DUE IN 24 HOURS
Guided Response: Consider investigating how your peers might frame their questions for their evaluation to be culturally responsive. Additionally, dig deeper with responding to a peer to determine what role or roles stakeholders play in culturally responsive evaluations?
LASHANTA’S POST:
Program Planning, Research, and Cultural Context
Culture is crucial for program modification and planning due to its influence on the participants. It referrers to accumulatively shared and learned values, customs, values, and beliefs within the society (Frierson et al., 2002). Any program must be based on the type of cultures that the community upholds and the impacts the program may have on the community members. Culture-based evaluation is important since it identifies specific cultures that must be avoided and benefit the program positively. Frierson et al. (2002) notes that ignoring cultures during project evaluation and modification puts the project in danger as well as the targeted population. It is recommendable for the researchers to be responsive and sensitive to the targeted population’s culture to avoid flaws and make the program recognizable. Notably, culture is important since most values and norms are promoted through social activities, which is detrimental to the community once ignored.
Program evaluation heavily relies on the cultural context and targeted population. In evaluating the program based on its omission or inclusion of the cultural context, the focus would be on how values, norms, and behaviors are integrated. The program will be evaluated as culture inclusive if it takes into account the cultural activities of the participants. According to Grinnell et al. (2015), culturally responsive evaluation is vital for community inclusion and increased outcomes. However, a culture-free program stresses social activities without necessarily integrating the norms and societal values. The program’s culture must be taken into consideration for a responsive culture evaluation (Grinnell et al., 2015). It also explains or fully describes the context of the program. A responsive culture evaluation integrates different multiethnic evaluation teams that include the voices of the underrepresented individuals in society. Therefore, a program must incorporate culture for it to be effective.
References:
Frierson, H. T., Hood, S., & Hughes, G. (2002). Strategies that address culturally responsive evaluation. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02057/nsf02057_5.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Grinnell, R. M., Gabor, P. A., & Unrau, Y. A. (Eds.). (2015). Program evaluation for social workers: Foundations of evidence-based programs. Oxford University Press, USA.
LESLEY’S POST:
“Culture” is not only a big word but it carries with it so much weight. To understand the importance of culture in research, one must understand that to each of us, culture will hold different meanings and values and much be understand that different does not mean bad, or wrong. Fierson, Hood, and Hughes (2002) expressed this importance as explaining the context of research being evaluated. Without such descriptions and understanding of the culture being studied, there is no practical reasoning behind the study or assessment.
“There is also the potential to do great harm if these contextual considerations are not recognized” (Netting, O’Conner, and Faurie, 2008, p. 215). In order to understand the reason for a program, one must understand the culture. For example, my research is based on the care of elderly people. In some cultures, there is no need for assisted living facilities because it is not only customary, it is expected that families tend to their own elders (Reno Valley Assisted Living & Retirement Center, 2020). Considering this, one might evaluate my research by the culture in which is being examined by whether to gauge if and how the elderly is being either neglected or abused. If there is a lack of cultural context, the validity, and integrity would be compromised.
Ways in which I will need to address cultural context is to examine my own culture versus the cultures in the research literature and examine any differences and/or exceptions. As of now, I do know that there are mixed cultural backgrounds in some of the literature I have researched and will need to address those differences.
Reference
Fierson, H. T., Hood, S., & Hughes, G. B. (2002). Section IV: Strategies that address culturally responsive evaluation (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.). In J. F. Westat (Ed.), The 2002 User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation (pp. 63–73). http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02057/nsf02057_5.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Netting, F. E., O’Conner, M. K., & Fauri, D. P. (2008). Comparative approaches to program planning. Wiley.
Reno Valley Assisted Living & Retirement Center. (2020, July 13). How Different Cultures Treat Aging. Reno Valley Assisted Living & Retirement Center. https://www.renovalleyseniorliving.com/blog/how-different-cultures-treat-aging/.
DISUCSSION 2
RESPOND TO TWO CLASSMATES
RIAN’S POST:
One of the biggest challenges I came across personally in my first speech presentation was the amount of time sharing the photos with my audience took up– I had them printed out to quickly access while I continued to speak. The time that it took me to show them to the audience and explain what they were looking at consumed more time than I would have liked it to, and caused me to go over the 5-minute mark. I was advised next time to “screen share” given the Zoom platform we are using to record, and I could ultimately see that consuming even more of my time having to switch back and forth and hoping there are no technical delays. If I were to be presenting in front of people in real life I could see the barrier of having my back turned to my audience and losing their attention due to being faced with the back of my head. Smallbusiness.com says “If irrelevant information is presented, images can also be distracting and impede the understanding of concepts they should be trying to clarify.” (Rojas, Eileen. “Advantages & Disadvantages of Visual Communication.” Small Business – Chron.com, Chron.com, 25 Jan. 2019, smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-visual-communication-42511.html.)
I think that visual aids overpower the presenter when the presenter’s focus is being turned away from the audience. I also think that it can be overpowering if the content shared isn’t clear or doesn’t make sense with what is being said. One last overpowering thing that comes from visual aids is the possibility of it causing the presenter to read the information rather than use it as a resourceful tool. One can easily become dependent on it rather than use it to enhance their performance.
Being aware is the first step to overcoming these challenges for future presentations. I know that in my future presentations if I ever have to use Zoom again, I will be sure to allow myself additional time to work out kinks for swift sharing of my content. I will also be sure to cut down on the length of time that I rely on using said content to ensure the most optimal presentation time so as not to deter from the main points I am trying to address. If having to share content using a whiteboard or PowerPoint for an in-person audience, I will be sure to stand off to the side and perhaps use a laser pointer to highlight the most important parts of the content I wish to share– this will ensure my back is not turned to my audience and I can continue to provide captivating vocal energy.
RESOURCES:
(Rojas, Eileen. “Advantages & Disadvantages of Visual Communication.” Small Business – Chron.com, Chron.com, 25 Jan. 2019, smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-visual-communication-42511.html.)
JASON’S POST:
I think the greatest challenge with visual aids is that it puts the presenter in a competition of attention focus. Images grab human attention like nothing else can so shifting the focus from the visual back to speaking part of the presentation can be difficult. For example, a speaker is giving a presentation on a new car, well as soon as he shows a picture or video of the all else he says is lost on the audience except maybe the price.
I think the visual aids over power the presenter when too many or too much is used, and also when the visual is more powerful and animated than the presenter. Let’s use a presentation of the battle of Normandy as an example. I just watched one on the history Channel. The presenter was telling a very vivid and capturing story but once the pictures and videos begin to stream with every changing topic my focus left from the speaking and focused solely on the death and destruction I was witnessing.
Ways I think these challenges can be overcome include a healthy balance of visual and speaking. Use visual in sections where it only necessary to give information that otherwise can’t be received by speaking alone. Use visual that match your tone and presentation. Don’t use some with vivid bright colors when speaking about something dark and destructive, because it’s going to pull your audience in different directions. We have to be aware how much color and visuals impact our mood, frame of mind, and attitude.
