93 - Introducing Culturally Responsive Evaluation to Education Doctoral Students

Abstract Information: Culturally Responsive Evaluation (CRE) is an approach to evaluation that acknowledges and respects the diversity, culture, values, and context of the evaluand. CRE is essential in evaluation as it can 1) increase the validity and reliability of evaluation work, 2) empower communities to be involved, and 3) address systemic inequities. Although CRE has grown in popularity in certain fields (e.g., health, community development) there still remains ample opportunity to utilize CRE in the field of education. Exposing graduate students enrolled in education programs to CRE could lead to a growth in its inclusion in the classroom and associated fields of education. Towards meeting this goal, two American Evaluation Association (AEA) Graduate Education Diversity Interns (GEDI) scholars, utilized CRE content learned through their experience as GEDI, created an introductory CRE workshop, tailored and targeted towards education graduate students at a Southwest university in the US. Participants were given a pre-assessment which captures their previous knowledge of CRE prior to the workshop, a worksheet which captures their learning throughout, and a post-assessment. The results from the survey collected during the workshops were coded utilizing thematic analysis. Codes were grouped into themes to create a report on how students' understanding of CRE evolved as a result of their participation in the workshop, and their intention to utilize learnings in the future. [Findings are pending but will go here.] We hope findings from this study will be used to encourage future efforts at educating graduate students on CRE and broadening the inclusion of this into the field of education.