Hmong Storytelling Evaluation

Michele Schermann, Research Fellow
John Shutske, Professor
Penny Bartz, Graduate Student
MaiKia Moua, Project Staff
Thai Lee, Project Staff
PaChia Vue, Project Staff

Funding Source

Rapid Agricultural Response Fund - University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station
National Children’s Center for Agricultural Health and Safety in Marshfield, WI

Objective

Use qualitative evaluation methods to determine relevance of previously developed ethnically and linguistically appropriate injury prevention guidelines to help Hmong farming families prevent child injury.

Need or Impact

Hmong farming families and their children are at risk for injury and occupational disease because of barriers associated with language, culture, and knowledge of prevention practices. Previous research funded by the CDC-NIOSH focused on the creation of culturally and linguistically appropriate guidelines to assist Hmong families. Before this project, these guidelines had not been evaluated.

Project Status

Complete. Workshops were held in 6 locations—3 in Minnesota and 3 in Wisconsin—to evaluate the effectiveness of storytelling as a method of conveying farming safety information to Hmong farmers. Three safety folktales published in the book Orphan Boy the Farmer (see extension report on page 52) were read in Hmong to six different Hmong farming audiences at events held in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Following the readings, 107 of the attendees also participated in focus group discussions, answering questions about their general reactions to and what they learned from the stories. Results from the focus group discussions reveal that participants were generally able to recount the story content pertaining to farming safety and to talk about their own experiences dealing with farming hazards. In terms of general reactions to the folktales, there were four times as many positive comments made about the stories as negative comments. Storytelling was an appealing delivery method for most of the participants of this study. Analysis of the storytelling performances reveals that several aspects of the performance influence its effectiveness. Evaluation results are in the manuscript process, and project researchers will submit to a peer-reviewed publication in 2006. Results have been disseminated with an Executive Summary of evaluation, along with a copy of Orphan Boy the Farmer, to Hmong community groups that participated in the evaluation, to agencies, and to groups that work with Hmong.