def field_values_to_list(field_values):
    """Convert provided field values to a list of strings.

    Parameters
    ----------
    field_values: OrderedDict or List[OrderedDict]
        The raw field values from the xml parser.

    Returns
    -------
    List[str] : Returns the values for the field as a list.
    """
    if not isinstance(field_values, list):
        field_values = [field_values]

    return [v.get("$") for v in field_values]