Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation
Latia White, EdD
Senior Inclusive Innovation Researcher
Digital Promise, United States
Alexandra Merritt Johnson, PhD (she/her/hers)
Senior Inclusive Innovation Researcher
Digital Promise, North Carolina, United States
Location: White River Ballroom B
Abstract Information: Storytelling can provide a more inclusive and meaningful approach to evaluation by centering the voices and lived experiences of historically and systematically marginalized communities. In this session, participants will learn how researchers at Digital Promise centered the stories and lived experiences of community members throughout an evaluative process aimed at addressing racism and racial inequities in two school communities. Participants will learn how the stories and the lived experiences of community members were used in a collaborative investigative process to deeply understand the challenges in each community and how the lived experiences of those closest to the challenge were used to co-design interventions that were directly beneficial to the communities’ specific needs.
Relevance Statement: Evaluation can be an important tool for assessing the effectiveness of programs, interventions, and policies. However, traditional evaluation methods often overlook the lived experiences and perspectives of historically and systematically marginalized communities (Chouinard & Cram, 2019). These communities often face significant barriers to accessing resources and services, and their voices are often excluded from decision-making in the evaluation process. Failure to collaborate with the community and include their lived experiences in the evaluation process leads to evaluations that are incomplete as they fail to consider their unique experiences and perspectives. Storytelling provides a way to address this gap in the evaluation process by centering the experiences and perspectives of marginalized communities. By involving community members in the storytelling and evaluation process, evaluators can create evaluations that are more relevant and responsive to their needs (Hood et al., 2015). Storytelling is a powerful tool that can help evaluators gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of individuals and communities. Stories can provide context and meaning to data, allowing evaluators to see the human impact of programs and policies. Sharing stories allows for a more personal and intimate connection between evaluators and community members, creating a sense of mutual understanding and respect. This can lead to more meaningful and impactful evaluations, as community members are more likely to be invested in the process and outcomes. However, while storytelling can be a powerful tool for understanding the experiences and perspectives of historically and systematically marginalized communities, researchers should not expect or assume that individuals will be willing or able to share their stories. Sharing one's story can be a deeply vulnerable and emotional experience, particularly for those who have experienced trauma or marginalization. Asking individuals to share their stories can be a form of emotional labor, which can be particularly burdensome for individuals who may already be dealing with ongoing trauma or stress (Chicago Beyond, 2016). Researchers must recognize the potential emotional toll of sharing one's story and be prepared to provide appropriate support and resources to participants. In this demonstration, participants will hear about two projects where the stories and lived experiences of those impacted by racism and racial inequality were incorporated into the evaluative process. The stories of community members were not just to deeply understand the challenges related to racism and racial inequity but were used to center the evaluative process as the researchers engaged with the community to co-research the challenge and co-design interventions that they themselves would directly benefit from. Participants of this session will learn how researchers were able to: -Build trusting relationships and address power dynamics between researchers and the community and among our community participants -Co-design the inquiry process with the community and include the stories of those with lived experiences with the focus group protocols -Use the lived experiences of those closest to the challenge in approaches to data analysis, and -Use the stories of those closest to the challenge in the development of interventions that they themselves would be the direct beneficiaries of.