of hierarchical concernsand strong group ties. On the other hand, high-context cultures which place emphasis onsituational (contextual) information for attributional and judgmental processes will especiallyvalue Context Analysis as part of an evaluation (Berry et al., 1997, Vol. 3, chapter 3, p. 53).A11 Impartial Reporting Reporting procedures should guard against distortioncaused by personal feelings and biases of any party to the evaluation, so thatevaluation reports fairly reflect the evaluation findings.In addition, Standard A11, Impartial Reporting, contains non-universal cultural values;the analyses given for Standards U5, P6 and P7 apply to this Standard.