5 Easy Swaps: Engage in Effective Anti-Bias Training
When you’re talking about race and identity, you have to be at the intersections of who we are as people, and that takes a lot of planning and careful facilitation to truly engage in ways that will open up and deepen the conversation, rather than shut it down.
– Nancy Gutiérrez, President, CEO, Leadership Academy
INTRO
In the wake of rising calls for racial justice in the education system and beyond, thousands of districts across America are making efforts to recruit more diverse teachers and staff, and to train existing staff to avoid the unconscious racial and other biases that could affect their relationships with students.
There’s just one problem: It’s not at all clear from research what kind of anti-bias training works.
OBJECTIVES
- Developing & Delivering Effective Anti-Bias Training
This activity is designed for all levels of school administration and staff. We encourage administrators and leadership teams to begin the process with their own self-reflection to become familiar with the process before engaging the rest of school staff in the process/reflection.
Some Better Ideas for Anti-Bias Strategies
How Does Implicit Bias Work?
More than two decades of research has made clear that most people do have unconscious or “implicit” biases, developed from years of social stereotypes about race, gender, or age. It’s a kind of mental shorthand that can lead people to think or behave in biased ways, even when they don’t explicitly espouse prejudiced ideology.
Regardless of intent, these unconscious biases can harm students. Research suggests stand-alone anti-bias training may not change long-term behavior. For leaders working to make their schools more equitable, studies suggest the below alternatives to common pitfalls.
Instead Of:
Providing anti-bias training as one of the school’s list of teacher professional development sessions.
Try:
Integrating training in a comprehensive diversity plan that involves teachers and other adults at school in reviewing policy, practices and structures that can promote bias, not just a stand-alone PD session.
Instead Of:
Setting goals for anti-bias training based on the program you adopt.
Try:
Setting specific goals based on the needs of your school, and any problems you have identified to be addressed.
Instead Of:
Focusing on participants’ comfort during difficult conversations about race and bias.
Try:
Acknowledging that conversations about bias will be uncomfortable, and give participants tools to manage their emotions while accepting feedback.
Instead Of:
Giving a detailed checklist of recommendations for participants to use to avoid bias.
Try:
Emphasizing a few clear strategies for managing bias with examples of what anti-biased awareness and behavior would look like in practice for different groups within the school (e.g. math teachers, guidance counselors, discipline officers).
Instead Of:
Measuring the success of training by participation, positive reviews, or end-of-training surveys.
Try:
Connecting training evaluations back to the school’s larger diversity goals, such as increasing the proportion of students of color referred to advanced courses or shrinking discipline gaps.
TIPS
- The various Implicit Association Tests (IAT) developed by Harvard’s Implicit Project linked in the above resources are effective and valuable self-reflection tools.
- If you’re not sure where to start with anti-bias training, try having individuals and/or small groups participating in one or more of these tests and reflecting on their results
Responses