What are Some Resources to Assist with Social Justice Work? by Mellie Torres

Hola! My name is Mellie Torres and I am a Research Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center and also an independent evaluator focusing on education, social emotional programming, out of school time programming, and the education of young men and boys of color. Today’s blog provides additional resources related to social justice work in evaluation.

Social and Historical Overview

Caldwell, L.D. & Bledsoe, K.L. (2019) Can social justice live in a house of structural racism? A question for the field of evaluation. American Journal of Evaluation 40(1), 6-18.  

Hall, M.E. (2018). Evaluation’s race problem in the United States: A call to action for the profession and the American Journal of Evaluation. American Journal of Evaluation, 39(4), 569-583.

Haugen, J.S. & Chouinard, J.A. (2019). Transparent, translucent, opaque: Exploring the dimensions of power in culturally responsive evaluation contexts. American Journal of Evaluation, 40(3), 376-394.

Hood, S., & Hopson, R. K. (2008). Evaluation roots reconsidered: Asa Hilliard, a fallen hero in the “Nobody Knows My Name” project, and African educational excellence. Review of Educational Research, 78, 410–426.

Thomas, V., Madison, A., Rockcliffe, F., DeLaine, K., & Lowe, S.M. (2018).  Racism, social programming, and evaluation: Where do we go from here? American Journal of Evaluation, 39(4), 514-526.

Practice

 Boyce, A. S. (2017). Lessons learned using a values-engaged approach to attend to culture, diversity, and equity in a STEM program evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 64, 33–43.

Jackson, K.M., Pukys, S., Castro, A., Hermosura, L., Mendez J., Vohra-Gupta, S., Padilla Y., & Morales, G. (2018). Using the transformative paradigm to conduct a mixed methods needs assessment of a marginalized community: Methodological lessons and implications. Evaluation and Program Planning, 111-119. 

Teaching 

Boyce, A. S., & Chouinard, J. A. (2017). Moving beyond the buzzword: A framework for teaching culturally responsive approaches to evaluation. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 32(2), 266-279.

Thomas, V. & Madison, A. (2010). Integration of social justice into the teaching of evaluation. American Journal of Evaluation, 31(4), 570-583.

Methodology

Kirkhart, K. E. (2010). Eye on the prize: Multicultural validity and evaluation theory. American Journal of Evaluation, 31(3), 400-413.

Symonette, H. (2009). Cultivating self as responsive instrument: Working the boundaries and borderlands for ethical border crossing. In D. M. Mertens & P. E. Ginsberg (Eds.), The Handbook of Social Research Ethics (pp. 279-294). Thousand Oak, CA: SAGE.

Hesse-Biber, S. (2013). Thinking outside the randomized controlled trials experimental box: Strategies for enhancing credibility and social justice. In D. M. Mertens & S. Hesse-Biber (Eds.), Mixed methods and credibility of evidence in evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 138, 49–60.

Mertens, D. M. (2013). What does a transformative lens bring to credible evidence in mixed methods evaluations? In D. M. Mertens & S. Hesse-Biber (Eds.), Mixed methods and credibility of evidence in evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 138, 27–35.

We want to hear from you tomorrow in our final AEA 365 blog post by Jeremy.

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The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Multicultural Issues in Evaluation (MIE) TIG Week. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our MIE TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.