|
To Be or Not to Be: Culturally Competent versus Culturally Responsive Evaluator
|
| Presenter(s):
|
| Gabriela Juarez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, gjuarez02@gmail.com
|
| Jennifer C Greene, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, jcgreene@illinois.edu
|
| Abstract:
A common expectation across evaluation theories today is that evaluators should demonstrate cultural competence. AEA's Guiding Principles stipulate that a culturally competent evaluator should be aware of 'their own culturally-based assumptions, their understanding of the worldviews of culturally-different participants and stakeholders in the evaluation, and the use of appropriate evaluation strategies and skills in working with culturally different groups.' So, cultural competence signals understanding and skills that enable evaluators to appropriately read and interpret cultural meanings. However, cultural competence is often used interchangeably with cultural responsiveness. Cultural responsiveness signals explicit evaluator attention to and valuing of the cultural context of the program. These two concepts of cultural competence and cultural responsiveness thus overlap and also offer unique purchase on issues of culture in evaluation. This paper discusses key differences between these two concepts and then proposes to combine them into one practical role expectation for evaluators' cultural attentiveness.
|
|
Educational Evaluation, Social Justice, and Diversity: An Analysis of the Interplay Between Border Theory and Contextually Culturally Responsive Evaluations
|
| Presenter(s):
|
| Melba Castro, University of California, Riverside, melbac@ucr.edu
|
| Abstract:
Contextually culturally responsive evaluations (CCRE) provide evaluators with a methodological theory to promote educational equity for diverse student populations and communities who have historically been underserved. With a clear infusion of culture and context, evaluation can be used as a tool for promoting social justice. Importantly, border analysis opens a new dimension of critical inquiry over methodological and epistemological practices in evaluation, such as research design choices, data collection, interpretation, and reporting. This paper incorporates border theory with CCRA to examine the interplay of values, methodology, and power in which evaluation can be used as a tool to promote educational equity and social justices for underrepresented and marginalized students. It critique of the notion that unbiased evaluations serve all students and programs equally and provides a discussion of what it means to be a culturally competent evaluator.
|
|
A Theoretical Framework and a Conceptual Model for Measuring Culture: A Potential Tool for Conducting Culturally Responsive Evaluation?
|
| Presenter(s):
|
| Khawla Obeidat, University of Colorado, khawla.obeidat@ucdenver.edu
|
| Stafford Hood, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, slhood@illinois.edu
|
| Abstract:
For some of us, it is strongly contended that evaluators should not only engage in evaluation research and practice but that this work should be embedded and serve local communities. At the same time, there is a danger for an evaluator's uninformed, insensitive, and even culturally biased attitudes to negatively impact each stage of an evaluation from the evaluation questions to how the evaluation findings are presented to the stakeholders. For more than a decade, there has been an increasing call for the evaluation community to fulfill its role in our culturally diverse society with cultural competence being a fundamental requirement for evaluators. This paper begins the exploration of those scales, questionnaires, tools, survey, standardized and unstandardized, that define and measure culture as a preliminary step for building a standardized measure of culture that can possibly be used in research and practice of culturally responsive evaluation.
|
| | |