Leading Equity. Sheldon L. Eakins

CHAPTER 1 Know Your Biases and Recognize Your Position of Privilege as an Educator

This chapter discusses how our biases and privilege may impact our decisions in an unconscious manner. I'll begin with sharing my experience of realizing how my excitement in my personal life illuminated a few of my privileges. Sometimes, when we hear the word privilege, we default to the popular term white privilege. The reality is, though, we all have some form of privilege. I will move into discussing ways that we can assess our biases and privilege, build relationships, and ultimately address others when we witness bias at school.

Dialing Things Back

      I remember sharing with a group of my students about a cruise I was on a few years ago. “Oh man,” I told them, “I went on a cruise with my kids during the winter break, and we had so much fun, and these are all the things that we did. I took my kids here, and we did this, and we did that. We went on this excursion.” As I was talking to my students, one of them raised their hand and said, “Dr. Eakins, I've never even been on a boat.” Another student said, “I've never even left the reservation.” A third student said, “Well, that sounds really cool.” I could see on their faces that my privilege was showing. I realized that I needed to dial it back a little bit.

      It's not that I can't share an experience with a student, but rather, it's essential to recognize that some of my students haven't had or will never have similar experiences.

On the other hand, we can't avoid those conversations completely as teachers. How can we frame them? We can try to say it in a way that motivates students to think, “You know what? Maybe I should get my college degree. Maybe I should become a teacher. I'm encouraged because look, my teacher, someone I respect, has shared about some of the experiences that he had. Those are some experiences that I would like to have too. How do I get there?”

      I believe that when it comes to how we approach education, we must start to recognize how our beliefs impact the decisions we make. The conversations we have in class and the content we choose to show our students often are influenced by how we view the world.

      Consider where you grew up and what your family dynamics are. How diverse was the population and area where you were raised? If you can answer, “Well, I grew up in a very diverse community,” my next question is, “How diverse was your social circle?” Although you may have grown up in a town that had many cultures, races, and ethnicities, that doesn't mean that you were immersed in cultures other than your own.

Assessing Your Affinity Bias

      Whenever I conduct a training on bias, I like to do an activity with the audience. Let's try this! Grab a pen and paper and list at least six people you trust. These should be nonfamily members, so they can't be your brother or sister, mom, and dad. This activity is a lot better when you have more people, so if you can list more than six people, that is even better.

      Your definition of trust might be, “If I give this person $5, I trust that they will give me my money back.” It might be that you'd trust this person to babysit your children.

Next, put a check next to everyone who is the same race as you. Then I want you to put a check next to everyone who is the same gender as you. Ditto for religion—not denominational religion like Baptist or Lutheran or whatever, but if you're both Christian or atheist or Jewish or Hindu or Sikh or Muslim. Next, I want you to put a check next to everyone who is similar in age. Now, put a check next to everyone who shares your political views. Finally, I want you to put a check next to anyone who shares the same sexual preference as you.

      Now, I want you to look at your list. Do you have a lot of checks?

      Yes? Okay, guess what? My circle of trust would be the same. I would have lots and lots and lots of checks. Although I live in Idaho, I would still have a lot of checks next to those who I trust. This is called affinity bias. It's not necessarily a bad thing.

      We typically like to hang around or interact with people who are like minded and who are similar in age, race, and gender. We typically gravitate toward that. Married people tend to hang around other married people. Married people with kids tend to hang around with married people with kids. Single folks tend to do the same. It's not a bad thing to have an affinity bias. We gravitate to or are attracted to things or people who are very similar to us. We can have a conversation with someone who shares a lot of the same political views as us or who shares the same interests that we have—that's fine. But let's consider ways to connect with people outside of our social circles.

Steps to Building Relationships

How can you develop meaningful relationships with students who don't look like you? When we can become more aware of our biases, we can start to improve upon our interactions with others, decrease our sense of discomfort in interacting with social groups different than our groups, and ultimately make better decisions. Use the following guide as a starting point for developing authentic relationships with students from diverse backgrounds.