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Social Justice in Action: The Contribution of Evaluation to Employment Integration of a Vulnerable Population—The Case of College Graduates With Learning Disabilities
Author(s) -
Desivilya Syna Helena,
Rottman Amit,
Raz Michal
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
new directions for evaluation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.374
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1534-875X
pISSN - 1097-6736
DOI - 10.1002/ev.20119
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , government (linguistics) , public relations , context (archaeology) , population , sociology , social exclusion , economic justice , social justice , public administration , economic growth , political science , criminology , economics , law , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , demography , biology
This article presents and discusses an evaluation model that can contribute to social justice and that increases equal opportunities of employment for a vulnerable population—college graduates with learning disabilities. The framework responds to increasingly competitive job markets’ potential exclusion of vulnerable social groups from meaningful participation in this domain, consequently impeding social justice. Counteracting socioeconomic gaps in societies requires active involvement of community members, social institutions, and government. According to the proposed model, the evaluator assumes such an active stance by building genuine partnership with evaluees. We present the sociopolitical and socioeconomic context—the “brave” new job market foreshadowing the evaluation and social justice interface. The model is illustrated through a case study—evaluation of an innovative program supporting the transition of learning disabled college graduates to the job market.