Embedded Files
Goal
Goal
Promote staff dialogue about bias and how to recognize and intervene on their own and other’s predisposed expectations about student ability/performance.
Why it's important
Why it's important
- Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness.
- Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.
- Teachers and school staff make thousands of decisions a day that are impacted by our unconscious biases.
- We can interrupt our unconscious biases by bringing them into our awareness and creating new thought patterns.
- See more : Unconscious Bias in the classroom: Evidence and Opportunities
Steps
Steps
Guidance & Resources
Guidance & Resources
- 5 Keys to Challenging Unconscious Bias
- Unconscious Bias: When Good Intention Aren’t Enough
- Intro to Bias Video (need to create 26 Letters account)
Consider training staff on instructional methods and/or practices that can help reduce implicit bias. Have staff reflect afterwards on how it impacted them and the school climate.
Have staff reflect on where their implicit biases may impact how they relate to specific students. Consider using a protocol like. checking unconscious bias. Build in time to reflect and debrief.
Have staff choose a focus area and intervention in writing such as with the Example Worksheet- Interrupting implicit bias.
After staff have had a few weeks to implement their interventions, give staff time to reflect on the interventions they implemented. Example Implicit Bias Intervention Reflection Worksheet
Debrief as a whole staff and share out reflections and lessons learned. Give staff time to adjust their interventions and recommit to another cycle. Take note of common areas where bias shows up for Step 8.
Continue Steps 5-7 at least twice or until the majority of staff have successfully implemented an intervention.
Once staff have individually tackled implicit bias, begin to identify ways to shift policies and practices that may increase bias.
Progress Monitoring
Progress Monitoring
Progress monitoring is a the way your team will continually cycle through planning, implementing and evaluating your strategies as you go. For each of the activities listed above, have your team take the time to think through these questions before, during and after.
Planning Questions before you do an activity/step with staff:
- How will we know if this activity/step is successful?
- What training, resources or other support will staff need beforehand?
Implementation Questions as you prepare to implement the activity/step:
- What contextual factors may impact how this activity goes? (Recent events, time of year, other demands) How will we address them?
- What resistance are we anticipating? How will we address it?
Evaluation Questions to reflect on after you complete an activity/step:
- What percentage of staff participated in the activity?
- What went well? What could have gone better?
- Did staff find the activity valuable? Why or why not?
- What percentage of staff were able to apply their learning?
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
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