Evaluator education through an LGBTQ+ lens: Interrogating power and privilege in the classroom

Abstract

The long‐term sustainability and stability of the evaluation profession is dependent on superior, evaluation‐specific education programs designed to help increase the quality, numbers, visibility, and collective impact of evaluation theory and practice in society. Recent studies illustrate the breadth of colleges and universities in the United States that are offering certificates, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees with a specialization in evaluation. Less attention has been paid, however, to the ways higher education institutions prepare would‐be evaluators to recognize the limits of their expertise and to work with individuals and communities that may not share their expertise or background. The importance of this awareness is compounded by the ethical challenges associated with facilitating evaluative work with diverse, historically marginalized groups such as LGBTQ+ communities, which may have their own fraught histories with evaluation. This chapter will discuss LGBTQ+ perspectives that educators should include in their evaluation curricula to help inform high‐quality, ethical practice, and conclude with a dialogue between the authors about the process of writing the chapter, their concerns, and their hopes for the future.

Integrating theory and research on structural racism and social justice into evaluator preparation

“…We suggest in this chapter that the status quo of educating evaluators through notions of advocacy and responsivity to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility of all collaborators and evaluation partners will continue to fail emerging practitioners if explicit theories of and experiences with CRT and social justice are not provided and rewarded in training. Related topics of LGBTQ+ and feminist scholarship should similarly be considered in evaluator training (e.g., Wright & LaVelle, 2022), though the focus of this chapter centered on social justice in the context of race and structural racism. Notwithstanding, the critical perspective asserted in CRT may be applied to other social issues where systemic inequities exist.…”

Setting the stage for critically defined and responsive evaluator education and training

“…For insights, we look to recent scholarship on critically informed evaluation, including LGBTQ+ evaluation (Phillips et al, 2022), LatCrit theory (Guajardo et al, 2020), culturally rooted and responsive evaluation (e.g., Collins & Hopson, 2014), and standpoint theory, which helps evaluators critically examine inequality and privilege (Hall, 2020). Building from these ideas, Collins and Hopson offer a deep dive into the American Evaluation Association's (AEA's) Graduate Education Diversity Initiative (GEDI) (Collins & Hopson, 2014), while Wright and LaVelle (2022) discuss injecting critical theory into evaluator education experiences. We believe these to be good starting points, though we hope to see more examples of identity-and positionality-specific evaluator education in the future.…”