My name is Art Hernandez and I am a Professor at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio Texas.
I participated in one of the very early yearlong experiences as an AEA MSI Fellow and have served as the Director for several cohorts most recently this past year. I serve and have served as evaluator and teacher of evaluation and am very interested in the processes of cultural responsiveness in theory and practice especially concerning measurement and assessment.
Lessons Learned:
This week’s contributions come from members of the 2019 cohort of American Evaluation Association Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) Fellows and each has provided some perspective regarding evaluation teaching and practice from the perspective of their particular disciplines. One of the things that strikes me as interesting is the reports of those involved in Social Work that professional ethics and standards include an emphasis on Evaluation and Culturally Responsive practice. I am also impressed with the reflections concerning the need for Cultural Responsiveness in K-12 Education in general and leadership in particular. Finally, I believe in the importance of considering culture as a matter of technical adequacy and a standard of practice as well as a matter of equity and justice. It has been a pleasure to be involved with this week’s submitters and know that they will continue their reflection and study of Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation and are looking for opportunities to apply their knowledge and perspectives in their teaching, practice and scholarship.
Rad Resource:
I encourage those who might be interested to learn more about the AEA MSI Fellowship program. The AEA Minority Serving Institution initiative brings a cohort of faculty from MSIs together throughout the academic year and into the summer to participate in webinars, the AEA/CDC Summer Evaluation Workshop Series, and the AEA annual conference. The overall purpose of the initiative is to increase the participation of evaluators and academics from underrepresented groups in the profession of evaluation and in the American Evaluation Association. The MSI Faculty Initiative identifies this group of potential and practicing evaluators by drawing from faculty at MSIs. The program focuses on broadening their understanding of evaluation as a profession; and strengthening their knowledge of evaluation theory and methods through workshops, webinars, mentoring and experiential projects. The goals of the program are to help faculty at MSIs to:
1. Enhance the evaluation activities and/or curriculum in their departments or universities;
2. Orient students to evaluation as a career/profession;
3. Disseminate information about evaluation and AEA to colleagues;
4. Expand their knowledge of evaluation; and
5. Encourage collaborative writing projects that reflect cross-disciplinary ideals.
More information about the AEA MSI Fellowship Program can be found here.
The American Evaluation Association is AEA Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellowship Experience week. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from AEA’s MSI Fellows. For more information on the MSI fellowship, see this webpage: http://www.eval.org/p/cm/ld/fid=230Do 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.