Validity in Social Justice-Oriented Evaluations: A Validation Study of a Multicultural Validity Instrument

• In Event: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in Evaluation

Abstract

We created a survey instrument intended to measure the extent to which social justice-oriented evaluators, those whose identities and practices align with social justice, use multicultural validity in their evaluation practice. Despite the growth of culturally responsive evaluation and adjacent approaches, however, examining validity theory within these approaches persists as underexplored. Accordingly, we constructed, piloted, and validated a multicultural validity instrument using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) methods for validation purposes. While the instrument fared well, with four of five initial factors retained, perhaps most important was that this instrument fared well enough so as to further our and hopefully others’ research into social justice-oriented evaluators’ consideration of social theory, consequences, relationships, and participant identities in planning and executing evaluation work.

Authors

• Courtney Stone, Arizona State University

• Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Arizona State University