Scaffolding future Latinx evaluators toward racial justice: Lessons learned from Stafford

Abstract

AbstractContinuing the journey of culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) requires attending to the ways in which we prepare future evaluators. That means moving beyond treating evaluator education as a one size fits all technical exercise. We must take into consideration student identities and experiences, as well as historical and contemporary ideological currents, many of which are at odds with CRE principles and work against our own values. In this article, we, the program director, two graduates, and one current student in St. Mary's University's academic certificate program in Community‐based Assessment and Evaluation, share our experiences with evaluator education at a Hispanic‐Serving Institution. Collectively, we have come to realize that the pursuit of cultural competence often requires resisting both feigned color‐blindness and outright racism as they exist outside and inside of ourselves. Our success depends on applying core ideas of CRE to the evaluator education process by recognizing and responding to ourselves as actors within a sociopolitical and cultural context. Only by giving ourselves and our positionality the same attention we give community members can we do justice to the evaluator education process. Hopefully, our stories will enliven discussion on how best to amplify the power of our emerging evaluators as they begin their careers.