Chapter 5: The Art of Evaluation: Reimagining an Employment Program for Migrant Women Using an Arts-Based Approach

Arts-based approaches provide a means of reclaiming visual and kinesthetic aspects of inquiry to engage in culturally sensitive research with underrepresented communities (Goopy & Kassan, 2019). In this chapter, the author focuses on using artmaking to stimulate questioning and reflection and to spark dialogue and deliberation in community with others as part of a program evaluation. As a practitioner-researcher, the author inquires into one of the programs that the author managed at a community college—an employment training program for migrant women seeking employment in the hospitality sector. The program sought to provide holistic supports to help migrant women overcome barriers. Grounded in ethnographic principles, this research situated program evaluation within the lived experiences of participants, centering their voices and contexts as integral to understanding program outcomes. The range of research methods the author used—collage-making (Butler-Kisber, 2008), gallery walk (Pink, 2008), and direct observation with field notes—reflects ethnography’s commitment to immersing in participants’ environments and narratives. These methods, associated with qualitative approaches to inquiry (Patton, 2015) and specifically practitioner inquiry, reveal how identity, social capital, and investment intersect for program participants learning English language, literacy, and employment readiness skills. Researching and evaluating a program that the author works in affords both opportunities and limitations. In summary, drawing on ethnographic methods within arts-informed program evaluation and inquiring into the author’s own practice through a social equity lens compels the author as a practitioner-researcher. This chapter illuminates adult education’s transformative possibilities for contributing to, creating, and sustaining a socioeconomically integrated, healthy, diverse, and inclusive society.