Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus, The University of British Columbia
[permission to reproduce granted if
authorship is acknowledged]
Recently, I completed one of a series of tests to reveal implicit biases. I have biases. Probably you do, too.
Implicit
biases are often unconscious and unintentional, but they shape our behaviour
toward others. It is something the makes many people uncomfortable, and
something that some will deny.
Implicit
bias received much attention in policing when a retired,
Black B.C. Supreme Court Judge was erroneously detained by Vancouver police
and an Indigenous
man and his granddaughter were handcuffed after attempting to open a bank
account. The issue has also received attention in health
care.
The
education system has received less public scrutiny, but not because
implicit bias is not present. There is a half century of research evidence of
implicit bias in teachers’ expectations about academic achievement[1]
and its malleability,[2]
disparities in school discipline and suspensions,[3]
and recommendations about placement.[4]
The
implicit biases revealed by many of the studies of the issue are relatively small.
But being small makes them less likely to be evident to the person exhibiting the
bias. For example, Tenenbaum and Ruck found higher expectations for Asians and for
Europeans when compared with Latinos and Afro-Americans. “Teachers made more
positive referrals and fewer negative referrals[5]
for European American students than for Latino/a and African American students .
. .” and used more positive or neutral speech (questions, encouragement) with Europeans,
too.[6]
Teachers’ negative speech was distributed equally across groups.
The
expectations teaches have may lead to differential
treatment and opportunities, and may
affect the disciplinary climate of the classroom. Riley and Ungerleider found
that fictional
students with identical academic records of achievement were evaluated more
negatively if the student was perceived to be Aboriginal.[7]
Implicit
biases can work in unanticipated ways. For example, the graduation rates of
Indigenous students have, in many jurisdictions, improved over the past twenty-five
years. But a close look at student records where I live indicates that some
graduates have not fully met the standards expected of graduates. One educator
put it this way:
The
most profound impact that I believe as an educator that is happening with
Aboriginal learners is the soft bigotry of low expectations which is a racism
perpetrated on Aboriginal students by educators who do not believe that they
can achieve the same outcomes or the same level of understanding as
non-Aboriginal students.[8]
The
existence of implicit biases is indisputable. The pernicious thing about them is
that they are often subtle, unrecognized, and, one hopes, unintentional. Readers
might want to take one of the suite of tests available here.
[1]
Tenenbaum, H. R and M.D. Ruck (2007) Are
Teachers' Expectations Different for Racial Minority Than for European American
Students? A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Educational Psychology. 99( 2), 253-273.
[2]
Stephens, J.M., Rubie-Davies, C., and E.R. Peterson (2021), Do preservice
teacher education candidates’ implicit biases of ethnic differences and mindset
toward academic ability change over time? Learning and Instruction,
[3]
Staats, C. (2014) Implicit Racial Bias and School Discipline Disparities:
Exploring the Connection, Kirwan Institute Special Report. https://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/
[4]
Riley, T. & C. Ungerleider (2012) Self-fulfilling Prophecy: How Teachers’
Attributions, Expectations, and Stereotypes Influence the Learning
Opportunities Afforded Aboriginal Students. Canadian Journal of Education.
35(2) 03-333.
[5]
Referrals to special education and for disciplinary action.
[6]
Tenenbaum and Ruck (2007)
[7]
Riley and Ungerleider
[8]
Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group (June 17, 2016) BC Antiracism
Research, British Columbia Ministry of Education, https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/ways-to-learn/aboriginal-education/abed-antiracism-research.pdf