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Session Title: Partnering With and Learning From Indigenous Peoples
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Panel Session 620 to be held in McKeldon Room on Friday, November 9, 1:55 PM to 3:25 PM
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Sponsored by the Indigenous Peoples in Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Donna Mertens,
Gallaudet University,
donna.mertens@gallaudet.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| Donna Mertens,
Gallaudet University,
donna.mertens@gallaudet.edu
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| Abstract:
Members of indigenous communities in many parts of the world have a legacy of being pushed to the margins and denied access to the privileges of colonizing powers. The mainstream resistance to the recognition and legitimacy of indigenous peoples parallels in significant ways the resistance towards members of other groups whose gender, disability, race/ethnicity, or other dimensions of diversity have been used to award them less privilege in our society. As indigenous peoples have made their presence known in the mainstream evaluation world, they have raised up issues related to theory and practice in evaluation that provide important learning opportunities for evaluators. The focus of this panel is on the insights gained from partnering with and learning from members of indigenous communities in the field of evaluation.
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Culling: Tenets of Success - From Hawaiian Promising Practices in Education - Assets Based Inquiry, a Community Based Process
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| Kanani Aton,
Hawaiian Education Services,
k-aton@hawaii.rr.com
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| Fiona Cram,
Katoa Ltd,
finoac@katoa.net.nz
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| Morris Lai,
University of Hawaii,
lai@hawaii.edu
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| Alice Kawakami,
University of Hawaii,
alicek@hawaii.edu
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Native Hawaiian students make up 26% of the overall population in Hawaii's public schools. Specific strategies for improving the quality of their learning are being collaboratively designed by the Hawaiian Education Community and the State Department of Education in an initiative called Na Lau Lama. In 2006, this statewide effort focused on identifying characteristics of Hawaiian best educational practices from the community using Assets Based Inquiry. This approach was adapted from Appreciative Inquiry, intending to strategize results around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn't. The outcomes include identification of 'Tenets of Success' describing promising Hawaiian education practices with regard to assessment, culture-based education, professional development, and strengthening families and community. These outcomes led to current planning to pilot promising practices in the broader DOE system. Challenges include the DOE system's lukewarm response to the usefulness of the 'Tenets' thus far.
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Listening and Learning: A Canadian Perspective on Evaluation in Aboriginal Education Circles
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| Linda Lee,
Proactive Information Services Inc,
linda@proactive.mb.ca
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The Canadian province of Manitoba has one of Canada's largest Aboriginal populations (First Nations peoples, MTtis and Inuit). The challenge for educational institutions, from schools to the Aboriginal Education Directorate (ministry of education), is to balance the pressure to conduct evaluations that provide data credible to the 'majority' population (who hold the institutional and systemic power) with the need for Aboriginal communities to understand and improve education in culturally appropriate and meaningful ways. This presentation will address not only the challenges inherent in this endeavor, but also will explore the approaches that Aboriginal communities have used to address this tension. When evaluators working in other contexts listen to the learnings to be gleaned from the experiences of Manitoba's Aboriginal communities, they have the opportunity to enhance their own evaluation practice, particularly as it applies to the empowerment of other marginalized communities.
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Transformative Evaluation in Deafness: Learning From Indigenous Peoples
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| Raychelle Harris,
Gallaudet University,
raychelle.harris@gallaudet.edu
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| Heidi Holmes,
Gallaudet University,
heidi.holmes@gallaudet.edu
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People who are deaf are quite heterogeneous in terms of level of hearing loss, gender, race/ethnicity, and other dimensions of diversity such as indigenous people status. There is a group of people who have a cultural identification with deafness who use the capital letter D to denote their status as Deaf people. This culturally Deaf group recognizes the power differentials associated with being able to hear. They also recognize the power associated with mode of communication (use of sign language or auditory/verbal language.) Harris and Holmes will discuss issues of power, language, and ethics in evaluation contexts in the Deaf community, building on what they have learned from the indigenous communities scholarship.
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De-colonizing and Cleaning Our Cultural Lenses: Preliminary Steps
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| Pauline Brooks,
Brooks Cross Cultural/International Evaluation, Research and Racism Consulting,
pbrooks_3@hotmail.com
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For half a millennium, Western nations' relationships with indigenous peoples have been largely relationships of conquest and domination. Rarely considering indigenous populations as equals, many Western nations evolved cultures (later including scientific cultures) that incorporated various negative stereotypes, misinformation and even lies concerning those whom they subordinated. Subjugated indigenous populations were very often People of Color, and White racism was a major (though not the only) subjugating force that, up to the present, has contributed to deep-seated culturally accepted mainstream biases concerning indigenous populations and their relationships with various dominating Western White cultures. Given this history, removing and minimizing racial and other biases are necessary steps for enabling mainstream Western researchers/evaluators to work effectively with, and to the benefit of, indigenous people and communities.
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Bulding Evaluation Capacity Through Partnerships With Community-based Organizations Serving Minorities With Disabilities
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| Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar,
University of Illinois, Chicago,
ysuarez@uic.edu
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| Tina Taylor-Ritzler,
University of Illinois, Chicago,
tritzler@uic.edu
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| Edurne Garcia,
University of Illinois, Chicago,
edurne21@yahoo.com
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Community-based organizations (CBOs) in this country provide a variety of services to individuals with diverse social problems and common predicaments. Due to sharp decrease in funding sources, coupled with growing skepticism in the general public regarding the efficiency of social programs, these agencies are experiencing pressure from stakeholders to engage in program evaluation. Presenters will discuss the building of partnerships with CBOs serving minorities with disabilities in order to create capacity for evaluation and create learning communities. Lessons learned from scholars working in indigenous communities facilitated the identification of challenges and solutions related to mainstreaming evaluation activities within CBOs daily work and sustaining that capacity over time. Presenters will emphasize the use of empowerment and participatory strategies to building capacity and the role of the researcher from coach to facilitator to teacher.
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