ABSTRACT
This chapter experience in the alternating roles of program evaluator and bilingual program administrator; work within the paradigm of experimental research after study toward a masters degree in psychology and subsequent work within the paradigm of ethnographic research while completing a doctorate in anthropology. The role of the ethnographic participant observer is a model for the role of participant evaluator as the dual role of outside/insider of a participant evaluator obtains. Erickson has suggested that ethnography is particularly appropriate for the evaluation of bilingual programs, especially those concerned with students' development of full bilingualism. Ethnographic participant evaluation would strengthen the processes suggested in the Evaluation Assistance Center Guidelines by offering a methodology to document the implementation of the program in the classroom as well as the bilingual program management and the coordination of the program with the rest of the school. The limitations of a behaviorist, product-focused, non-contextual, and non-participatory evaluation model are clarified by an ethnographic perspective.
