Stretching Our Thinking

I connected a lot with Janice in regards to how she was feeling about her students, and as I was reading about the three things ever teacher should know about implicit bias and the brain I started to think more about my relationships with my students. I like to think that I know my students very well and when a student is not engaged that they just do not like math, or do not like school. I need to think more deeply about this. I started to look deeper at my patterns of inequity and who I call on more often. I am more prone to call on students in a rotating manner, but I think it varies on the difficulty of questioning. I do tend to discipline the same students more often, instead of thinking about why they are acting out in the first place. I do need to look deeper into different cultures and using those tools to build connections with my students. I try to connect with my students on a deeper level, but because I do not look like them many do not want to engage in deeper conversations with me. The one think I know I am doing well is being vulnerable and real with my students. I think this COVID pandemic has been a blessing in this aspect as I am forced to have this deeper connection with my students in that we are all in this together. Also, sharing more about my personal life helps my students to see that I am a person with feelings as well.

This is a great video! I would highly recommend anyone watch this. I thought it was interesting that orchestras were primarily men until they began to do blind auditions. It made me wonder where these biases come from? Are we born with them or are they taught? I also really liked the story told about the woman at the grocery store wearing scrubs- and I initially thought "what's wrong with saying you love nurse?!" Once she revealed that the woman was a doctor, I was surprised and it made me think about what I assume about a women seen in scrubs. 

Implicit Bias | Concepts Unwrapped was a very interesting video about how our thoughts are implicit based on our past interactions and situations we have been in our lives. I have to have music or a TV show on in the background and as i listened to Implicit Bias | Concepts Unwrapped I took at couple of minutes to jot down my thoughts and think about what I heard. Today I am listening to the Big Bang Theory and I picked up on some of the "jokes" that are made within the TV show about the characters. Some of these "jokes" involve implicit jokes and stereotypes. Implicit Biases are ingrained into the TV shows in todays shows. Another show I think of is The Office. Bias and Stereotypes are in our minds. The actor that plays Micheal Scott  in The Office have even said that the show would not be able to be made in todays world becasue of the jokes that the shown is known for in the past seasons. 

Everyone has bias.  It is human nature.  It exists in all thinking creatures.  You can even see it in your pets!  The challenge is to know when that bias is serving best interests and when it is not.  What we must do is know when we are acting in a way that harms others.

Teachers, like all other professions, have their biases.  As a result, we miss a lot of opportunities to get the perspectives of others. Sometimes we are not always being open to what others have to say if what they are saying is not what we believe should be said.  This can relate back to the qualitative research information we spoke about in Week 3.  

Qualitative research is very helpful in working past our biases.  But the key to successful qualitative research is to avoid biased questions that may lead to self-serving results. We must be willing to address the concerns that responders provide us with as well as value their priorities.

For example, Syracuse has a very high poverty rate, while at the same time, there are very high poverty rates in rural areas as well. What both have in common is low graduation rates, but the causes may be similar in some ways but also very different in others. The only way that those causes can be addressed is to listen to the concerns of residents specific to that area. Nonbiased listening and taking action specific to those concerns is very important.

Being a teacher, I often see the harm done to students by those who don't keep open minds to remedies and often get locked into "group think". Our students are individuals with unique situations that require teachers and administrators who are willing to look for solutions without relying only on the latest promotions. 
 

1. While the brain isn’t wired to be racist, it uses biases as unconscious defensive shortcuts.
Here are some tips for bringing implicit bias to consciousness:

• Check your assumptions. Are there other ways to interpret a student’s behavior or reaction? Do your assumptions take into account social inequities or the stress of oppression in a racialized society?

• Look for patterns of inequity. Who do you call on most often? Who gets disciplined most often? What’s behind the discipline issues?

• Pay attention to your body sensations that signal fear or a sense of threat. During an incident, be sure to check your assumptions about why you are responding to specific students with frustration, suspicion or lower expectations. This can help rewire your brain’s messages about the student.
  
  

2. The brain uses the nervous system to sniff out implicit bias. Our need to be connected to a caring community and maintain a sense of identity is so critical to our survival that the brain has developed the ability to actually sniff out threats. 
Here are tips to avoid triggering students’ stress response to bias:

• Learn what rapport and connection look like in different cultures and begin using some of those tools. For example, socializing over food is a common way to connect.

• Practice affirmation and validation. Acknowledge students’ potential for rigorous learning. Show that you are aware of the socio-political context that marginalizes and invalidates the experiences of youth of color, especially English learners and African-American boys. Both groups are the usual targets of implicit bias.

3. Trust calms the brain’s watchdog.
The antidote to triggering the amygdala in the brain’s fear center is building trust. 
Here are some tips for building trust across differences:

• Be vulnerable and real with students. Share some of your life experiences so they see you as human, not just the authority figure. In return, listen to their stories.

• Create affinities and connections around similarities you and students share. Maybe it’s a love of a particular sports team or a social justice cause. The research is clear. One of the fastest ways to rewire our implicit biases is to redefine the in-group/out-group.

Implicit bias takes place outside of one’s conscious. Forms of implicit bias relevant to race include the tendency to like or dislike members of a racial group and implicit stereotypes which are the association of a group with a particular trait.  Implicit attitudes and stereotypes can be automatically activated in one’s mind leading to implicit bias, or prejudicial behaviors or judgments. Therefore, people can exhibit implicit bias even when they do not consciously endorse the underlying attitude or stereotype.

Educators’ implicit racial biases are of particular concern due to their potential consequences for students. Teachers’ negative implicit attitudes toward different racial groups can influence their demeanor and warmth when interacting with students and families from those groups. These signals are often detectable and can communicate a lack of interest or confidence in students. The result is inhibiting the development of relationships conducive to effective student learning. Teachers with implicit biases are liable to provide biased evaluations of students’ academic performance or potential. These bias can negatively impact Black students through self-fulfilling prophecies or by triggering stereotype threat. Students are generally good at perceiving teachers’ expectations and students can recognize when people hold stereotypes. This may not only impede performance in the short term but also can diminish learning in the long term, either through stress or not relating to school, and rejection of teacher feedback.

Educators’ implicit biases may also contribute to the well-documented racial disparities in school discipline outcomes by affecting the way in which educators interpret students’ behaviors or the severity of the punishments they deliver. Evidence suggests that Black students are often disciplined for more subjective infractions, such as “disrespectful behavior” or acting “disruptively,” whereas White students are often disciplined for more objective infractions, such as smoking or vandalism. Educators with stronger implicit biases may be more likely to interpret Black students’ behaviors as threatening and hence dispense discipline, which can negatively affect student learning and other life outcomes. The positive news for our district is that graduation rates are up and that Black students’ are graduating at a higher rate than other subgroups.

The definition of racism is "prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized". So the question in, is implicit bias considered prejudism? The definition of prejudice is "preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience". According to this definition, I believe implicit bias IS considered a form of racism, even though it may not necessarily be intentional or conscious. What especially make implicit bias racism, in my opinion, is when we consiously choose not to foster self-awareness and strive to identify our biases and counteract them in our actions and beliefs. When you know better, do better. 

My favorite part was when Verna Myers said, “The real problem of unconscious bias is that its unconscious.” You’ve got to go looking for it. Look at the scope of your friendships, consider who you’ve invited to your home. People don’t like to dig for their bias because it means recognizing we’re human in a way that we don’t like to be human. Also, I hadn’t considered racial bias’s influence on medical care. Because of how medical care is set up, no matter what you do on your end, you receive as much care as the doctors/staff feel inclined to give you… and studies show that that care is not always equitable. I also like how they left on the positive note that the brain is malleable… and you can learn, change, and get better.

I enjoyed watching this video as it closely aligned with a book that I'm reading called the Unconscious bias in Schools. I like how this video addressed the dangers that unchecked bias can perpetuate especially among the police force or medical professionals. I wish that the video added in the dangers of unchecked bias in schools as well because our unchecked biases in school can be detrimental to children. 

I am very curious to check my own bias and I hope to do that in the activity that follows. 

I like how in the video it was said to begin this work, take a self inventory. I think it is important to start with self reflection first and think about why we have these biases in place. When she was talking about seeing the woman in scrubs late at night and assuming it was a nurse, I feel like I might have made that mistake too. It is important to recognize these biases and think about why they exist, so we don't say something harmful.