Making the Invisible Visible: Identifying and Articulating Culture in Practice-Based Evidence

This study describes a conceptual tool, labeled the "culture cube," developed to identify and articulate the cultural underpinnings of prevention and early intervention projects in five priority populations (i.e., African American, Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, Native American, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning), participating in the California Reducing Disparities Project Phase 2 (CRDP Phase 2). The culture cube was developed for evaluation of these practice-based evidence services (PBEs) for three purposes: (a) to focus attention on revealing and articulating more fully the operative worldview and culturally grounded frameworks underlying PBEs, explicitly identifying the links between cultural beliefs and values, community needs, and intervention design; (b) to guide the methods used to assess and evaluate PBEs so that the outcome indicators and process measures are conceptually consistent, community defined, and culturally centered; and (c) to invite communities to use their own indigenous epistemological frameworks to establish credible evidence. After reviewing the literature in this area and describing the theoretical framework for the culture cube, we describe its development, application, and the response to its use in the initial stages of the California Reducing Disparities Project-Phase 2.