Hello! We are Elissa Frazier and Leanne Kallemeyn, members of the Case Collaborative. I (Elissa Frazier) am a program evaluator at Education Development Center, and I have been a practicing evaluator for six years. And I (Leanne Kallemeyn) am an Associate Professor at Loyola University Chicago and have been practicing and teaching evaluation for almost 20 years. In this blog, we share a brief summary about our process in developing a case focusing on culturally responsive evaluation and resources for your capacity building. We believe cases can be a powerful tool for learning, providing an opportunity to engage with contextual dilemmas in evaluation and critical reflexivity.
In our efforts to grow in our professional practice(s), we co-wrote a case on culturally responsive approaches to evaluation (CRE). Click here to read our case titled “The TCS School Program Evaluation” in Designing and Implementing Effective Evaluations. Our case describes a program evaluation of a school-based equity initiative seeking to create an inclusive and positive school environment for students and their families.
We designed the case with a central conflict and sub-conflicts, and we integrated key pieces of background information. Although the case was largely written as a third-person narrative, we incorporated a section with authentic dialogue for a first-person point-of-view for some of the stakeholders represented. Lastly, we intentionally designed the case to be open-ended; and we provided guiding questions for small group learning along with teaching resources.
Reflections and considerations for individuals who want to develop and use cases centering on culturally responsive evaluation (CRE):
- Design cases for your needs. Evaluations can be complex, and every single detail of a complex reality does not need to live in your case; you can choose what to include or exclude. Build from your goals and objectives. The CASE collaborative has great resources to help you with the design process.
- Be open to the change process. In developing the case, you may find yourself contending with your human-ness–including your biases; embrace reflexivity. Talk about your learning with a critical friend or colleague you trust.
- Adopt small consistent increments of time. Time will never be on your side. If you and your colleagues have a desire to reflect on your professional practice using cases (or other tools), make it a priority and a part of your team culture. The learning that happens by practicing evaluation does not always necessitate critical reflection.
- Capture imperfect thoughts. If you have ideas for cases that are not fully formed, capture your “along the way” thoughts in snippets in a place that is easy to access (like a Google Doc or a note-taking app). Then, when you have more time, you can organize them and develop them more.
Rad Resources
- The book Designing and Implementing Effective Evaluations: Comprehensive Case Studies in Program Evaluation, edited by Kenneth Linfield and Steven Kniffley includes access to instructor or facilitator resources with purchase
- A case repository to use which you can find here
- An article from Hazel Symonette, Robin Lin Miller, & Eric Barela (2020), entitled “Power, Privilege, and Competence: Using the 2018 AEA Evaluator Competencies to Shape Socially Just Evaluation Practice,” which you can find here
Have you written or used a case rooted in CRE that is not included in our repository? Contact Leanne Kallemeyn at lkallemeyn@luc.edu so we can add it.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting Case Collaborative week. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from members of the Case Collaborative, a global group of evaluators focused on the use of evaluation cases. 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. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.