Not Ethnograph-ish: Illuminating Theories of Culture in Evaluation With a Critical Ethnographic Onto-Epistemology

Abstract

In this chapter, I reflect on my experiences doing ethnographic inquiry to argue that a critical ethnographic onto-epistemology must be central for culturally responsive evaluators who work from ethnographic and social justice orientations. An onto-epistemology can be understood as the “hybridized ways of knowing and being” used to “navigate…our lived experiences” (Boveda & Bhattacharya, 2019, p. 8). A critical ethnographic onto-epistemology illuminates potential strategies for culturally responsive evaluators to more authentically, critically, and reflexively engage with the communities and actors implicated in their evaluations. This reflexivity considers different theories of culture shaping the design, implementation, analysis, and outcomes of ethnographically oriented evaluation. I chart how theories of culture in culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) have evolved from a view of cultural difference to focus on a group's behaviors, values, and shared customs. As the concept of culture is central to CRE (Hood et al., 2015), I argue that it must align itself with contemporary anthropological literature that theorizes culture as a fluid set of unevenly dispersed resources that actors construct, use, and connect as they make meaning of and organize themselves within larger societal arrangements and institutions (Levinson et al., 2015). I ground this argument in reflections around three components of my critical ethnographic onto-epistemology: criticality, politicality, and internal and relational forms of transparency. Culturally responsive evaluators may benefit from exploring how a critical ethnographic onto-epistemology can shape theories of culture in CRE, moving toward more critical theories and epistemologies that counter the residues of coloniality which shape both ethnography and evaluation.

Citation

Buckband, C.A. (2024), "Not Ethnograph-ish: Illuminating Theories of Culture in Evaluation With a Critical Ethnographic Onto-Epistemology", Goodnight, M.R. and Hopson, R. (Ed.) Theories Bridging Ethnography and Evaluation (Studies in Educational Ethnography, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 63-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-210X20240000020008