1: Before the Beginning...

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." (Seneca)

“Before the beginning” is an important concept in Community Psychology. It was coined by Seymour Sarason, and refers to the conditions and events that were in place before a new idea was born or something new started, and how they influenced the shape and the path of the new idea. It also refers to people’s understanding of reality at the time, which was the frame brought to the beginning of a setting “before the beginning …”.

Before the beginning of the Learning Pathway idea, George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. I - and everyone at that time - was thinking about what systemic changes I could influence to nudge the world (and myself) toward racial justice. I was working in an organization that was grappling with how to become genuinely - and not performatively - anti-racist. I knew that would be a very long journey. So I asked myself where I could have influence in my role as Director of Research & Evaluation to work toward transformation and racial justice. I had also just started working on my PhD and I asked myself how my dissertation could serve racial justice, how it could be an innovative act of love and learning.

Drawing on the knowledge of others - in the literature

I knew that I couldn’t redefine my part in transforming evaluation on my own. I did know that I had to unlearn a bunch of stuff that was/is ingrained in my genes by virtue of being raised in a society that breathes the Colonial Matrix of Power.

I was also starting to realize that the evaluation I was practising emerged from colonial thinking. So I turned to the evaluation literature on decolonizing evaluation. Kate McKegg, a leading evaluator in Aotearoa (New Zealand) reflects on how White privilege in evaluation perpetuates colonizing approaches to the work. She suggests that we have to examine the role evaluation and evaluators play in response to the voices of Indigenous communities about the failure of democratic ideals such as participation, equity, and social justice. She says that if we consider evaluation a vehicle for supporting democratic processes with the goal of social betterment, we have to examine our White privilege, and consider our location, role, and stance in relation to the pursuit of equity and social justice. Evaluators carry privilege, she says, and we have to acknowledge how power and privilege dynamics undercut our ability to advance social justice.

Melvin Hall acknowledges that most evaluation studies are conducted by evaluators who identify as White and discusses how the White racial frame can undermine the quality of evaluation practice. John Stanfield calls into question the tools, techniques, and findings of evaluation studies based on the role that White supremacy plays in the construction and process of evaluation. Bagele Chilisa and her colleagues argue that evaluation in developing countries (their term) in Africa has become an instrument of ‘epistemological imperialism’, in that it attempts to determine the kind of facts that are to be gathered, the techniques for gathering and theorizing the data, and then generates reports for people who are not connected to the community based on these marginalizing research processes.

Leon Caldwell and Katrina Bledsoe ask the field of evaluation whether social justice can live in a house of structural racism. They say that evaluators must not distance themselves from the structures of evaluation and its tools of hegemony, and point out that “Our behaviors as researchers, scholars, practitioners, funders, and students are just as much part of the solution as the problem”. Cindy Smithers Graeme suggests that non-Indigenous researchers can help support Indigenous methodologies by decolonizing our minds and hearts, examining our own beliefs and values about knowledge and how it shapes practices, and examining Whiteness and power. And in a Blue Marble Evaluation webinar Kim van der Woerd, a leading Indigenous evaluator in Canada, calls for a paradigm shift in evaluation. She says that it is no longer enough to evaluate for accountability or learning; we must evaluate to transform.

The beginning of an idea about how I could begin to help transform evaluation

As I reflected on what I was reading, an idea started to form. For a number of years, I had been approached by Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities to assist them with evaluation work. My approach was always to hire people from the communities to conduct the evaluations with me; I could bring my knowledge about evaluation and they could bring their knowledge about their community and its ways. If we put that together we could learn from each other and do a more fulsome evaluation that showed respect for communities. I knew this was somewhere I could shake things up a bit. Instead of working with community members and still directing the overall evaluation myself, I could find a way to support community members doing the evaluations in ways that reflected their world views.

Drawing on the knowledge of others - in conversation with leading evaluators

I started reaching out to Black and Indigenous evaluators, and to a couple of leading White evaluators who are working to decolonize evaluation to ask whether this was a worthy idea, and if so, what shape it might take. Reviewing my notes from these conversations now, after experiencing the Learning Pathway, I can appreciate how insightful their advice really was.

Amanuel Melles, Executive Director of the Network for Advancement of Black Communities, believes that evaluators have a role to play in addressing systemic issues that affect people’s lives. He suggested thinking about the 2-3 principles that should guide this work (e.g., authenticity, action learning and reflection) and using them as a reference to think about the overall engagement when things get challenging.

He also made a pivotal comment that helped shift my thinking into the big picture realm and directly influenced the shape of the Learning Pathway:

“You cannot capacity build your way out of systemic challenges and issues. Rather than thinking about it as a numbers game of broadening the pool of people from these various domains who are going to do evaluation, step back and say “Let’s go through a journey, not didactic capacity building, training, a more reflective approach that says, ‘How do we build an ecosystem together where we can do evaluation differently’?” Then what you're building together is a rich approach to decolonizing evaluation that acknowledges the lived experience of your participants and co-learners and co-designers”.

Implication for the Learning Pathway: For me the touchstone principles for the Learning Pathway were authenticity, embracing emergence, and learning as an act of love.

Kim van der Woerd, a leading Indigenous evaluator in Canada, advised thinking critically about language rooted in White supremacy. She pointed out that using terminology like ‘Western ways’ continues to privilege European society. ‘Building capacity’ also has a privilege to it - to say that we're building capacity infuses a power structure, and makes assumptions about people. ”The reality is, we just have to get out of the way, that they use their own wisdom to determine what they need and what's best for them”. Next Kim made an observation that had a direct impact on the approach we took with the Learning Pathway:

“I think the number one tenant of White supremacy is perfectionism and we can let go of that one. We - all of us - have so much to learn”.

Kate McKegg, Director of the Knowledge Institute, suggests that we need to build evaluation so that it's part of the system, and everyone in the system sees evaluative thinking and practices a key part of everything they do. She says the system isn't built for critical learning or evaluative critique. It's been built for ideas about quick wins and performance, and it's been built for simple answers. She talks about a different accountability as fundamental to changing this, and which we incorporated into the Learning Pathway:

“Accountability of the tribe to their own tribal structures and people and their own families drives the willingness and openness to try things differently - whereas the accountability piece in government is upwards it's not downwards, which drives a completely different kind of behaviour. If you are working on systemic change in a disruptive anti racist kind of paradigm, working at that local level, that is where the radical shift can occur. In the first instance, to disrupt the colonizing structures, that's where it can happen”.

Implication for the Learning Pathway: Each Learning Pathway participant had an evaluation project or process they were working on in their community. The idea was that they could apply and practice what they were learning in the Learning Pathway in their projects, and bring what they learned from their experiences with their projects back to the Learning Pathway group. Between monthly gatherings, participants and facilitators met as ‘evaluation thought partners’ to talk about the projects and explore ideas and resources that could be helpful.

In a serendipitous conversation with Jodene Dunleavy, a provincial government colleague, it became clear that there was a role for government (and those who fund and require evaluations) in a collective effort to influence the ecosystem in which evaluation takes place. Government officials needed to be present to hear and learn about community world views, in order to help build respect for them within government.

Implication for the Learning Pathway: I invited two provincial government officials to participate in the Learning Pathway as observers, to listen to community members and learn about their world views and how they impact people’s thinking about evaluation.

Larry Bremner, a leading Indigenous evaluator in Canada, advised “You can go in with all the big ideas in the world, but the ideas have to be meaningful to the community’.

Implication for the Learning Pathway: I approached respected leaders from African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities to ask if the Learning Pathway idea was meaningful for them.

Drawing on the knowledge of others - in conversation with local community leaders

So next I approached respected leaders from African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities with whom I had good relationships to ask if the Learning Pathway idea was meaningful for them. They were very supportive of the idea, and said that communities guiding their own evaluation work is valuable and important. They also liked the idea of bringing Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities together to learn about evaluation, and thought it would be helpful to build on people's common experiences. They offered to help identify people in their communities who might be interested in participating in the Learning Pathway.

Philippa Pictou, Director of Policy and Planning at Tajikeimik, the new and developing health and wellness organization being created to lead health transformation for Mi’kmaw communities in Nova Scotia, observed:

”So there's a lot that’s different right now, there's so many things that are just starting off, that would actually be a very good place to get people from the beginning of some of this work to get them thinking around building and evaluation, from their own point of view, not because it's required by any of their funding thing, but because if you do a good evaluation, and you can tell what, later on, and you can also prove it when you're going forward”.

Sylvia Parris, Executive Director of the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute emphasized the importance of community world views.

“An assumption about this Learning Pathway idea is that it would be built on values that we see are relational and then connect with the community. And that they're the representation of diversity. And maybe even kind of trying to capture the intersectionality in that as well, in terms of diversity, and then some very demonstrative application of equity in terms of approach. So that's showing up in [the Learning Pathway], when we talk about curriculum stuff is all intertwined, the content and the delivery and all of the things that are in there as well”.

Vanessa Nevin, Director of Health at Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat, and a Blue Marble Evaluation contact, said that evaluation has to be decolonized to make it meaningful for First Nation communities.

“Within the First Nation communities, there's this apprehension that evaluation has always been about the government and the program, so that there needs to be a shift. Community or Indigenous people need to be able to be supported in learning what's possible, and that they don't have to do this traditional type of evaluation. When they think something is meaningful they wonder if government will take it seriously. There needs to be that conversation where people understand how beneficial it could be for the communities, and what ways that they can work on this. The more people are able to decolonize evaluation, the better able they are to meet their own needs”.

Wanda Thomas Bernard, Canadian Senator, Chair of East Preston Empowerment Academy highlighted the need to centre the Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities in the work in a way that makes sense to both of them, acknowledging that the communities are separate but together..

A deepening idea about how I could begin to help transform evaluation

Now it looked like the Learning Pathway was going ahead. Knowing and appreciating the wisdom of respected community leaders directly, I invited them to form a small group to provide guidance and insight for the Learning Pathway. Three agreed, and the ’Wisdom Circle’ was born.

Drawing on the skills of others - in conversation with my co-workers

My next step was to invite some of my co-workers (new and emerging Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian evaluators and experienced White evaluators) to be part of the Learning Pathway.

We had our first brainstorming and planning meeting in August 2021. This photo collage shows our ideas about the design and shape we envisioned for the first gathering for the Learning Pathway:

Facilitation team members’ notes from the first planning meeting for the Learning Pathway

Sourcing funds to support community members’ participation

In order to generate funds to cover the Learning Pathway costs (primarily monthly honouraria and childcare/eldercare/travel stipends for participants), I completed a couple of evaluation contracts through my organization, applied for (and received) project funding from a Province of Nova Scotia community fund, and requested support from interested partners. The second host organization for the Learning Pathway (more on that in Blog 4: So what does decolonization look like? Says who?) allowed me to exchange some consulting time for the small shortfall in the budget.

The Learning Pathway relied heavily on people’s unpaid time, which may not be sustainable in the long term. I will talk more about this in Blog 5: What does all this mean for (my) evaluation practice?. Having a better sense of the resources required to implement the Learning Pathway will be helpful in budgeting people’s time and planning for the resources needed, and will help inform the various roles and responsibilities involved in holding this kind of learning journey.

Inviting people to participate in the Learning Pathway

The final piece of the puzzle was identifying our participants. Community leaders spoke to people in their circles and identified a number of people who were interested. I also approached people in Mi’kmaw communities with whom I had relationships to help promote the opportunity. I met with everyone individually to give them an overview of the emerging Learning Pathway, discuss their questions and ideas, and confirm their participation.

I knew that bringing bright lights together would lead to something bigger and more magical than any of us could do on our own, and that collectively we had some power to transform the evaluation ecosystem. Now the bright lights were coming together!

Reflection and Implications

‘Before the beginning’ is an important starting place for our work. In this case, people around the world were rising up against anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and I had an opportunity to take action in the evaluation field through my position at work and my research as a PhD student. I had the advantage of having thought partnership from co-workers, academic advisors, evaluation leaders, and community leaders. I was able (and expected) to draw on previous learning, through examining the literature and through these conversations. My understanding and analysis of the role I could play in transforming evaluation emerged and evolved in real time - and is still evolving.

Some potential implications for Community Psychology and evaluation about exploring what shape an initiative might take before the beginning include:

Systems thinking: Thinking about the ecosystem in which the work is taking place. It’s not enough to try to influence one piece of the system; instead we need to focus on the system as a whole and on its interacting parts (and to coordinate with others who are working for change in different parts of the ecosystem). We have to gather the right people at the table, and they have to represent all the parts of the system. They have to bring awareness and openness and commitment about how they can play a transformational role within their spheres of influence.
Unique learning strategies for everyone involved: Through this experience I learned that it would be beneficial to plan ahead and identify strategies to support people in different roles as they learn how they can go about working to change their part of the ecosystem in which we are interacting. For example, there is an opportunity to do more to facilitate learning by government officials about the Colonial Matrix of Power and its impacts, and actively helping them to see it so they can help their colleagues in government see it as well. Once people understand that the whole system is rooted in White supremist thinking, they can explore how they might begin to dismantle and decolonize these structures and create an openness to other ways of knowing and being. This would allow evaluation design and processes to better support communities.
Examine the tenets of White supremacy: We need to examine the tenets of White supremacy and recognize how they shape the way we work Kim van der Woerd shared a resource on White Supremacy Culture that lists characteristics of White supremacy that manifest in our work and our organizations: perfectionism, sense of urgency, defensiveness, quantity over quality, worship of the written word, paternalism, either/or thinking, power hoarding, fear of open conflict, individualism, progress is bigger/more, objectivity, and right to comfort. Do any of these sound familiar? I have felt the pressures of these ideals, even though I wouldn’t have known where they came from until only recently. Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, one of the Learning Pathway Wisdom Circle members recommended working through Layla F. Saad’s me and white supremacy, a step-by-step process for people with White privilege to examine our racist thoughts and behaviours, which I have started. I am sure there is so much I am not aware of and have to unlearn; and embarking consciously on this lifelong journey will help me grow as a person and bring a better self to my work.
Let go of perfectionism: The expectation and ideal of perfectionism is one of the tenets of White supremacy that came up in my conversations with evaluation leaders. We have to learn how to let go of thinking (even unconsciously) that perfection is possible, because it simply is not. I like the theory of emergence, which allows the path to take shape as it unfolds (more on that in Blog 2: Emergence & learning); an important piece I am getting better at is sharing what I am learning as I am learning it, and not waiting until I have it all figured out and neatly tied in a bow before I can share it. Let’s face it, that might never happen, and even if it did, the moment will be long past. And if we can learn to share as we learn, we have an opportunity to connect with and build each other’s thinking and understanding, and we’ll all be better off.
Listen to communities: And of course, asking communities what they think would serve them well. This is a teaching I have experienced many times. It was by talking with African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw leaders that I began to see how the Learning Pathway could serve communities. Engaging the Wisdom Circle and facilitation team members created a touchpoint for checking to see if the Learning Pathway was serving communities, and how to adjust it if it wasn’t. I am learning new layers of this teaching all the time, and the Learning Pathway experience is teaching me to listen with humility and an open heart.

Critical Reflection Questions about Before the Beginning

Some questions for Community Psychologists and evaluators to consider before the beginning of our work:

What is the ecosystem our work is part of? What are the parts of the ecosystem, and how do they work together? Who works in each part of the ecosystem and can they influence others within their spheres? How can we get them to the table? How can we work together to transform the ecosystem?
What strategies, approaches, information and perspectives will support people as they learn to see that evaluation is rooted in the Colonial Matrix of Power and how they can influence their part of the ecosystem and help transform the whole?
What tenets of White supremacy are showing up in our work? How can we learn to recognize them and address them to prevent harm, and heal the way we work with racialized communities? What supports can we put in place to help each other see how White supremacy manifests unconsciously in our work? How can we challenge ourselves and each other to break free of these ways and work justly?
What are communities saying will serve them well? How well are we listening? What roles can we play in serving communities well? How can we step away if that is what is called for? How can we support communities when we do not have a direct role to play?

Here is a description of the Learning Pathway. It’s set up as a stand-alone piece so readers can refer to it easily throughout the blog series.

The main purpose of this blog series is to share learnings (and perspectives) from the Learning Pathway experience that could be valuable to others interested in transforming evaluation so that it can better serve racialized communities, and influencing the evaluation ecosystem to support racial justice.

In the blogs series we will be exploring:

Search the Learning Pathway