Mixed Methods Research and Culture-Specific Interventions: Program Design and Evaluation

Bonnie K. Nastasi, PhD (Kent State University, 1986, School Psychology & Early Childhood Education), is Professor of Psychology and Co-director of the Trauma Specialization in School Psychology at Tulane University. She uses mixed-methods research designs to develop and evaluate culturally appropriate assessment and intervention approaches for promoting mental health and reducing health risks, within the United States and internationally. She directed a multi-country study of psychological well-being of children and adolescents with research partners in 12 countries from 2008 to 2013. With colleagues, she developed the Participatory Culture-Specific Intervention Model (PCSIM) to guide the design and evaluation of sustainable culturally and contextually relevant programming through partnerships with stakeholders. She is active in the promotion of child rights and social justice within the profession of school psychology. She is president of the International School Psychology Association.

John H. Hitchcock, Ph.D. (University at Albany, State University of New York, 2003, Educational Psychology) is an associate professor of Instructional Systems Technology within Indiana University’s School of Education, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He is also the Director of the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy. Dr. Hitchcock’s research focus is on the use of mixed methods and other types of designs to evaluate interventions and policies that focus on helping students with specialized learning needs. He has served as a principal investigator, methodological lead and content expert for the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education, to complete a systematic review of interventions designed for children with emotional-behavioral disorders. He also served on a panel that drafted standards for assessing the causal-validity of Single-Case Design studies for the WWC. Dr. Hitchcock has served as a co-principal investigator of two large scale randomized controlled trials to assess the impact of reading and math curricula. He has contributed to efforts to develop programs that promote psychological well-being in Sri Lanka since 1998, and he is currently an Associate Editor for School Psychology Review.