CC Week: Jori Hall on Integrating Cultural Competence into Everyday Practice, Part 1

Hello, I’m Jori Hall, assistant professor at the University of Georgia and a member of the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation Dissemination Working Group. This tip is focused on integrating cultural competence into everyday practice through values-engagement.

Tips:

• As suggested in the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation, all evaluation practice and evaluands are situated in and influenced by cultural norms, values, and various ways of knowing. Values-engagement acknowledges these influences and attempts to be responsive to the dynamic interaction between the values reflected in evaluation practice and the evaluand. That is, values-engaged evaluators understand that evaluation practice promotes values, and that these values must respectfully engage stakeholders’ values.
• Values-engagement is not a specific strategy or a set of required methods; rather, it is a commitment to culturally responsive evaluation. While there is more than one way to be values-engaged, the commitment to culturally responsive, values-engagement suggested here involves the evaluator prioritizing values of inclusion and equity in everyday practice. Inclusion refers to engaging and describing the plurality of stakeholders’ values, perspectives, and concerns, focusing on the least well served in a particular context. Equity refers to how well and to what extent the evaluand is attending to stakeholder groups (i.e., access, participation, etc.) in the context. Because values-engagement advocates inclusiveness and the equitable treatment of stakeholders, it supports the goals of the Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation.
• Values-engagement can be integrated throughout the life cycle of an evaluation, and enacted through generating evaluation questions, data, and dialogues related to the ways in which the evaluand is attending to the cultural values of the groups represented in the context. To learn more about values-engagement, its connection to cultural competence, and how evaluators can practically enact its commitments in different evaluation contexts, begin with the resources provided below!

Rad resources:

• Jennifer Greene and colleagues’ article on the value-engaged approach in STEM programs
• House & Howe’s book on Values in evaluation and social research

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.