GEDI Week: GEDI Hot Tips by Leiny Yesenia Garcia

Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Hi! My name is Leiny Yesenia Garcia and I want to share that navigating the complexities of Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE) requires a deep understanding of the subject area and a dedication to inclusivity. Reflecting on my journey into applying CREE within early childhood education (ECE)—a field initially unfamiliar to me—I’ve gathered some valuable insights that can help future evaluators effectively integrate CREE principles.

Hot Tips

• Deeply Understand Your Participant Groups
  • Begin by identifying key characteristics of your participant groups. This involves more than just demographic data; seek to understand their cultural backgrounds, experiences, and expectations. This understanding will guide you in exploring how the program addresses—or fails to address—their unique needs. Example: In ECE, this might mean recognizing the specific needs of immigrant families, single parents, or non-English speaking communities, and evaluating how well the program supports these groups.
• Collaborate and Communicate Openly With Community Partners
  • Always maintain open lines of communication with community partners and stakeholders. Share preliminary findings and be receptive to feedback. This iterative process not only refines your evaluation but also ensures that your interpretations and conclusions are inclusive. Example: Create a safe space for dialogue where partners can discuss how the framing of results might inadvertently exclude certain experiences. Embrace transparency, showing ‘messy’ parts of your process can lead to stronger, more credible outcomes.
• Master the Language and Context of Your Field
  • Each field has its jargon and historical context that shape its practices and policies. Invest time in learning these aspects as they will profoundly influence your evaluative approach and credibility within the field. Example: Transitioning from a STEM background in K-12 education to ECE, I needed to familiarize myself with ECE-specific terms and historical milestones to effectively apply CREE methods.

The American Evaluation Association is hosting Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Program week. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from AEA’s GEDI Program and its interns. For more information on GEDI, see their webpage here. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.