Mayra Morales Tirado, Assistant Professor, School of Applied Professional Studies in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, is lead author on How Positionality Shapes Equitable Evaluation: A Latina Emerging Evaluator's Autoethnography, a new publication in American Evaluation Association.
Says Morales Tirado: Positionality is often treated as a disclosure. This study argues it is much more—it is a structural lens that reveals how power, identity, and institutional norms shape evaluation and who gets to contribute to it. This matters because evaluation has for long been trying to fit narratives to communities with characteristics outside the mainstream standards, and thus relaying to decision makers only partial truths, and more importantly, blaming the lack of progress or impact on those communities. This is why; this work argues that who the evaluator is crucial to more equitable and culturally responsive evaluation.
Abstract of publication:
This article examines how positionality shapes evaluators’ engagement with equity, justice, and discipline. Drawing on autoethnography, I analyze two formative professional experiences to demonstrate how culture, identity, and institutional power influence evaluation practice. Using personal archival materials and retrospective analysis, I address two guiding questions: (1) How does positionality affect evaluators’ commitments to equity and justice? and (2) How can positionality foster more inclusive paths for emerging evaluators? I argue that positionality is not merely a reflexive exercise but a structural lens through which evaluators negotiate professional development and belonging. The analysis identifies four overarching themes: power, cultural grounding, professional vulnerability, and resilience, and illustrates how unexamined norms shape career pathways, constrain epistemic diversity, and influence which forms of inquiry are treated as credible. I conclude with implications for evaluator professional development, mentoring, and institutional practice aimed at strengthening epistemic diversity and equity.