Cultural Competence &

Capacity Building

By: Nate Hartman, Chris Hunter, Terry Martin, & Kristin Williams

Chapter 9

-Multicultural influences shape or are shaped by

our work

-Culture Validity

-Understandthe culture

-Race, ethnicity, gender, religion, social economics

Karen Kirkhart

(1994)

Joint Committee

On StandardsFor Educational

Evaluation

Cultural Competence

-Evaluator Credibility

-Explicit Values

-Cultural Viability

-Formal Agreements

-Justified Conclusions & Decisions

Cultural Viability- Recognizing, monitoring, and balancing cultural & political interests

Evaluator Credibility- Credibility in the context of program & evaluation

Explicit Values- clarification of specific cultural values reinforcing purpose, process, & judgments

Formal Agreements- Consideration of cultural contexts

Justified Conclusions & Decisions- Justified in the culture and context where they have consequences

Why is it important?- Assist evaluator with the issues of concern to the

stakeholders

- Consider multiple perspectives

- Collect valid data, sensitive to the norms, perspectives, and beliefs

- Analyze and interpret data to achieve valid results

- Increase the legitimacy of the evaluation for all stakeholders

- Increase the usefulness and use of the results

- Recognize problems with inequality/ Improve Social equality and democratic values in the way the evaluation was conducted.

-Process use, illustrate the impact

-Evaluators recognized impact changes about themselves

-The evaluative ways of thinking aboutthe employees in the organization

-Learning, influenced the organization

Michael Patton

Evaluation’s role

Effects an Evaluation has on an Organization

•Evaluations, more popular•Accountability•Collect & Report evaluative data

Recognition- evaluation has an impact beyond programs

Evaluate how to make decisions

Impact on Organizations

2 Discussions: Mainstream Evaluation & Build Evaluative Capacity

Evaluation’s Roles:

Teacher makes course

recommendation

The Course Selection Process

Student take course request

form home

Parent reviews, signs, and

returns

Middle school counselor reviews

and sends to high school

What do we mean by mainstreaming evaluation or evaluation capacity building?

Is it desirable?Mainstreaming Evaluation

Sanders (2002):• discussed that it is an integral part of an organization’s daily

operations• part of culture and responsibilities at all levels

Duignan and Wandersman(2003):• need to be adapted to school settings• part of everyday decision-making process• provides opportunity for empowerment

Working definition:• Mainstreaming evaluation is a process that involves people at

all levels on a daily basis to make informed decisions. (RTII)

Evaluation Capacity Building:

Stockdill (2002):• “an action system of guided practices and

processes for bringing about and sustaining a state of affairs in which quality program evaluation and its appropriate uses are ordinary and ongoing practices within and/or between one or more organizations/programs/sites.”

ECB vs. Traditional:• ECC are ongoing a person involves to assure the

environment is “conducive” to evaluation and is being used within the organization.

 • Traditional evaluation system usually are a one shot

evaluation of a program or policy.

For and ECB to work:

-history

-culture

-structure

-context of the organization

Purpose of an ECB:

“ to build an organization’s capacity, receptiveness, and use of evaluation” (King, 2002)

Where is ECB being used:

-In American Evaluation Association (2008) reported that over 54%

- organizations are utilizing ECB. 

Examples:

-World Bank-American Cancer Society

-U.S. Center for Disease Control

Building Evaluation Capacity

• Create attention to new roles

Build organizational capacity, receptiveness, and use of evaluation

The role of evaluators are quite distinct from evaluation studies

Evaluation Capacity Development Group - www.ecdg.net

Multidisciplinary Model of ECB

Preskill and Boyle (2008)

Future of ECB-Preskill and Boyle