Culturally
Appropriate
Data
Collection
Methods
How can we be
respectful and culturally
sensitive when
collecting information?
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Evaluation is not culture-free!
How can we be culturally sensitive, aware and
respectful in our evaluation work?
Cultural competence in evaluation is “a
systematic, responsive inquiry that is actively
cognizant, understanding, and appreciative of
the cultural context in which the evaluation
takes place.”
(SenGupta, Hopson, Thompson-Robinson, 2004. “Cultural competence in
evaluation: An overview”. New Directions for Evaluation, 102:5-19.
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Culture is an essential and integral part of working in
communities and organizations.
Communities and organizations are diverse in many
ways, and these differences are a source of valuable
perspectives and insights.
Ignoring them can result in potentially invalid and
harmful evaluations.
Embracing them can result in credible findings and
strong evaluations.
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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When we talk about culture we are talking about:
Nationality
Ethnicity
Religious affiliation
Regional contexts
Gender
Age
Abilities
Social class
Economic status
Language
Sexual orientation
Physical characteristics
Organizational affiliation
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Take a few moments to reflect:
• What does culture have to do
with the way we plan and implement an
evaluation?
• How does culture affect how we collect data?
The following slides provide some things to
think about as you consider different data
collection methods.
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Is a written questionnaire
culturally appropriate?
Things to consider:
• Literacy level
• Tradition of reading, writing
• Setting
• Not best choice for people with oral tradition
• Translation (more than just literal translation)
• How cultural traits affect response – response sets
• How to sequence the questions
• Pretest questionnaire may be viewed as intrusive
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Are interviews culturally appropriate?
Things to consider:
• Preferred by people with
an oral culture
• Language level proficiency;
verbal skill proficiency
• Politeness – responding to authority
(thinking it’s unacceptable to say “no”),
nodding, smiling, agreeing
• Need to have someone present
• Relationship/position of interviewer
• May be seen as interrogation
• Direct questioning may be seen as
impolite, threatening, or confrontational
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Are focus groups culturally
appropriate?
Things to consider:
• Issues of gender, age, class,
clan differences
• Issues of pride, privacy, self-sufficiency, and
traditions
• Relationship to facilitator as prerequisite to
rapport
• Same considerations as for interview
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Is observation culturally appropriate?
Things to consider:
• Discomfort, threat of being observed
• Issue of being an “outsider”
• Observer effect
• Possibilities for
misinterpretations
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Cultural issues related to use of existing
data/records
• Need careful translation of documents in
another language
• May have been written/compiled using
unknown standards or levels of aggregation
• May be difficult to get authorization to use
• Difficult to correct document errors if low
literacy level
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Culturally appropriate informed consent
How can we be culturally sensitive and respectful
and ensure the protection of those involved in our
evaluations?
– Children
– Marginalized, “less powerful” participants
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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Reflection time
What is one thing you learned
(or had reinforced) from
going through this presentation
that you had not thought of before?
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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May we recommend reading:
Culturally respectful evaluation
by D. McDonald, P. Kutara, L. Richmond and
S. Betts.
In The Forum, Dec 2004, Vol. 9, No.3 at
http://ncsu.edu/ffci/publications/2004/v9-n3-2004december/ar-1-cuturally.php
© 2009 University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Program Development and Evaluation
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