Because the purpose of the AEA’s Minority Serving Institution (MSI) fellowship is to “increase the participation of evaluators and academics from underrepresented groups in the profession of evaluation and in the American Evaluation Association,” as ’23-’24 MSI Fellows, we selected the world of CREE under the leadership of Prof. Arthur E. Hernández as a thematic focus for our AEA365 week.. We would like to close our AEA365 week with some reflections on where we are now with CREE and how we see the lessons learned of CREE influencing and impacting our work and our fields.
Kunga Denzongpa: The fellowship not only provided me with the wealth of knowledge on CREE, but it also introduced me to my fellow cohort members who are equally committed to CREE in their own work. As the only non-faculty fellow in this cohort, I have been fortunate to learn from their expertise and strategize ways in which I can promote CREE in my non-profit work. My goal moving forward is to continue integrating CREE in non-profit research and evaluation, and build my expertise in CREE focused grant writing.
Elizabeth Bishop: As much as I value the praxis of evaluation, culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) touches that place of deep humanism that AEA values (“excellence in evaluation practice, utilization of evaluation findings, and inclusion and diversity in the evaluation community”) represent. As a historian, I try to stay alert to ways in which the past haunts the present; under current circumstances of higher education in Florida and in Texas, as well as in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, I could only think of Jacques Derrida and is idea of those three, unmentionable words continuing to exist “under erasure.”
Yiwei Zhang: I look forward to continuing my journey of integrating CREE into social work education. Our curriculum needs a sustainable approach that combines CREE with the research methodology and evaluation courses. Exploring strategies to promote both CREE-informed social work practice and social work-informed CREE practice can strengthen the connection between core CREE principles and social work skills and help ensure that CREE becomes a permanent component of social work education.
Rey Galope: My CREE journey has just begun, and I intend to deepen my understanding of this approach, which I think has the potential to become the mainstream approach in our field, by applying to participate in the next cohort of Expanding the Bench. As a scholar who has relied mostly on quantitative data, I want to explore further the hierarchy of evidence in a culturally responsive and equitable program evaluation. Are methodological rigor, authenticity, cultural relevance, and social justice complementary or conflicting goals in program evaluation? In public policy analysis and public administration, we accept effectiveness, efficiency, and equity as the three pillars of public service and that, as public servants, we have to strive to reach these substantive societal goals. In reality, achieving all three is problematic because of our multiple and often conflicting worldviews, values, and priorities as a society and a polity, not to mention the scarcity of public and philanthropic resources. Would the same be true for CREE?
Rachel Berkowitz:I feel as if my journey with CREE is just beginning. As I continue working in the field of public health, I want to continue to bring CREE’s principles and practices into my work and to advocate for the time and resources necessary to ensure that public health research and evaluation is part of pushing the world towards greater justice and equity. The values and ethics of public health can work in harmony with those of CREE, so long as we commit to realizing that music.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating AEA Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellowship Experience week. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from AEA’s MSI Fellows. 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.