Teaching Evaluation and Supporting Students and Colleagues of Color with Ayesha Boyce

This week I am joined by Dr. Ayesha Boyce, assistant professor of educational research methodology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, to discuss teaching evaluation and supporting students and colleagues of color.

Topics Covered:

• Reflections on five years of teaching evaluation
• The -ologies: ontology, epistemology, and axiology beyond just methodology
• Favorite evaluation activity (of course, it’s the evaluating the cookie activity!)
• Mentoring students of color. Five keys from Ayesha (see upcoming CJPE article):
  1. Consider impact of vicarious trauma
  2. Assist with facilitation peer mentors/squads
  3. Respect, honor, and celebrate students’ culture, religion, and family
  4. Be vigilant of microaggressions, and practice microvalidation
  5. Develop mentoring competence
• Supporting colleagues of color: helpful actions, silence as complicity, listening in, getting comfortable being uncomfortable
• Approaching institutional leaders about actions for supporting students, faculty, and staff of color
• Speaking out on the tenure track
• Having a family and being exceptional at work simultaneously (Ayesha encourages us all that it IS possible!)

Resources mentioned:

• Boyce & McGowan (2018) article “An exploration of two novice evaluation educators’ experiences developing and implementing introduction to evaluation courses”
• Evaluating the cookie activity in Preskill & Russ-Eft’s Building Evaluation Capacity book
• Upcoming issue in CJPE on evaluator education
• Ibram X. Kendi
• Letter from Dr. Boyce and students and faculty of color to their department
• Letter from Dr. Boyce and other black UNCG faculty
• NDE upcoming issue on evaluator education

Contact:

• Ayesha Boyce: Twitter @AyeshaBoyce and [email protected]
• EvaluLand: Website & Twitter (@EvaluLand)

About Dr. Boyce:

Dr. Ayesha S. Boyce is an assistant professor of Educational Research Methodology at UNC Greensboro. She is a program evaluation teacher, scholar, and practitioner. Before pursuing her Ph.D., she was an education research associate (evaluator) for the Arizona Department of Education. She is the Co-Director of the UNCG Office of Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Services (OAERS). Her research focuses on attending to value stances and issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, access, cultural responsiveness, and social justice within evaluation—especially multi-site, STEM, and contexts with historically marginalized populations. She also examines teaching, mentoring, and learning in evaluation. She has evaluated over 40 programs funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, and Spencer and Teagle foundations. She is currently the external evaluator for five NSF funded projects and a Co-Principal Investigator on four NSF funded projects. She is a Co-PI on the recently funded 1 million-dollar NSF grant, Spartans ADVANCE: Adaptations of Practices For Faculty Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at The UNCG. Dr. Boyce is a co-chair of the American Evaluation Association Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation Topic Interest Group, a member of the editorial board for the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation and teaches classes in program evaluation and research methodology where she emphasizes good practice with mindful attentiveness to theoretical roots. She encourages students to develop a strong methodological foundation, conduct studies based on democratic principles, and promote equity, fairness, inclusivity, and diversity. She is a 2019 UNCG School of Education Distinguished Research Scholar Award recipient and a 2019 American Evaluation Association Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Awardee.

Music by Matt Ingelson, http://www.mattingelsonmusic.com/