Culturally Responsive Evaluation

Culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) is an evaluation approach that places culture and the community of focus at the center of the evaluation, helps to support community empowerment, and has a goal of social justice. This entry explains the reasons for the development of CRE, describes its components, details the process used to conduct CRE and how it contributes to social change, and gives an example of CRE in practice.

Historically, culture has been viewed as “noise” in evaluation—a confounding variable and a subjective factor to be controlled for or discounted. Similarly, the context of an evaluand was considered but treated as separate or distinct. Often, evaluators and program developers indicated that a program was supposed to have the same results regardless of culture and context.

The development of policies and programs has been dominated by people who are not part of the culture and context where those programs have their impact and this disregard and/or ignorance has contributed to perpetuating injustices. Programs have been eliminated because evaluators did not perceive the need for them or were looking at outcomes that were not relevant for the group benefiting from the program. In other cases, context was not considered in decision making around allocation of resources. Some continue to receive programs that may respond to surface needs but fail to solve underlying problems.

[Page 441]CRE has contributed to the field’s recognition of the profound influence of culture and context on the evaluand and its intended beneficiaries. It not only considers context but also uses it as data to understand the evaluand and the participants and a compass to direct the program in ways that lead to justice for that community. Cultural context also provides a way to understand the evaluand that reveals how participants experience it and why. It then builds the understanding necessary to identify what justice would mean to and for that community.