The Role of Culture and Cultural Context in Evaluation: A Workshop on Culturally Responsive Evaluation

by Stafford Hood

The American Evaluation Association has just ratified its Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation . The Statement affirms the importance of culture in designing and implementing high quality evaluations. However, much work remains to be done to understand how to meaningfully and appropriately incorporate culture in evaluation work. Clearly, the diversity in our communities that makes cultural competence such a compelling issue also dictates that there is no single culturally competent approach. Yet, it is possible to talk about general principles and guidelines that help us achieve cultural competence across different settings.

In this interactive workshop, Dr. Stafford Hood will draw upon his substantial experience working with minority and indigenous communities to engage workshop participants in the investigation of questions such as:

• Why is culturally responsive evaluation important?
  
• What does culturally responsive evaluation look like in practice?
  
• What is the relationship between culturally responsive evaluation and participatory evaluation?
  
• What guidelines exist to aid in designing and implementing a culturally responsive evaluation?

Dr. Stafford Hood is the Sheila M. Miller Professor and Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at the University of Illinois- Urbana/Champaign. His research and scholarly activities focus on the role of culture in educational assessment and on culturally-responsive approaches in program evaluation. He is the founding Co-Director of the national forum on the Relevance of Assessment and Culture in Evaluation. He was the principal investigator on National Science Foundation (NSF) grants and is involved with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium’s NSF funded “Building an Indigenous Framework for STEM Evaluation” project, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundations Evaluation Fellowship program, and the NSF Logic Model Study project. He has consulted on program evaluation and testing for the federal government, state departments of education, school districts, universities, foundations, and regional educational laboratories as well as in New Zealand and Ireland. He is President of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) SIG/Research Focus on Black Education. He also currently serves on the editorial boards of the Educational Researcher, American Journal of Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation, and Review of Educational Research. His professional experiences include Associate Dean for Research and a Professor of Psychology in Education in the College of Education at Arizona State University and Assessment Specialist and Program Evaluator for the Illinois State Board of Education. He holds a BA in Political Science, MA in Guidance and Counseling, and a PhD in Education.