From Lived Experience to Evaluation Praxis: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Early Career Latinx Evaluators in STEM Education

We are a group of Latinx undergraduate and graduate students reflecting on our experiences as novice evaluators working together to evaluate a program aimed at creating experiential learning opportunities for Latinx STEM students across U.S. community colleges and universities. As novice evaluators, we centered our Latinx identities and cultural knowledge to guide our evaluation practices, reflecting on how our racial and ethnic backgrounds provided unique insights into the evaluation process. Grounded in Latinx Critical Race Theory and Chicana Feminist Epistemologies, we employed collaborative autoethnography and pláticas methodologies to critically examine our roles, challenges, and growth. Through shared reflections, we synthesized individual and collective experiences, highlighting how our identities shaped our evaluation practices and contributed to a broader understanding of novice evaluators in the evaluation field. This work underscores the importance of culturally responsive evaluation and the role of lived experience in shaping equitable and inclusive practices in program evaluation.

Carlos Fitch; Lucy Arellano; Margarita Rodriguez; Maritza Ordaz