This paper describes a process-oriented approach to culturally competent evaluation, focusing on a case study of an evaluation of an HIV/AIDS educational program in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. We suggest that cultural competency in evaluation is not a function of a static set of prescribed steps but is achieved via ongoing reflection, correction, and adaptation. The aim of these processes is to attain the ''best fit'' possible between evaluation goals, methods, and cultural context. Three main ingredients in a process-oriented approach to culturally competent evaluation are discussed: collaboration, reflective adaptation, and contextual analysis. In addition, since evaluators face constraints set by funders and other stakeholders, we suggest that cultural competence is best viewed as a continuum. An evaluator's goal should be to ''move across the continuum'' in order to achieve the highest level of cultural competency possible given the unique parameters of every evaluation.
This article compares the experiences of U.S.-born white women, Asian men, and Asian women immigrant engineers in Silicon Valley. It focuses on two particular characteristics of the region’s economic structure: the norm of job-hopping and the centrality of networks to high-skilled workers’ career livelihoods. While these characteristics might be assumed to exacerbate ethnic and gender inequality, the specific history of these groups’ entrance into Silicon Valley’s hi-tech industry enabled them to use these characteristics to their advantage in circumventing bias. The comparison of white women’s strategies to Asian immigrant men’s and women’s strategies highlights the interaction between the structure of opportunities, group histories, and network resources.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.