Cultural Competence Week: Dominica McBride on Introducing the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation aea365 week

Hi, I’m Dominica McBride, President of The HELP Institute, and member of the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence Dissemination Working Group. The Working Group has been hard at work spreading the word about the Statement and its contents. One of the ways we did this was through conference presentations on various areas that the Statement could be applied, including evaluation policy, evaluation practice, and self-reflection. The group coordinated several conference presentations this year that provided insight into how to incorporate cultural competence in our practice, policies, and general thinking. This week, we’d like to share the ideas that came from our presentations:

Cindy Crusto writes on the Think Tank: Hindsight is 20/20: Reflecting on Missed Opportunities, Missteps, and Successes in Attending to Culture and Context in Evaluation Practice. In this think tank, three evaluators came together to share their pitfalls and successes around attending to culture and context in their evaluations. Their experiences ignited an engaging conversation about how we, as evaluators, can further our integration of culture and context in evaluation practice.

Melanie Hwalek writes on the Think Tank: Adoption of the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation: Moving From Policy to Practice and Practice to Policy. In this potent presentation, they explored ways in which to integrate cultural competence into policy. Melanie provides some practical tips on moving forward in this area.

Dominica McBride and Leah Neubauer write on the Brown Bag: Critically Reflecting and Thinking about Cultural Competence in Your Evaluation Practice. In this synergistic conversation, the attendees posed critical questions around power, interpretation and misinterpretation, and cultural influences on decision making.

Jenny Jones writes on the Think Tank: Fifth Annual Asa G. Hilliard III Think Tank on Relational Ecosystems, which pays an annual tribute to Dr. Hilliard’s work and influence. From this think tank, Jenny highlights powerful concepts, such as interdependence and egalitarianism, and describes their role and potential influence in evaluation.

Lastly, Karen Anderson shows the significant focus on culture in evaluation by noting the impressive number of sessions that included or touched on culture in this year’s conference.

Hot Tip: Enjoy the week and Happy Holidays!