Overview
Culturally Responsive and Equity-Focused Evaluation Philosophies and Approaches
The racial reckoning of 2020, heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, has provided an opportunity for foundations and nonprofits to address long-standing inequities within society. Increasingly, foundations are focused on funding with a racial equity and justice lens and are asking for specific evaluation approaches that will bring partners, communities, and those most impacted together to identify important questions and outcomes. Likewise, evaluators will often say they are going to use a specific culturally responsive and/or equity-focused evaluation approach, but it is often unclear what that really means in practice or how any one approach differs from others.
Katrina Bledsoe and Blanca Guillen-Woods of Strategic Learning Partners for Innovation (SLP4i) and Felisa Gonzales of The Colorado Trust have created an evaluation matrix that provides information on seven evaluation philosophies and approaches that center cultural responsiveness and equity in various ways:
Culturally Competent Evaluation: Leading with self-reflection and cultural competence
Culturally Responsive Evaluation: Centering culture in evaluations by including community members and evaluators with direct lived experience
Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation: Aiming for equity through culturally responsive approaches
Culturally Responsive Indigenous Evaluation: Striving for sovereignty and self-determination
Empowerment Evaluation: Empowering communities with tools used for self-determination
Equity-focused Evaluations: Conceptualizing, conducting, and using evaluation in service of equity
Transformative Evaluation: Fighting for human rights and social justice using mixed methods
Several supporting resources were created to accompany the matrix and allow users to more easily explore and understand each of the seven philosophies and approaches. All resources are interrelated but independent and can be accessed via the tabs at the top of the webpage.
- Seven key principles of culturally-response and equity-focused evaluation were identified. This tab shows commonalities and differences in the application of the key principles across each of the philosophies and approaches.
- Focus areas are described to help funders, evaluators, and practitioners determine which philosophies and approaches may be best suited for a specific project.
- The philosophies and approaches tab provides information on each, including a brief description, history of their development, unique contributions, as well as detailed information on how they apply key principles of equity.
- The evaluation matrix is an interactive tool that allows you to compare and contrast specific philosophies and approaches and how they apply specific key principles.
- Additional resources provide citations of foundational resources as well as a downloadable annotated bibliography.
These resources are informed by a literature review and key informant interviews. The literature review included key articles that provide information about the original conceptualization and intent of each philosophy or approach, while the key informant interviews with founding or leading theoreticians and practitioners offered additional insight on nuances and historical developments.
We acknowledge that these approaches and philosophies are not static and will continue to evolve as needs and contexts change. Our goal is to provide accessible resources to diverse groups that desire to integrate culturally responsive and equity-focused evaluation into their work:
- Funders and commissioners of evaluations may increase their understanding of the resources required for different approaches and create demand for culturally responsive and equity-focused evaluations.
- Evaluators may be able to draw ideas for framing, engagement, methods, and dissemination to create stronger proposals and develop more equitable and inclusive evaluation designs that will contribute to social change and justice.
- Practitioners may build considerations for equity-focused evaluation into their programs up front and solicit funders and evaluation partners that match their values and goals.
History
The idea for a matrix summarizing equity-focused evaluation approaches came out of the Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity (LEEAD) program originally sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Felisa Gonzales developed the initial matrix as part of an evaluation completed as a LEEAD Scholar. With the encouragement of her LEEAD Mentor, Katrina Bledsoe, the matrix was presented at the 2018 Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment conference. Kantahyanee Murray, then working at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, recognized the value of the matrix for the larger evaluation field and practice, and commissioned a project to bring the matrix to her staff. Katrina brought on her colleague and fellow LEEAD Mentor, Blanca Guillen-Woods, to help expand and disseminate the matrix and develop accompanying resources. We are proud to share these resources with evaluators, practitioners, educators, and funders interested in equity-focused evaluation philosophies and approaches.
© 2022 SLP4i and The Colorado Trust, authored by Katrina Bledsoe, Felisa Gonzales, and Blanca Guillen-Woods. This work is protected by copyright laws. No permission is required for its non-commercial use, provided that the authors are credited and cited.
For full citation use: Bledsoe, K., Gonzales, F., & Guillen-Woods, B*. (2022). The Eval Matrix™. Strategic Learning Partners for Innovation https://slp4i.com/the-eval-matrix.
*These authors contributed equally to this work with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and The Colorado Trust.
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