Multi-Cultural Approaches to Program Evaluation

Hanh Cao Yu, Ph.D.Leadership and

Multicultural Evaluation

October 4, 2006The California Endowment

www.spra.com

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Moving the Field of Evaluation

The California Endowment Diversity in Health Evaluation Project

Affect a paradigm shift Establish guiding principles Identify culturally competent

evaluators

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The Power Triangle of Foundation-Commissioned Evaluation

F unde r

G rante e sEval uato r s

Commun ity ? Commun ity ?

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The Paradigm Shift

E valuato r R o le

W he reK no wle dgeR e s ide s

E v aluator

Des ign andP lanning

DataC ollec tion

DataAnalys is

R eporting

Applic ationof F indings

F o r m ally tr a in ed ev a lu a to r sar e th e ex p er ts .

L eader , j udge, ex pert

G rantees, com m uni ty m em bers and f o rm al l ytrained ev aluators each hav e ex perti se. E ach

k now s best thei r i ssues and strengths.

F aci l i tato r , translator , convener

P r ior itiz es developing r appor t and tr ust w ithstakeholder s to engage them in an inc lusive

planning pr oc ess that infuses m ultiple w or ld view s.

E v aluator presents design tocom m issi oning enti ty f o r

approv al .

C onduc ted by all player s. F ac ilitated by evaluator ,stakeholder s ar e often tr ained in som e collec tion

m ethods and im plem ent them .

C onducted by evaluati onpro f essional .

R esul ts and thei r m eaning are der i v ed w i th af ocus on cul ture and sy stem analy si s.

R esul ts and thei r m eaning areanaly zed by evaluati on

pro f essional s.

J o i ntl y di ssem inated and presented i nnon- tradi ti onal f o rm ats. R esul ts hav e

relevance and uti l i ty to di v erse com m uni ti es.

W r i tten report, usual l yaccom panied by br i ef

presentati on tocom m issi oning enti ty .

F indings used to bui l d capaci ty o f com m uni tyand com m uni ty o rgani zati ons.

F indings used as m oni to r ing,j udging dev i ce.

T raditionalE valuation Multicultural E valuation

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Guiding Principles for MCE

inclusion in design and implementation

acknowledgement & infusion of multiple world views

appropriate measures of success

cultural and systems analysis

relevance to communities

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Multicultural Evaluation ContinuumStages of MCE Principle Implementation

Cultural incompetence: diverse cultures are unacknowledged in evaluation

Cultural blindness: awareness of diversity may exist, but not presumed a critical factor n evaluation design or implementation

Cultural sensitivity: acknowledgement of cultural differences and steps taken to incorporate cultural considerations in evaluation models

Cultural proficiency: evaluations design and implementation are fundamentally shifted to honor and capitalize upon the diverse cultural contexts

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Culturally Competent Evaluators

experience in diverse communities openness to learning flexibility in design and practice rapport and trust acknowledgement of power

differentials self reflection on biases translation and mediation comprehension of historical and

institutional oppression

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Resources on MC Evaluation

The California Endowment website:

www. calendow.org

(Evaluation Reports)