Being biased is a natural part of being human. Our experiences, culture, and lifestyles have shaped our conscious and subconscious biases. However, when it affects decision-making and disrupts your school’s culture, it becomes problematic—possibly, legally problematic.
Schools especially are driven to cultivate an environment of diversity and difference. As empowering as diversity can be, these natural biases can also make your school vulnerable to biased situations without proper guidance, nurturing, and education/HR training.
There are two main definitions of bias, according to Dictionary.com.
1. It can be a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned. Dictionary.com offers these examples: a magazine’s bias toward art rather than photography, or a Human Resource Director’s bias toward older applicants. It’s easy to see how in one example being bias is virtually harmless, whereas the other one is illegal and can lead to serious ramifications.
2. Unreasonably hostile feelings or opinions about a social group; prejudice.
However, when we think about bias in the workplace, it’s not often harmless biases such as a magazine’s preference toward art that comes to mind. The word “bias” tends to hold heaviness. It usually falls under one of three categories: bad, ugly, and unacknowledged, as outlined by the American Library Association (ALA).
The Bad: “Bad” bias, according to the ALA, is “what keeps people out of our personal circles and our institutions.” The “bad” bias limits people within our own assumptions and personal experiences, rather than basing it on the actual facts of the situation.
Some examples of “bad” bias:
- Single parents wouldn’t be mission-appropriate for our school.
- This bias assumes that the parent is divorced, rather than digging deeper to learn why the parent is raising his/her children alone.
- Tattooed people don’t think ahead and have little respect for their health.
- “After all, they put permanent art on their bodies without consider what the tattoos would look like in the future—and I heard the needles at those shops transmit diseases!”
- Vaccines are dangerous to children.
- “Medicine-based corporations just want to make money, so they exaggerate the importance of vaccines. Besides, I thought I heard about a study linking vaccines to autism.”
The Ugly: “Ugly” biases, according to the ALA, are “those statements that are just plain incorrect”—the things that people can’t argue logically—and yet people believe them anyway.
Some examples of “ugly” bias:
- All Hispanics in the United States are illegal immigrants.
- Our Board of Trustees wouldn’t care about socioeconomic diversity, since they’re all old, white rich men.
- Millennials are self-absorbed, entitled, and disloyal to employers.
The “ugly” biases, in short, are the sweeping “generalizations that can’t be proven.”
The Unacknowledged: The “unacknowledged” bias “can seem positive,” according to the ALA, and can “even be self directed” and “masquerade as helpfulness.” However, “unacknowledged” biases “lead to all of the regular problems of bias—alienation, limited opportunities, and underestimation—and because they aren’t acknowledged and addressed, they can perpetuate and spread within the workplace.”
Some examples of “unacknowledged” bias are:
- Asians are natural mathematicians and scientists, so they would make the best computer science and math teachers.
- “I’ll be in charge of the bake sale—it’s a girl thing, after all.”
- Women are naturally more nurturing and caring than men, so they’d be better teachers for younger students.
The first step in managing biases on campus is to acknowledge we all have them. This is the hardest step. After you’ve acknowledged that biases do live on your campus—and perhaps even in your own office—the following steps can be implemented.
- Self-assess personal biases. Reflect on the three types of bias as defined by the American Library Association and list biases you have.
- Think about how these biases impact decisions you make. Ask yourself tough questions about past situations. For example, could you have reviewed résumés differently? Could you have listened more to someone’s opinion during a meeting? Did you dismiss a comment made by a faculty member too generously when, in fact, it might have offended others involved in the discussion?
- Survey your faculty and staff on their experiences with biases and of their personal biases. Encourage them to self-assess and evaluate their decision-making skills just as you have.
- Encourage faculty to discuss diversity and biases in their classrooms. Acknowledge differences but discourage assumptions based on differences.
- Tailor in-school professional development days to address the biases revealed.
- Create and communicate clear policies for what behaviors are acceptable and which are not.
- Empower accountability.
Diversity is a key factor in building strong teams and a strong school culture. Different personalities and value systems bring to your school the differing opinions and cultures it seeks. Trying to fit everyone into one mold isn’t the answer. The key to managing biases is through individualized engagement and empowerment.
If your school strives for diversity, then it should have a culture where everyone is empowered to speak up. Allowing your employees (and students) to voice discomfort with certain situations and comments in a safe and healthy way can alleviate bias-stresses and anxiety.
An example of a healthy assertiveness is to begin by stating feelings. “I feel offended when …” is a healthy way to open the discussion in comparison to “You make me feel …,” which will not only takes the focus off your feelings. The latter phrase places immediate blame on the other person, putting them on the defense.
Steve Yacovelli, director of inclusion and change at SweetRush, a San Francisco-based consulting firm, describes the ideal culture of an organization as a garden where everyone, not just the gardener (i.e., the HR Manager), pulls out the weeds. This way, people from every level of the organization work to create a more beautiful “garden”—a more accountable organization. And, accountability is key in managing biases.
Confront your biases and embrace the benefits of diverse viewpoints this summer in our featured Summer Institute workshop, The Double-Edged Sword of Diversity. Held June 26-28 in Wilmington, DE, this workshop will guide participants in an interactive journey employing a variety of interactive strategies, discussions, individual reflection, viewing of current documentaries, and media articles with the goal of developing participants' concrete skills to foster a more inclusive school community.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Risk Managers Vol. 4 No 1 Pregnancy-Bias Discrimination Risks
The Source for Human Resources Vol. 8 No 4 Record Highs of Disability, Religious, and National Origin Bias Charges
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 40 No. 4 A Guide to Responsible Survey Analysis
