Date
Thursday, March 14
12:30pm-3:00pm
Presenter(s)
Calli Thompson, Nishank Varshney, & Trupti Sarode
University of Minnesota
Calli is in her final semester of the Comparative and International Development Education (CIDE) Master of Arts program at the College of Education and Human Development here at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she is also pursuing minors in program evaluation and public policy. She currently serves the University’s international population as the ISSS Check-In and Welcome Coordinator at International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS). Because of her background in the biological sciences and passion for interdisciplinary work, she is interested in the intersection of intercultural communication, STEM education, and program evaluation and how positionality can have an effect on all aspects.
Nishank is a doctoral student in Public Affairs at the Humphrey School and works with the Human Capital Research Collaborative in the field of Early Childhood Education. He is also working on examining the role of evaluation in the Pay for Success financing mechanism. Prior to coming to the US, he worked on the implementation and evaluation of the Right to Education Act in India.
Trupti works as a Learning and Evaluation Manager at the Future Services Institute, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. She is also a doctoral student in Evaluation Studies at the College of Education and Human Development (UMN). Trupti’s research and experience lie at the intersection of evaluation and human services, evaluation and early childhood development, and evaluation and international development. At the Future Services Institute, she works both as an internal and external evaluator. Some of her current projects include evaluating a new financial product for people with low incomes, a mobile app to support families on Minnesota’s TANF program, and a school based mental health intervention. She has also worked as an external evaluator with the Sustainable Healthy Cities-Sustainability Research Network funded by the National Science Foundation, Neighborhood House (MN), Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (Egypt), MasterCard Foundation (Kenya) and Global Volunteers (St. Lucia). Originally from Mumbai, India, Trupti completed her Master of Development Practice in International Development (MDP) degree from the Humphrey School in 2016.
Description
The session will have mini-presentations and short activities to introduce the participants to the concept of evaluator positionality. The workshop will explore the nuances of the concept and help the participants understand the ways it might impact one’s evaluation practice. The activities will help the participants to be reflective about their positionality and articulate it for their evaluation stakeholders/users.
Purpose
The session aims to describe and discuss the concept of “positionality” as it relates to the practice of evaluation. It will explore both the intersections and nuances of the concept and shed light on ways it might impact one’s evaluation practice. The session will also create space for participants to explore and articulate their own positionality and build awareness of how one might navigate challenges that arise in the daily work on an evaluator