CC Week: Cindy Crusto on Introduction to AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation Week

Hi, my name is Cindy Crusto, associate professor, Yale School of Medicine, and chair of the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation Dissemination Working Group.  I am writing on behalf of the Working Group to inform you of the purpose of the Working Group and to introduce this week’s aea365 series.

As you may recall, the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation was approved by the general AEA membership in April 2011. The Statement affirms the significance of cultural competence in evaluation and identifies essential practices for cultural competence. The Statement was, by design, not a “how to” guide. Thus, the translation of concepts articulated in the Statement into practice remains an important next step.  A dissemination working group, an AEA operational group comprised of AEA members, was convened to engage in developing and executing dissemination strategies, translation, and maintenance plans for the Statement. An Advisory Group consults on idea generation, vetting, review, and dissemination assistance.

The Dissemination Working Group identified 10 key activities on which it will concentrate over the next 1.5 years.  One activity is to contribute to the aea365 series two times this year.  This first series focuses on cultural competence more generally and on the Statement.  The second aea365 series later this year will highlight themes emerging from proposed working group-sponsored sessions at the upcoming AEA conference.

This week we have an exciting lineup!  Tamara Bertrand-Jones and Osman Özturgut discuss ways that you can incorporate the tenets of culturally competent evaluation and the Statement into your AEA conference presentation, and Leah Neubauer adds to the discussion with teaching. Karen Anderson writes about integrating the Statement and its concepts into organizations that conduct and commission evaluations. She provides tips and resources for assessing and building culturally competent organizations. Jori Hall writes about integrating cultural competence into everyday evaluation practice through a values-engaged approach. She provides examples from previous evaluation projects that explore the practical application of values-engagement strategies. Dominica McBride writes our biases and perspectives influencing decision-making in everyday practice and the challenges this causes in implementing cultural competence. She provides tips on how to recognize and move through these biases to apply the wisdom of the Statement with greater ease.

Hot Tip: The concepts and essential practices presented in the Statement can be applied regardless of the type of evaluation (process, outcome, impact, cost, personnel, product), setting in which the evaluation is engaged (government, academia, business, community, education, etc.), or type of evaluation work (policy, practice, teaching, etc.) conducted.

Rad Resources:

• The AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation
• Links to Resources on Cultural Competence in Evaluation
• Favorite Citations on Cultural Competence in Evaluation
• Annotated Bibliography: Multiculturalism and Cultural Competence in Evaluation

The American Evaluation Association will be celebrating Cultural Competence Week. The contributions all this week come from the Cultural Competence committee. 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 evaluator.