Embodying Care in Evaluation and Assessment: Lessons From Research Praxis

The objective and intention of this moʻolelo (essay, article, or story) is to situate Native Hawaiian voices within an evaluation context and to present emergent ideas toward culturally responsive and responsible evaluation and assessment in Hawaiʻi. This story honors a genealogy of dissertation work that focused on Native Hawaiian doctoral students’ understandings of well-being and extends this work by exploring reflexive lessons for improving assessment in higher education. In this effort, Hawaiian theoretical principles are presented to structure the emergent ideas that are articulated in this essay. From these principles, assessment, and evaluation implications are discussed. The original work served as a guide for defining cultural responsiveness and responsibility for institutional measurement in this article.