arbiter
JournalsAccount

The Pursuit of Social Betterment Through Evaluation Practice: A Review of the Literature on Social Justice-Oriented Evaluation and a Taxonomy of Practices

Sarah Zlatkovic

Evaluation Review2026https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841x261428513article
AJG 1ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

There has been an increasing call for social justice, not just in American society but also within the evaluation profession. Scholars and practitioners like Donna Mertens, Stafford Hood, Karen Kirkhart, Veronica Thomas, and many others have led the movement within the evaluation profession to view evaluation practice as a vehicle for social justice. However, descriptions of social justice-oriented evaluation in the literature tend to lack sufficient detail, leaving many evaluators to wonder exactly what social justice-oriented evaluation is. This article presents a summary of the literature on social justice-oriented evaluation, providing a much-needed description of the approach. This paper also introduces a taxonomy of social justice-oriented evaluation (T-SJOE) practices, developed from the results of the literature review, and presents a framework of social justice-oriented evaluation practices as they are currently discussed in the evaluation literature. T-SJOE is not prescriptive or presumed complete but is presented as a tool for self-reflection and as a resource when planning evaluations. Further development of the T-SJOE is expected and encouraged.

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841x261428513

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{sarah2026,
  title        = {{The Pursuit of Social Betterment Through Evaluation Practice: A Review of the Literature on Social Justice-Oriented Evaluation and a Taxonomy of Practices}},
  author       = {Sarah Zlatkovic},
  journal      = {Evaluation Review},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841x261428513},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

The Pursuit of Social Betterment Through Evaluation Practice: A Review of the Literature on Social Justice-Oriented Evaluation and a Taxonomy of Practices

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.