Since 2001, Johnston Research Inc. has been working closely with communities to provide indigenous evaluation services. Johnston Research is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but have done work across the entire country, from coast to coast. Johnston Research is run by Andrea Johnston, an expert in the evaluation field with over 20 years of experience.
In 2010, Johnston Research Inc. launched the Waawiyeyaa Tool, which translates to: coming full circle in a healing journey; as a specific tool designed to encourage healing through oral tradition and storytelling. In 2016, the online training program was launched with accompanying workshop book, exercises and tools. We continue to develop and launch Tools for Change, to meet our goal of Indigenous-led evaluation. Andrea L.K. Johnston has worked on Indigenous program and services evaluations, full-time, for 20 plus years. Johnston Research Inc. has done the same for 16 years. Andrea L.K. Johnston is a Credentialed Evaluator with the Canadian Evaluation Society (since 2011).
In 2016, Johnston launched, the first in-the-world, training curriculum in Indigenous evaluation practice, titled “Honouring Reconciliation in Evaluation”. Johnston seeks to deconstruct the language and assumptions behind evaluation to support the unfolding of a reconciliation process that changes the ways evaluations are operationalized.
Andrea L.K. Johnston is currently the lead Indigenous evaluator in the Country and could be argued the lead for North America. Johnston Research has published a manual on Indigenous evaluation for sale at $150 from the website which is also supported through 4 learning workshops on Honouring Reconciliation in Evaluation. The Johnston Research Inc. website also provides a package for sale on creating an Indigenous Evaluation Policy. A few of our recent clients such as Grey Bruce Health Services and are implementing an entirely Indigenous evaluation focus.
Supported by Communities
Johnston Research Inc. is supported by communities, each time we visit and engage with a community we grow and learn. This is a supportive exchange as we decolonize our methodologies learned in the western education system. I am so intensely grateful for the sharing and openness extended to me personally, the warm and welcoming hospitality extended to us as we engage in our discourse of evaluation practice. We have travelled across Canada learning and applying that knowledge to evolve and transform evaluation.
Both the Toronto Native community and the Canadian Evaluation Society supported the growth and development of Johnston Research Inc. In 2005, Andrea L.K. Johnston won the Young Aboriginal Business Award, sponsored by Royal Bank. In 2010 CES recognized Johnston Research for contributions to the field of evaluation with the honour of the Ontario Chapter, Canadian Evaluation Society’s Excellence in Evaluation Award. In 2011, Andrea L.K. Johnston was recognized as a Credentialed Evaluator by CES.
Giving Back
Johnston Research is proud to give back to the evaluation community by sharing our insights and discoveries through writing. We have written several articles and are currently in the process of publishing another for the New Directions in Evaluation (NDE) volume on Indigenous Evaluation (2017). Our articles include:
- Using Technology to Enhance Aboriginal Evaluations, 2010, Canadian Journal of Evaluation.
- To Case Study or Not to Case Study: Our Experience…as an Evaluation Methodology for First Nations Programs, 2013, Canadian Journal of Evaluation.
- Aboriginal Ways of Knowing: Aboriginal-led Evaluation, Guest Editor’s Introduction, 2010, Canadian Journal of Evaluation.
- Tending the Fire Program Model, a theory of change with cyclical learning at each stage, featured in the book by Funnel, S. and Rodgers, P. (2011). Purposeful Program Theory: Effective Use of Theories of Change and Logic Models, John-Wiley and Sons.
- Ways Tried and True: Canadian Indigenous Evaluation in the 21st Century, to be published in the New Directions in Evaluation volume on Indigenous Evaluation.
We also sponsor the NaMeRes annual pow wow, Maanjidowin gathering, book workshops at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, and serve as a member of the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business.
The CEO of Johnston Research
Ahneen, Andrea L.K. Johnston nindizhinikaaz. I started Johnston Research Inc. in 2001. Neyaashiinigmiing ndojeba, Toronto ndindaa. Mikinaak dodem. I have been working full-time in the field of Indigenous evaluation for over 20 years. I believe strongly in the reconciliation between Indigenous and Western thought in the field of evaluation. This is what drives my work as an evaluator – striving to find better ways to document the truth. As a trainer in Indigenous evaluation I seek to share knowledge. My view is that we are born as unbiased evaluators; however we need help as adults to re-learn how to wear an unbiased lens that will lead us to the truth in our work as evaluators. This logic leads me to believe that evaluative thinking can be taught. The traditional name of my ancestral territory means body of land that sticks out into a large body of water. My family is located on the Bruce Peninsula, about halfway up on the east-side nestled between Georgian Bay and dolomite limestone escarpment cliffs. I was born and raised in the Native community of Toronto, am a little beaver graduate, and was trained and mentored as an evaluator for six years in my youth within the Native community of Toronto.
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