Hello, we are Rupu Gupta and Tamara Bertrand Jones, members of the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence Dissemination Working Group (CCWG). We lead the Research and Evaluation subgroup and are developing strategies to understand how the larger working group is achieving its goals.
Lesson Learned: Purpose of Research and Evaluation subgroup. We started our work within this subgroup acknowledging that a systematic assessment of how the CCWG is achieving its goal is critical to document its accomplishments over time. We are a group of evaluators, so of course evaluation is part of our work.
In our initial discussions about the CCWG, we considered the group’s goals in general, and eventually decided to focus on two goals as a starting point:
- Increasing awareness of the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Statement and resources; and
- Increasing use and application of the concepts embedded in the Statement.
However, it was apparent that as we began our efforts we needed to learn, first and foremost, the different mechanisms through which the CCWG had been sharing the Statement.
Our post today is about our ongoing efforts examining the various ways the working group, with 22 members, has been disseminating the AEA Public Statement on Cultural Competence.
Within this group, we are currently pilot-testing a qualitative and quantitative online survey focusing on:
- Domains within which the Statement was shared (e.g., teaching, practice, and policy);
- Specific activities undertaken;
- Format of the dissemination (e.g., presentation, social media, and web material)
- Audiences with whom it was shared; and
- Outcomes of the activities.
Lesson Learned: Preliminary Findings. Based on the responses of a sample of the CCWG members, we learned that:
- The group primarily shared the statement equally in the domains of teaching, practice, and policy.
- The audiences with whom they shared the statement included federal policy makers, AEA members, pre-doctoral fellows, funders, and anyone interested in learning about evaluation.
- This was reflected in their activities ranging from disseminating the Statement at the federal level (e.g., through a letter to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), professional development efforts at AEA conferences, and webinars.
- The primary outcome of the group’s efforts was to increase knowledge of the statement and strategies and practices for culturally competent evaluation
Lesson Learned: Next Steps. We will continue to gather more information from the CCWG to get a complete picture of the ways in which the group has been disseminating the Statement. The results of the online survey will be used to understand the outcomes of interest for the group, so as to develop a longer-term evaluation plan for the CCWG’s efforts.
Rad Resource: See AEA’s Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation
This week, we’re diving into issues of Cultural Competence in Evaluation with AEA’s Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation Dissemination Working Group. 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.