Utilizing People‐Centered Evaluation Approaches to Advance Racial Equity

ABSTRACT Derived from a larger qualitative study examining how social justice‐oriented evaluators conceptualize, operationalize, and advance racial equity and justice in their practice, we draw on the reflective accounts of 29 evaluators to ask: How do social justice‐oriented evaluators center people when aiming to advance racial equity and justice? We consider people‐centered evaluation to be an evaluation that focuses on the needs of the people most impacted in the evaluative context, their engagement with the evaluative process, and recognize how power dynamics, context, history, and systems play a part in people's participation in and view of the evaluation. Our findings offer three strategies: (a) understanding self and context, (b) evaluator responsibilities of pushing back or calling out actions that foster inequities, and (c) relationality in authentic community engagement. This article posits that the work of advancing racial equity cannot be separated from people or communities.