Implicit Bias

Throughout our time at IslandWood, we’ve had many conversations as a community about implicit bias. Sometimes, we discuss bias coming through our information and discussions. At other points, the conversations shift to bias with regards to our students and our expectations for them. Ultimately, it is vital that we, as educators, examine and reflect upon our biases often in order to more effectively reach our students — and this is something that we are all aware of by this point in our program. But what are we doing to bring up bias to our students? How are we encouraging them to reflect and examine themselves, and to be critical of the biases of others?

This was a difficult question for me to answer, originally. I realized that I don’t have any super intentional practices in place that are focused explicitly on encouraging students to examine bias. The bias I have struggled with the most in my students is a bias against themselves. Every week, I have at least one student who believes they are stupid, can’t learn, or are incapable of something, simply because their needs are different from those of the students around them. For instance, this past teaching week, I had a really bright student. She wasn’t always willing to share her ideas, but when she was, they were always well thought out and out of the box. I knew whenever she raised her hand that she would have great insight for the group. But she didn’t think this way about herself. She told me, “I don’t have good ideas.”  I don’t know how she developed this idea, whether it was from an intrinsic or extrinsic source, but it’s a theme I see repeated over and over again, from very different students. I think one of the biggest impacts I can make on these students is to question this perception of themselves and encourage them to do the same. When students say something self-deprecating, I ask them to tell me why they think that, to explain their reasoning. When they approach a task in a different way (maybe verbally answering a question rather than writing), I am sure to take note of their hard work. When I provide these alternative methods of completing a task, I never present one option as the way to complete the task if you can’t do the other way – they are simply two ways to reach the same destination. I want my students to walk away from their week with me feeling like their needs are as valid as anyone else’s, and that they are equally as capable of learning as any other student – to eliminate their bias against themselves.

I think this is really important, and I will continue to do this. But reflecting on this has made me realize I could be doing more to challenge implicit bias beyond this one specific realm. I could be having “difficult” conversations about prejudice, or disabilities, or gender. I can encourage students to reflect on how they feel about others who are different from them. I can push students farther than I currently am.

Outcomes:

Student-centered Instructor: I guide students to reflect on their personal biases and develop growth mindsets.

Knowledgeable Practitioner: I use what I have learned about personal bias, negative self-talk, and growth mindsets to help guide my students to shift their attitudes about themselves.