How to Weave DEI into Evaluation by Guili Zhang

Date: Thursday, January 2, 2025

Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.

Hello, AEA365 readers! I’m Guili Zhang, Professor of Evaluation and Research at East Carolina University. Today, I’m excited to share some insights on how we can weave Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into evaluation—a practice that enhances the quality of our evaluations and ensures they are more meaningful and impactful.

Why DEI Matters in Evaluation

Incorporating DEI into evaluation is crucial because it allows us to capture diverse perspectives, address systemic inequities, and ensure that programs are effective for all participants. Weaving DEI principles into our work leads to more holistic and just outcomes.

Strategies to Weave DEI into Evaluation

1. Engage Diverse Stakeholders: Involve a diverse group of stakeholders, including participants from different cultural, racial, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Their input ensures that the evaluation is inclusive and reflects the experiences of all beneficiaries.
2. Use Culturally Responsive Evaluation Methods: Apply methods that respect the values and practices of the communities involved. This might involve adapting data collection tools or ensuring that language is accessible to all participants.
3. Examine Power Dynamics: Critically analyze who has the authority in the evaluation process and who might be marginalized. This ensures a more equitable process and outcomes.
4. Disaggregate Data: Break down data by relevant demographics to identify disparities. This approach helps uncover patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.
5. Reflect on Bias: Evaluators should reflect on their own biases that may influence the evaluation. Awareness of these biases is key to ensuring fairness and justice in the evaluation process.
6. Report Findings with Equity in Mind: Highlight inequities in your findings and offer recommendations that address them. Transparency builds trust and supports the development of more inclusive programs.

Hot Tip: Incorporate Intersectionality in Your Analysis

Description: Consider how different aspects of participants’ identities (e.g., race, gender, socioeconomic status) intersect to influence their experiences and outcomes.

How It’s Useful: This approach provides a more nuanced understanding of the data and helps identify unique challenges faced by specific groups.

Learn more: Explore intersectionality in evaluation for a deeper dive.

Cool Trick: Use Participatory Evaluation Techniques

Description: Engage community members as co-evaluators. Participatory evaluation involves stakeholders in all stages, ensuring their voices are integral to the process.

How It’s Useful: This democratizes the evaluation, making it more inclusive and ensuring findings are relevant and actionable.

Explore participatory evaluation: Check out participatory evaluation resources from BetterEvaluation.

Lesson Learned: Start with Self-Reflection

Description: Reflect on your own biases and assumptions before starting the evaluation process.

How It’s Useful: This helps mitigate personal biases, leading to more equitable and accurate results.

Learn more: Consider using tools like the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to assess your cultural competence.

Conclusion

Weaving DEI into evaluation is a moral imperative. By doing so, we ensure that our evaluations contribute to social justice and equity, creating programs that serve everyone effectively. Let’s commit to making DEI a central thread in all our evaluation work.

I look forward to hearing how you’re incorporating DEI into your evaluations. Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

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