Using Worldbuilding for (Re)imagining Mental Models
Seminario web | En línea
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Organizado por:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Sobre el evento
Using a playful, futures-oriented lens, this webinar will share an activity that can be used for building and sharing future evaluation mental model (individual and collective) worlds using ideas of imagination and world building. In program evaluation, mental models are used to understand how asset-holders view an evaluation project or intervention through aspects of their worldview like their personal values, training (e.g. education, disciplinary, or methodological), and contextual and political factors (Greene, 2007). When extended to foresight processes and tools, mental models can also be used to illustrate preferred futures or possibilities that exist.
Presentador/a
| Nombre | Título | Biografía |
|---|---|---|
| Ramya Kumaran | PhD candidate | Ramya Kumaran is a PhD candidate at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She has over a decade of experience in program evaluation. Her research interests are in reimagining collaborative spaces to be playful and futures-oriented for culturally responsive evaluation. |
| Cecilia Vaughn-Guy | Doctress | Cecilia Vaughn-Guy has her Ph.D. in Education Policy and Organizational Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research interest centers on amplifying the voices of Black women who are frontline healthcare workers using an intersectional lens, reimagining equitable and sustainable organizational hierarchies in healthcare organizations, and creating and sustaining cultural change through participatory evaluation. |
Resumen
Facilitators introduced mental models in modes of "what is" and "what if". Participants were able to see an example of the differences between these two modes and begin to explore worldbuilding their own what if mental models in a Miro sandbox space. Participants gained more familiarity of mental models and how mental models are a part of culturally responsive evaluation practice. They left the session with ideas of how mental models can be visioned as past(s), present(s), and future(s).
This session and following discussion highlighted:
- Need for more mental model exploration and sharing in evaluation practice.
- Difficulties of cross-cultural and collective mental model work
- How imagination should and can be evaluation method
As a way to cultivate food-for-thought post-session, sharing here the items participants listed as being a part of their evaluation utopias.
<Utopia 1: Cultures, religions, educations, social backgrounds, age
Utopia 2: Linguistic equity; Engagement/inclusion of marginalized people (in my work, children, women, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, ethnic and religious minorities, rural dwellers, and people who do not speak English, for example); Actual independence, or at least more of it; Use of findings; Appropriate skill with context
Utopia 3: Creativity/ Fun; Mutual Care/ Respect; More human stories; I want people to see evaluation as a form of learning too, not just for accountability.>
So..What exists in your evaluation utopia?