Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Volume 25, Issue 4, December 2025
Special Issue: Culturally Sensitive and Equitable Evaluation
Guest Editor: EeMun Chen
Editorial
Welcome and haere mai (come here! welcome! – a greeting in Māori) to this Special Issue of the Evaluation Journal of Australasia, brought to you by Ethnic Research Aotearoa (ERA), a New Zealand–based NGO established in 2022 to strengthen the voice and visibility of ethnic communities in policy and services.
Australia and New Zealand are becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse, with around one-third of each population now born overseas and further growth projected among Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African communities. Both countries are also re-examining how culture, ancestry, and ethnicity are measured in official statistics, recognising that current approaches may no longer reflect today’s realities.
Research shows that centring culture in evaluation improves relevance, engagement, implementation, and equity—while also surfacing and reshaping power dynamics between evaluators and communities. Although Indigenous evaluation approaches are increasingly well established, mainstream evaluation has not yet fully responded to wider demographic change.
This Special Issue offers practical examples of culturally responsive and culturally safe evaluation across education, wellbeing, gender equity, and multicultural evaluation practice, alongside an evaluator perspective and a book review. Together, they highlight why culturally grounded methods and the worldviews they carry, matter for effective evaluation in Australasia.
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