The next generation of evaluators must be trained and mentored in high‐quality technical, strengths‐based, interpersonal, contextual, social justice‐oriented, and values‐engaged evaluation. In this ...chapter, we present a non‐course‐based, real‐world‐focused, adaptable training model for anyone working with novice evaluators. In creating this model, we have drawn from our multiple identities—educator, faculty, graduate student, first‐generation, woman, Black, Latina, white, United States Citizen, immigrant, wife, mother, advocate, and change agent—and from our experiences, previous research on evaluation, culturally responsive evaluation approaches, higher education literature, and personal reflections. We outline our values‐engaged, educative training model and discuss its three key components. We conclude with thoughts about what evaluator education could and should become.
The majority of evaluation practitioners begin their career in allied fields and stumble into evaluation. As such, university offerings and evaluation professional development sessions have become ...increasingly popular. As the field continues to professionalize and new mentoring programs emerge, empirical work examining teaching and training in evaluation has gained traction. However, little is known about the role that opportunities such as mentoring play in evaluation training. The purpose of this article is to explore the expected and unexpected benefits of our experiences as participants in an evaluation mentoring program, lessons learned, and logistical and structural promoters of success in peer mentoring.
The fiercest advocates for change are often program managers, policymakers, community members, and evaluators who themselves come from the minoritized communities they serve. As evaluators of African ...descent, we ask, “If not us, then who?” and are compelled to understand how our identities impact our perceived role and evaluation praxis. A survey conducted among evaluators of color who are diverse in age, gender, sector of employment, nation of origin, and years of experience revealed that an evaluator's identity influences their role and evaluation praxis. We argue all evaluators, commissioners of evaluation, and evaluation stakeholders must critically understand how their backgrounds influence the work they do, given that this impacts their engagement and responsiveness to the varying contexts and cultures encountered. We encourage readers to be reflective about how our identity impacts our role, and more importantly, ways we can work to intentionally incite change when working with historically marginalized populations.
The Evaluation Journal of Australasia special issue on Values in Evaluation published in December 2019 gave an overview of current discourses associated with valuing in evaluation with the debut of ...'Praxis' papers. This introduction summarizes the three praxis papers in this second Values in Evaluation special issue. The praxis papers contribute to knowledge about the ways in which we can and should engage with values across a variety of evaluation contexts with varying stakeholders.
Postcolonial theory can be paired with a values-engaged educative evaluation approach to resist imperialism and colonialism in evaluation spaces, de-Westernize conceptualizations of diversity, ...equity, and inclusion, and extend the capacity of culturally responsive evaluation. Beyond the joining of the values-engaged educative approach and postcolonial theory, Collaboration Research Network theories offer another distinct but complementary avenue for exploring structural power imbalance and invisible hierarchies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics evaluation contexts. Using these three theories, values-engaged educative, Collaboration Research Network, and postcolonial theory, this qualitative study examined the perceptions and experiences of faculty and students at three minority-serving institutions participating in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Center. This study aims to bridge theories traditionally used in research with evaluation frameworks to reconceptualize concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The field of evaluation has experienced greater professionalization in the areas of evaluator education and training. Growth in these areas included sensitivity to issues of diversity, with efforts ...to attract and retain evaluators of color. Currently, there is limited scholarship on navigating a world with more opportunity but still dealing with being Black. Motivated by our identities as Black evaluators, we explored the education, training and socialization concerns experienced by Black evaluators and the advice they would offer. Through content analysis of semi-structured interviews and the utilization of Critical Race Theory as a framework, we garnered advice to and from Black evaluators on how to (a) navigate the politics in evaluation; (b) engage in reflection and reflexivity; (c) network and collaborate; (d) mentor and bring others along the way; and (e) develop as a professional evaluator. We offer a synthesis of these findings in the discussion and articulate further implications.
The terms cultural responsiveness and cultural competence have become ubiquitous in many fields of social inquiry, including in evaluation. The discourse surrounding these issues in evaluation has ...also increased markedly in recent years, and the terms can now be found in many RFPs and government-based evaluation descriptions. We have found that novice evaluators are able to engage culturally responsive approaches to evaluation at the conceptual level, but are unable to translate theoretical constructs into practice. In this article we share a framework for teaching culturally responsive approaches to evaluation. The framework includes two domains: conceptual and methodological, each with two interconnected dimensions. The dimensions of the conceptual domain include locating self and social inquiry as a cultural product. The dimensions of the methodological domain include formal and informal applications in evaluation practice. Each of the dimensions are linked to multiple domains within the Competencies for Canadian Evaluation practice. We discuss each and provide suggestions for activities that align with each of the dimensions.
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