Framing Anticolonialism in Evaluation: Bridging Decolonizing Methodologies and Culturally Responsive Evaluation
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Evaluation is grounded in academically imperialistic research methodologies, paradigms, and epistemologies, which have lasting effects on communities of study. Confronting Westernized evaluation's monoculturalism, scholars call for decolonization, to produce locally-determined, strengths-based, culturally-situated, and valid understandings. This endeavor is complicated, requiring a paradigm shift for Westernized evaluators.
Purpose: In this paper, we describe the anticolonial culturally responsive framework occurring in the intersections between culturally responsive (CRE) and decolonizing (DF) approaches. Anticolonialism honors decolonizing without displacing the authority of Indigeneity, simultaneously foregrounding the interweaving of evaluator, evaluand, and disciplinary culture. Interrogating academic imperialism through anticolonialism, confronts the social processes and cultural ideologies that produce and reproduce social inequality in evaluations.
Setting: Not applicable.
Data Collection and Analysis: We draw on scholars and scholarship who have advanced culturally responsive, decolonizing, and anticolonial evaluation and methodological fields.
Findings: The anticolonial culturally responsive framework is an invitation for evaluators trained in imperialistic Westernized approaches or who embody the colonial world through our race, language, knowledge, and culture. Our goal is not to displace the primacy and urgency of vitalizing Indigenous and decolonizing frameworks. Instead, we offer a tentative approach committed to pluriversality, justice, self-determination, and the possibility of collaboration between knowledge systems and knowers.
Downloads
Article Details
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright and Permissions
Authors retain full copyright for articles published in JMDE. JMDE publishes under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY - NC 4.0). Users are allowed to copy, distribute, and transmit the work in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes, provided that the original authors and source are credited accurately and appropriately. Only the original authors may distribute the article for commercial or compensatory purposes. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org
References
Alatas, S. F. (2003). Academic dependency and the global division of labour in the social sciences. Current Sociology, 51(6), 599–613. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00113921030516003
American Evaluation Association. (2011). The American Evaluation Association (AEA) Public Statement on Cultural Competence in Evaluation: Summary. https://www.eval.org/Portals/0/Docs/AEA%20Statement%201%20pager%20Sent%20to%20AC%205%2007%202013.pdf
Bartlett, C., Marshall, M., & Marshall, A. (2012). Two-eyed seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2(4), 331–340.
Bhattacharya, K. (2021). De/colonizing educational research. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (pp. 1–19). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1386
Bledsoe, K., & Donaldson, S. I. (2015). Culturally responsive theory-driven evaluation. In S. Hood, R. Hopson, & H. Frierson (Eds.), Continuing the journey to reposition culture and cultural context in evaluation theory and practice (pp. 3–28). IAP.
Carlson, E. (2017). Anti-colonial methodologies and practices for settler colonial studies. Settler Colonial Studies, 7(4), 496–517.
Cavino, H. M. (2013). Across the colonial divide: Conversations about evaluation in Indigenous contexts. American Journal of Evaluation, 34(3), 339–355. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1098214013489338
Chilisa, B. (2020). Indigenous research methodologies (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.
Chouinard, J. A., & Cram, F. (2020). Culturally responsive approaches to evaluation: Empirical implications for theory and practice. Sage Publications.
Clarke, G., Douglas, E., House, M., Hudgins, K., Campos, S., & Vaughn, E. (2021). Empowering Indigenous communities through a participatory, culturally responsive evaluation of a federal program for older Americans, American Journal of Evaluation, 43(4), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/10982140211030557
Collins, P. H. (2017). Intersectionality and epistemic injustice. In I. J. Kidd, J. Medina, & G. Pohlhaus, Jr. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of epistemic injustice (pp. 115-124). Routledge.
Combahee River Collective. (2014). A black feminist statement. Women's Studies Quarterly, 42(3/4), 271–280.
Corntassel, J. (2003). Who is indigenous? ‘Peoplehood’ and ethnonationalist approaches to rearticulating indigenous identity. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 9(1), 75–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537110412331301365
Cram, F. (2018). Conclusion: Lessons about Indigenous evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 159, 121–133.
de Sousa Santos. (2007). Beyond abyssal thinking: From global lines to ecologies of knowledges. Review, 30(1), 45–89. https://eg.uc.pt/bitstream/10316/42128/1/Beyond%20Abyssal%20Thinking_From%20Global%20Lines%20to%20Ecologies%20of%20Knowledges.PDF
de Sousa Santos, B. (2015). Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge.
Dei, G. J. S. (2006). Mapping the terrain – Towards a new politics of resistance. In G. J. S. Dei & A. Kempf (Eds.), Anti-colonialism and education: The politics of resistance (pp. 1–23). Brill.
Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., & Smith, L. T. (Eds). (2008). Handbook of critical and Indigenous methodologies. Sage.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2018). The souls of Black folk. E-Artnow. (Original work published 1903)
Durie, M. H. (1998). Te Mana, Te Kāwanatanga: The politics of self determination. Oxford University Press.
Fine, M. (1994). Working the hyphens. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage
handbook of qualitative research (pp. 70–82). Sage.
Frazier-Anderson, P., Hood, S., & Hopson, R. (2011). Preliminary considerations of an African
American culturally responsive evaluation system. In S. D. Lapan, M. T. Quartarolli, & F. J. Riemer (Eds.), Qualitative research: An introduction to methods and designs (pp. 347–372). Jossey-Bass.
Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University.
Giannone, D. (2016). Neoliberalization by evaluation: Explaining the making of neoliberal evaluative state. The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, 9(2), 495–516. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v9i2p495
Grande, S. (2015). Red pedagogy: Native American social and political thought. Rowman & Littlefield.
Hahn, N. (2008). Neoliberal imperialism and Pan-African resistance. Journal of World-Systems Research, 13(2), 142–178.
Hall, J. N. (2020a). Focus groups: Culturally responsive approaches for qualitative inquiry and program evaluation. Myers Education Press, LLC.
Hall, J. N. (2020b). The other side of inequality: Using standpoint theories to examine the privilege of the evaluation profession and individual evaluators. American Journal of Evaluation, 41(1), 20–33.
Hall, J. N., Mitchel, N., Halpin, S. N., & Kilanko, G. A. (2022). Using focus groups for empowerment purposes in qualitative health research and evaluation. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 1–15. Advanced online. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2022.2049518
Hall, S. (2007). The West and the rest: Discourse and power. In C. S. James, C. Andersen, & T. D. Gupta (Eds.), Race and racialization: Essential readings (pp. 85–95). Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Held, M. B. (2019). Decolonizing research paradigms in the context of settler colonialism: An unsettling, mutual, and collaborative effort. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1609406918821574
Hiraide, L. A. (2021). Postcolonial, decolonial, anti-colonial: Does it matter? New voices in postcolonial studies, 11–15. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1duHxB0-MYs2cEbHuDGMlED19XpA1oHKw/view
Hood, S. (2001). Nobody knows my name: In praise of African American evaluators who were responsive. New Directions for Evaluation, 92, 31–44.
Hood, S. Hopson, R. K., & Kirkhart, K. (2015). Culturally responsive evaluation: Theory, practice and future implications. In K. E. Newcomer, H. P. Hatry, & J. S. Wholey (Eds.), Handbook of practical program evaluation (pp. 218–317). Jossey-Bass.
Jacob, M. M. (2013). Yakama rising: Indigenous cultural revitalization, activism, and healing. University of Arizona Press.
Jordan, L. S. (2022a). Unsettling the family sciences: Introducing settler colonial theory through a theoretical analysis of the family and racialized injustice. Journal of Family Theory & Review. Advanced online. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12453
Jordan, L. S. (2022b). Unsettling colonial mentalities in family therapy: Entering negotiated spaces. Journal of Family Therapy, 44(1), 171–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6427.12374
Keating, A., & Anzaldúa, G. (2015). Light in the dark / Luz en lo oscuro: Rewriting identity, spirituality, reality. Duke University Press.
Kempf, A. (2009). Contemporary anticolonialism: A transhistorical perspective. In A. Kempf (Ed.), Breaching the colonial contract: Anti-colonialism in the US and Canada (pp. 13–34). Springer Science & Business Media.
Kovach, M. (2021). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations, and contexts (2nd ed.). University of Toronto Press.
LaFrance, J. (2004). Culturally competent evaluation in Indian country. New Directions for Evaluation, 102, 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1002/ev.114
Lorde, A. (2012). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches (3rd ed.). Crossing Press.
Macoun, A., & Strakosch, E. (2013). The ethical demands of settler colonial theory. Settler Colonial Studies, 3(3-4), 426–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2013.810695
MacLeod, L. (2021). More than personal communication: Templates for citing Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers. KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies, 5(1), 1–5. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/kula/2021-v5-n1-kula06185/1079235ar/
Mathison, S. (2016). Confronting capitalism: Evaluation that fosters social equity. In S. I. Donaldson and R. Picciotto (Eds.), Evaluation for an equitable society (pp. 83–107). Information Age Publishing.
McBride, D. F. (2011). Sociocultural theory: Providing more structure to culturally responsive evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 131, 7–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/ev.371
McBride, D. (2015). Cultural reactivity vs. cultural responsiveness: Addressing macro issues starting with micro changes in evaluation. In S. Hood, R. K. Hopson, & H. Frierson (Eds.), Continuing the journey to reposition culture and cultural context in evaluation theory and practice (pp. 179–202). Information Age Publishing, Inc.
Mignolo, W. D. (2007). Introduction: Coloniality of power and de-colonial thinking. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 155–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502380601162498
Mignolo, W. (2011). The darker side of western modernity: Global futures, decolonial options. Duke University Press.
Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The Negro family: The case for national action. U.S. Department of Labor.
Rachels, J. (2011). The challenge of cultural relativism. In N. A. S. Jecker, A. R. Jonsen, & R. A. Pearlman (Eds.), Bioethics: An introduction to the history, methods, and practice (pp. 303–316). Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Raju, C. K. (2011). Ending academic imperialism: A beginning. Multiversity and Citizens International. https://multiversityindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Academic-imperialism-final.pdf
Reiter, B. (2018). Constructing the pluriverse: The geopolitics of knowledge. Duke University.
Reo, N. J. (2019). Inawendiwin and relational accountability in Anishnaabeg studies: The crux of the biscuit. Journal of Ethnobiology, 39(1), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-39.1.65
Rodriguez, K., Schwartz, J., Lahman, M., & Geist, M. (2011). Culturally responsive focus groups: Reframing the research experience to focus on participants. The International Journal of Qualitative Research, 10(4), 400–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691101000407
Salmón, E. (2000). Kincentric ecology: Indigenous perceptions of the human–nature relationship. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1327–1332.
Sanchez, N. (2019). Decolonization is for everyone | TEDx Talks | TEDxSFU [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP9x1NnCWNY
Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies (2nd ed.). Zed Books.
Smith, L. T. (2018). Indigenous insight on valuing complexity, sustaining relationships, being accountable. In R. Hopson & F. Cram (Eds.), Tackling wicked problems in complex ecologies: The role of evaluation (pp. 45–66). Stanford Business Books.
Smith, L. T. (2021). Professor Linda T. Smith – Decolonial research methods webinar series: Resisting coloniality in academic knowledge production [Video]. Uploaded by NCRMUK to YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFQ09rPQFyA
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). Macmillan.
Swan, C. (2018). Challenging epistemic racism: Incorporating Māori knowledge into the Aotearoa New Zealand education system. Journal of Initial Teacher Inquiry, 4, 8–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/10867
Teo, T. (2010). What is epistemological violence in the empirical social sciences? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(5), 295–303. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00265.x
Thomas, V., & Campbell, P. B. (2021). Evaluation in today’s world: Respecting diversity, improving quality, and promoting usability. Sage.
Tuck, E., & McKenzie, M. (2014). Place in research: Theory, methodology, and methods. Routledge.
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1–40.
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2014). R-words: Refusing research. In D. Paris & M. T. Winn (Eds.), Humanizing research: Decolonizing qualitative inquiry with youth and communities (pp. 223–248). Sage.
Waapalaneexkweew, N. B. & Dodge-Francis, C. (2018). Culturally responsive indigenous evaluation and tribal governments: Understanding the relationship. New Directions for Evaluation, 159, 17–31.
Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Fernwood.
Yarbrough, D. B., Shulha, L. M., Hopson, R. K., & Caruthers, F. A. (Eds). (2011). The program evaluation standards: A guide for evaluators and evaluation users (3rd ed). Sage.