Exploring Use and Influence in Culturally Responsive Approaches to Evaluation: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Abstract

Culturally responsive approaches to evaluation are emerging across diverse program and community contexts to address increasingly intractable social, economic, political, and environmental concerns. Despite the sense of urgency, responsibility, and moral obligation motivating the use of these approaches, however, empirical research on the implications of centering culture in evaluation practice remains scarce. In this article, we conduct a systematic review of empirical literature, applying the concepts of use and influence as an analytic frame to explore the impact of culturally responsive evaluation in North American contexts. Our findings highlight uses of evaluation which stem from findings and processes, as well as multidirectional and unintended consequences which are documented in empirical reflections and case studies. In our discussion, we critically reflect on our analytic framework, using the concepts, constitutive effects and sustained interactivity to broaden our understanding of the myriad ways evaluation affects programs, people, and society.