Unconscious Bias Training: The Case for Critical Self-Reflection and Self-Knowledge in Teaching

• In Event: 69.057 - Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: 69.057-3 - Imagining More Just and Inclusive Futures for Children and Youth

Abstract

Issues of race, privilege and cultural diversity in education have turned to the field of neuroscience for insights on how to disrupt pernicious and persistent racial disparities in student outcome data. This quasi-experimental study examines the impact of professional development training in "unconscious bias" as a vehicle for increasing teachers' self-awareness of implicit racial bias and the resultant shifts in beliefs, attitudes and classroom instructional practices with students of color. Through triangulating survey, interview and classroom observation data, findings revealed several themes: (1) increased awareness of racial bias and the conditions that are susceptible to bias, (2) strategies for mitigating against the undesired influence of bias. Implications can inform educational policy and practice in professional development on implicit bias.

Author

• Robert Nakamoto, San Francisco State University