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Session Title: Envisioning Culturally Responsive Evaluation Policy: Perspectives From the United States and New Zealand
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Panel Session 804 to be held in Centennial Section C on Saturday, Nov 8, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM
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Sponsored by the Presidential Strand
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| Chair(s): |
| Stafford Hood,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
slhood@illinois.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| Finbar Sloane,
Arizona State University,
finbar.sloane@asu.edu
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| Bernice Anderson,
National Science Foundation,
banderso@nsf.gov
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| Abstract:
Imagine that the newly elected US President has asked you for guidance on governmental evaluation policy for culturally responsive evaluation. The President is interested in practical guidelines that can inform and direct governmental evaluations that are culturally responsive, respectful and reparative. The President welcomes theoretical justification of the evaluation policy guidelines generated, but insists that the emphasis be on evaluation practice not theory.
The President has elicited three distinct, albeit complementary, perspectives to inform this challenge. First, the perspectives of historically oppressed cultures in the US are critically important to any governmental evaluation policy on culturally responsive evaluation. Second, the perspectives of the Maori as indigenous people of New Zealand are to be highly valued, as they have proactively engaged in policies and practices that are intended to be genuinely bicultural. Third, the perspectives of the philanthropic community in the US can well complement the public perspective of the government.
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Showing Up
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| Stafford Hood,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
slhood@illinois.edu
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| Jennifer Greene,
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
jcgreene@uiuc.edu
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| Julie Nielsen,
University of Minnesota,
niels048@umn.edu
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This presentation of culturally responsive evaluation policy for governmental programs in the US will address three main clusters of guidelines. First, we will offer specific guidance on determining the primary components of culturally responsive evaluation practice: evaluation purpose and audience, key questions to be addressed, design and methods, reporting, and utilization. Second, we will present guidelines on the relational and communicative dimensions of our craft, on the evaluator's presence and role in a particular context, on how the evaluator 'shows up' in that context. This set of guidelines will foreground the dynamic engagement of culture, race, ethnicity, class, gender and so forth in the micro interstices of evaluation practice. Third, we will present guidelines on judging the quality of a program intended to benefit those historically underserved in our society. These guidelines will focus on how and how well the evaluand 'shows up' in the lives of the people being served.
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'For' and 'With' Maori: Culturally Responsive Evaluation
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| Nan Wehipeihana,
Research Evaluation Consultancy Limited,
nanw@clear.net.nz
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| Fiona Cram,
Katoa Ltd,
fionac@katoa.net.nz
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Maori-non-Maori disparities in Aotearoa New Zealand need to be understood within the context of colonization and its attacks on our identity. In the 1980s the call went out from Maori for an end to deficit-based thinking about Maori; followed by statements about 'by Maori, for Maori' research and evaluation, and the building of Maori evaluation capacity. Guidelines were produced by funding bodies and government organizations about how non-Maori can work with Maori in culturally responsive ways. Moreover contracting procedures look for evidence of meaningful inclusion of Maori at all stages of an evaluation. At first this was about consultation, then engagement, and now the push is on for a relationship ethic. Building and maintaining relationships with Maori communities is about evaluators: knowing themselves and acknowledging their status as visitors, having connections that keep them and communities safe, and being respectful of Maori protocols and customs.
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Keeping it Real: Building an Agenda for Culturally Responsive Programming and Evaluation in the World of Philanthropy
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| Rodney Hopson,
Duquesne University,
hopson@duq.edu
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| Justin Laing,
Heinz Endowments,
jlaing@heinz.org
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Modern day foundations can play a critical role as engines for social change when a sincere desire for community improvement is coupled with strategic investments and tools that meaningfully measure the effects of those investments (Braverman, Constantine, & Slater, 2004). With increasing calls for accountability and transparency, how philanthropic investments impact those most vulnerable is coming under increased scrutiny - especially how philanthropic giving impacts ALANA (African, Latino/a, Asian, Native American) communities. So, what kind of evaluation of philanthropic giving can be genuinely culturally responsive to these underserved communities? What kind of evaluation policy should foundations adopt to guide culturally responsive evaluations of their strategic investments? This paper provides snapshots of a foundation's early and emerging attempt to build culturally responsive programming and collaborate with experts in the field of evaluation so as to measure the impact of early investments in this area.
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