NYSTC Equity Challenge-Week 4

Stretching Our Thinking

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  • Last updated December 1, 2021 at 7:22 AM
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Choose one of the options. Tell which option you chose and describe something that resonated with you from that selection.

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If you've got a brain you have got a bias

A few thoughts... on the medical distreatment of people of color. My son just got his eyes dilated and the optician explained that dark eyes are less photosensitive to light therefore he needed two drops instead of one to dilate his eyes. Clearly, this is a characteristic not based on race right? Made me wonder if someone with light eyes is more photosensitive to light would they not feel more pain with the same about of light? Often stereotypes are based on truth. In a resourced-based economy, should my son's eye dilation procedure cost more since it required 2xs the amount of resources as a person with light eye color? 
On unconscious bias interesting story about the woman in scrubs. Is she not unconsciously biased about who she believes has the better status? You can argue that she was really finding out more information and not making a biased assumption but the story really only works if we believe that doctors are more important than nurses. We as teachers are in the business of bias. We are biased toward the individual we deem more capable typically based upon school grades. Schools work to make bias more apparent to allow for the easy discrimination of individuals based upon predetermined cognitive abilities. Is this not what grades are really about? Teachers interested in actual learning know that grades are for sorting, they know really learning is about feedback. Feedback however does not allow for sorting.  If we were serious about attacking bias the first thing we would attack is a grading system. We know grades are used to reinforce accepted biases. 
catskillaaron About 2 years ago

Is Implicit Bias Racist?

I have read this article many times, and even used in some Professional Development that I present.  When I use it to instruct I use a strategy called Text Graffiti.  I pull specific quotes out of the text and have people state what they think the meaning behind the quote is prior to reading the article.  I then have them reflect back on their initial thoughts after reading the article.  For me, the section that stands out most in the article is: " While the brain isn't wired to be racist, it uses biases as unconscious defense shortcuts".  I find this section to be so important because people can be afraid of admiting to biases, however ones they realize that we all have them and that it doesn't make you a bad person, we can bring them into consciousness in order to combat the affects.
sarahtitus Over 2 years ago

I watched Concepts Unwrapped, Implicit Bias from the Texas McCombs School of Business.

I enjoyed watching this video. I have seen some similar videos but I really like how this illustrated the study. This would be a good tool to use with a group of people during  a professional learning session. So many items resonated with me. The statement about your immediate thoughts come from your upbringing and what part of the country you are from. I think about my own up brining from a small New England town. It wasn't until I went to college in Europe and travelled to various countries that my perceptions changed. It is so important to expand your knowledge by learning about other people from their perspectives. 

I thought the information how doctors prescribe less pain medicine to blacks than whites is so scary. I have also read studies that during labor women of color are not giving the same level of care or their concerns taken as seriously leading to preventable medical complications. 

I found the Harvard study to be very interesting and telling when it found that 70% of the white people who participated in the study associated negative connotations with people of color than whites.

When we look at the pandemic and the statistics of the high unemployment rate for people of color the research supports this when research found that white applicants received 50% more responses than black applicants who had the same qualifications.

The good news is that stereotypes can be unlearned. The example that resonated with me is the % of women selected to play in professional orchestras. When applicants did a blink audition, the % of females hired doubled vs an audition where the panel could see the person who was performing. 


mdimgba Over 2 years ago