Unconscious Bias – What is it and how can you manage yours
We all have unconscious bias. Our background, society and culture, stereotypes, and the media all influence how our brain makes judgements and assessments of people and situations. While this can be beneficial in speeding up our decision making, it can have a detrimental impact on our personal and working lives.
What is Unconscious Bias?
Unconscious bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained within our beliefs, and can influence our behaviour toward others.
While everyone has biases, it’s important to recognise and manage them, especially in a school setting, to ensure fairness and equality. Here’s some examples of how you can manage your unconscious biases:
Reflect on your decisions – Regularly analyse your decisions and interactions to identify any patterns that may indicate bias.
Keep a journal where you note down decisions made and reflect on whether any biases could have influenced them.
Attend workshops and training – Participate in professional development sessions focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Read books and articles – Educate yourself about different cultures, identities, and the impact of bias.
领英推荐
Take your time – Avoid making snap judgments or decisions. Give yourself time to think things through. Use Structured Decision-Making Processes e.g. Implement checklists or criteria to ensure decisions are based on objective measures.
When hiring, use a standardised scoring system to evaluate candidates against predefined criteria.
Promote open discussions – Encourage conversations about bias and inclusion among staff and students. Implement Diverse Policies e.g. ensure that school policies promote diversity and inclusion.
Create a diversity and inclusion committee that regularly reviews school policies and practices.
Ask for input – Request feedback from colleagues and students on your behaviour and decisions.
Be open to criticism e.g. accept constructive criticism and use it to improve.
Conduct anonymous surveys to get honest feedback about the school’s environment and your interactions.
To create a truly inclusive, anti-racist learning environment, we need to start with ourselves and reflect honestly on our attitudes and experiences. We may believe in the importance of inclusion and anti-racism, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have blind spots or biases. When we reflect, we can work on ourselves, and ensure that we won’t inadvertently discriminate against others or limit what we offer the children that we support.
Our recent Unconscious Bias webinar will give you the skills that you need to recognise your own prejudgements and learn how to overcome them. It will explain the types of bias, and how they can impact the workplace environment as a whole. Click here to view the recording.