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The Impact of Religion on Child Development

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The Impact of Religion on Child Development

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This article discusses how religious upbringing can affect children's social and psychological development. It highlights that while children raised in religious households may exhibit enhanced social skills and psychological adjustment, there might be challenges in academic performance, particularly in subjects like math and science. The article emphasizes the importance for educators to understand these dynamics to support students effectively.​

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How Does Religion Impact Child Development?

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A new study suggests that growing up in a religious household can be a mixed blessing for childhood developmen

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Effects of Family Structure on Child Outcomes

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Effects of Family Structure on Child Outcomes

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This article explores how changes in family structure, such as divorce or remarriage, can influence children's behavioral outcomes. It highlights that children experiencing family instability may face challenges in behavior, emphasizing the importance for educators to understand these dynamics to support students effectively.​

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Challenges Faced by LGBTQ+ Youth During Adolescence

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Challenges Faced by LGBTQ+ Youth During Adolescence

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Adolescents identifying as LGBTQ+ often encounter unique challenges, including discrimination and mental health issues. Supportive environments are crucial for their well-being and development.​

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Sexual orientation and developmental challenges experienced by gay and lesbian youths - PubMed

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Youths with a homosexual orientation face different developmental challenges during adolescence than those faced by heterosexual youths or individuals who recognize their homosexual orientation later in life. We discuss the impact of “coming out,” or defining a homosexual orientation, on the develop …

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Socioeconomic Status and Early Childhood Development

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Socioeconomic Status and Early Childhood Development

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SES and Its Effects on Development
Description: Low socioeconomic status is linked to increased risks of developmental delays in children, affecting cognitive and emotional growth.

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How Socioeconomic Status Impacts Early Childhood Development - Video | Study.com

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Low socioeconomic status (SES) correlates with an increased risk of developmental delay in children. Learn more about socioeconomic status and the…

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Cultural Influences on Child Development

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Cultural Influences on Child Development

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The Role of Culture in Shaping Development
Description: Culture significantly impacts parenting styles, disciplinary approaches, and the socialization of children, influencing their overall development.

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Cultural background gives children a sense of who they are. The unique cultural influences children respond to from birth, including customs and beliefs around food, artistic expression, language, and religion, affect the way they develop emotionally, socially, physically, and linguistically.

When a child's self-identity is at odds with the social environment due to cultural differences, it can hinder learning. Fortunately, culturally competent educators help children of all cultural backgrounds learn by showing an understanding and acceptance of diverse cultures and how they make each child uniquely valuable.

Because culture is such a powerful indicator of a child's future well-being, those who work with children, including social workers, counselors, and specialists, need to understand the cultural influences on child development and how they impact the way people grow and learn. A degree such as Maryville University's online Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Studies can prepare future professionals for success in these roles, providing them with the background and experience they need to support children and families with their services.

The Importance of Childhood Development

Early childhood is a key period of mental and emotional growth, and what children perceive and experience can shape their future: Our childhood environments and how we respond to them can predict the course for our health and well-being as adults. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports, "Although the brain continues to develop and change into adulthood, the first eight years can build a foundation for future learning, health, and life success. ... How the brain grows is strongly affected by the child's experiences with other people and the world."

To understand the environment's impact on a developing child, let's look at the three main ways children process the information around them as they grow.

Classical conditioning. Drawing associations between a stimulus and response. For example, children in religious families might associate bedtime with prayers.

Operant conditioning. Drawing associations between a reward and an action. For example, children might receive dessert after eating their vegetables.

Observational learning. Absorbing and copying what they see from others in real life or in the media. For example, a child might say, "Time to clean up" because a teacher says it in school.

Children learn, therefore, by observing and making associations about their surroundings. Exposure to positive influences can favorably impact a child's development, while exposure to toxic or stressful influences can negatively impact development.

All else being equal, a child's cultural influences at birth are neutral. All too often, however, some elements of cultural background may not be accepted or understood by the society in which a child grows up - potentially harming a child's self-image and development.

In other words, the social cues a young child takes in from others about cultural background can help or hamper development because developing children readily internalize what they see and hear. When a young child's cultural background differs from the prevailing culture - for example, the child's family might speak a different language at home, eat different foods, or observe different holidays - it can affect self-image. This is especially the case if peers or even teachers treat the child in a way that reveals bias or casts the child in the role of an outsider.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), childhood exposure to dominant social biases - such as favoring people who are white, Christian, heterosexual, able-bodied, thin, wealthy, fluent in English, natives rather than immigrants - can trigger developing children to judge themselves unfavorably by the same limiting standards. When children do that, their development suffers.

Recognizing Cultural Influences on Child Development

Culture influences development from the moment we're born, making an impact on us as we grow. For instance, culture can affect how children build values, language, belief systems, and an understanding of themselves as individuals and as members of society.

Children can receive these cultural influences in different ways, such as through their parents, their environment, and the media. How society shows an understanding of diverse cultures can impact a child's development in many ways, such as how confident in themselves or how comfortable interacting with others they become as adults.

Parental Influences on Child Development

Parents' culture can influence their children's development. A 2019 study, for example, found that cultural values often influence the way parents raise their children, including how they discipline and set boundaries. It makes sense that parents raise their children based on cultural influences because they're preparing them to develop behaviors necessary to operate and thrive in that culture. However, when the social environment and home culture clash, developmental issues can arise.

Collectivist vs. Individualistic Cultures and Parental Discipline

Parents' cultural influences can impact how they discipline a child's behavior. This, in turn, can affect a child's development, particularly if those methods of discipline differ from the dominant cultural tradition.

Before delving into the methods of discipline and culture, what do the terms "collectivist" and "individualistic" mean exactly? Essentially, a collectivist culture values and rewards the prioritization of community needs over individual needs, as well as generous, kind, collaborative behavior. Collectivism is the norm in Asian, Central American, South American, and African cultures.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, an individualistic culture values and rewards assertiveness and independent action, stressing the importance of the individual over the group. Individualism dominates in North American and Western European cultures.

The 2019 study cited earlier found that parents from individualistic cultures discipline differently from parents from collectivist cultures. The former group of parents might discipline their children by taking something away that matters to them personally. On the other hand, parents from collectivist cultures might tell their children to think about how their behavior affects others.

The study found that children raised in individualistic cultures often described themselves based on their unique attributes, such as "I am good at math." Meanwhile, children raised in collectivist cultures were more likely to describe themselves based on their relationships with others, such as "I am my mother's daughter."

Child development can be influenced if parents or teachers discipline children according to the dominant culture - the U.S. has an individualistic culture - rather than the culture of their family of origin. For example, children whose parents have disciplined them to value cooperation over competition might become confused or upset when a teacher urges them to be competitive.
Parental Influences on Children's Social Behavior Varies by Culture
Children learn how to act by interacting with their parents. For this reason, the parents' cultural background often influences a child's behavior.

Communication style is a case in point. Children tend to communicate in a style that resembles their parents' way of communicating, and diverse cultures converse and explain things in different ways.

Children who communicate based on an individualistic cultural model will often tell long, self-focused stories with themes of autonomy and personal preference. Conversely, children who communicate based on a collectivist cultural model will often tell brief, other-oriented stories with themes of authority and interrelationships.

These cultural influences on children's language development can help or hinder them on the playground, and later in the workplace. If children's culture is respected at school, including the way the children interact verbally with others, then they'll be more likely to experience the acceptance and respect they need to grow and develop. They're more likely to become adults with a healthy self-image who feel understood and capable of confident, fruitful interactions. If not, however, they may become adults who hesitate to raise their voices and be heard for fear of being ridiculed or misunderstood.

Environmental Influences on Child Development

Environmental influences on child development can include influences from community and culture as well as from environmental health hazards. Pollution from a nearby power plant, contaminated water, or lead in the home, for example, can cause lasting impacts on children's health. As the CDC reports, environmental contaminants can cause greater harm to children than to adults because children's bodies are still developing.

In fact, children take in more air, water, and food per pound of body weight, making them more vulnerable to health issues from environmental hazards. The health issues might not show up until later in life, causing difficulty in school, work, and socialization. A child exposed to polluted air, for example, might develop asthma as a teenager.

Children of low-income communities are most likely to be at risk of exposure to environmental hazards. As the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) reports, low-income communities may have poor infrastructure, making them more vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters, such as contaminated water and damaged drainage systems. They may also be located closer to factories and highways, both of which contribute to high levels of pollution in the air, soil, and water.

Media Influences on Child Development

Media influences on childhood development include movies, TV shows, video games, and other online content. Research that the American Psychological Association (APA) has shared shows that children's exposure to violent media can result in aggressive behavior; exposure to advertising for non-nutritious foods can increase rates of childhood obesity; and too much screen time can be linked to lower brain development in preschoolers.

A study from the Cognitive Impacts of Digital Media Workgroup found that children begin to learn from TV programs at around 2.5 years old. Educational programs, such as "Sesame Street," can positively influence their knowledge and social skills, preparing them for school. However, after they turn 6 years old, children begin to watch more entertainment programming, which can, in turn, influence their behavior negatively. In addition, while video games can help children develop visual processing skills, they can also yield aggressive behavior. The effects on cognitive skills and behaviors are often specific to the games played.

As a result of these findings, the study suggests that clinicians and early childhood service providers should work with parents to limit TV exposure before children turn 2 years old. As children begin to learn how to read, clinicians and service providers should advise parents to regulate children's media consumption - with a focus on providing educational media content - and encourage reading habits.

The connection with cultural background is clear: Diverse cultures have different attitudes toward TV and other entertainment media, as well as different abilities to afford access to such media. A child from a collectivist culture, for example, may be encouraged to help infant or elderly family members in lieu of watching educational TV after school. Indirectly, culture influences these children's ability to benefit from such experiences.

In addition, to take the example further, children whose culture discourages educational TV and other media may be ridiculed by school peers for missing out on popular pastimes other children engage in.

Another way that media in popular culture can influence child development is by depicting and perpetuating cultural stereotypes. For example, a movie might show women or minorities in a negative light, or not at all. A sitcom might feature only white characters, never those of diverse races or ethnicities.

Clearly, the absence of role models in entertainment media, or the presence of negative stereotypes, can affect children's self-esteem. This can cause media to become a negative cultural influence on a child's development.

A Crucial Understanding of Childhood Development

Educators, parents, caregivers, and social workers need to understand how children's cultural influences affect their development. With this knowledge, adults can better guide students of different cultures and backgrounds through their growth processes and ensure that they're being exposed to healthy influences. They can also provide them with the tools they need to cope with negative influences, such as cultural biases and prejudices against diverse cultures, in schools and in society at large.

According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), for example, early childhood programs can foster children's development - physically, mentally, and socially. Consider the Head Start program, which provides children from low-income families with services to promote their educational and emotional growth. Children who participated in programs such as Head Start grew up healthier and engaged in less harmful activities, such as drinking and smoking, than those who didn't.

Educators and social workers need to be aware of their own implicit biases about cultural differences. As the NAEYC reported, teachers can exhibit biases in their treatment of children according to the child's race, ability, socioeconomic status, and behaviors. The biases can inhibit teachers from effectively helping these students and, therefore, prevent students from developing at the pace that's best for them. By understanding the cultural influences on child development, including their own cultural biases, professionals in these roles can better make an impact on children's lives and deliver the care they need.

Careers That Incorporate Cultural Influences on Child Development

An understanding of cultural influences on child development is important for professionals in a range of roles.

Child Life Specialist

A child life specialist is clinically trained to help families work through the developmental impact of serious injury or illness. For example, a child life specialist might work with families to help children cope with illness or stress in a hospital setting. This work includes identifying stressors, encouraging self-expression, and ensuring that children can make their voices heard in often overwhelming situations.

Understanding how the healthcare system approaches cultural diversity helps child life specialists assist families from various cultural backgrounds. Further, a child life specialist understands that the trauma of illness or injury looms large in child development and thus seeks to mitigate the impact, while taking into account each child's cultural background.

Mental Health Counselor

Mental health counselors treat people for issues such as behavioral disorders, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and stress. They might work in a range of settings, including individual and family services, community care centers, and government facilities. Mental health counselors can train to work specifically with children and families, helping them work through mental health issues, access necessary resources, and navigate treatment plans.

By understanding cultural influences on child development, mental health counselors can more effectively help children and families get to the root of their issues and work through them.

Community Health Worker

Community health workers help individuals and groups access healthcare information, resources, and services. For example, if a community is exposed to an environmental hazard, community health workers might connect people with screenings for lung cancer or asthma. Another example is if an impoverished community has difficulty accessing food, community health workers might connect the community to local services, such as food banks. These professionals also advocate on behalf of vulnerable communities, providing local government representatives, healthcare providers, and health educators with data about people's health status and needs.

Community health workers learn about the factors that influence child development to help families access the healthcare resources they need. They also understand the influence of culture on how families and communities seek aid and respond to stress in crises.

Child Care Center Director

Child care center directors build and manage programs for before- and after-school care, including educational programs, and social activities. Directors also hire and train staff to run these programs and work with children. With an understanding of cultural influences on child development, child care center directors can be prepared to support children outside their home, resolve issues when they arise, and provide working families with the extra help they need in supervising their children.

Social Worker

Social workers assist individuals and families on a case-by-case basis, helping them navigate stressful situations, such as unemployment, illness, and substance abuse. On top of providing these services, clinical social workers are licensed to diagnose clients with mental health issues and intervene in emergencies, such as child abuse. Social workers understand how cultural influences can impact behavior and development.

Social workers can also train in specialty areas, including the following:

Child and family social work
Example: Guiding children through the adoption process or the foster system, or locating community child care services

School social work
Example: Helping students with behavioral issues find a therapist

Mental health social work
Example: Connecting children who have anxiety or depression with a psychiatrist or support group

Healthcare social work
Example: Supporting children through a diagnosis and hospital visits

All social workers are trained to be aware of the factors that influence people's behavior, including their childhood development and how their culture may be influencing it. If a child is acting out at school, for example, a social worker considers how cultural influences at home might affect the child's acceptance by peers at school or how the child responds to challenging school demands, such as competition or collaboration.

Make an Impact in Childhood Development

Maryville's online Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Studies program offers students the knowledge and skills they need to work with families and children in different stages of their lives. Through the program's comprehensive curriculum, students explore the human experience and how individuals develop in their societies and interpersonal relationships. They also gain real-world experience through fieldwork, research projects, and service-learning opportunities in a range of settings where they can begin making an impact in their roles.

If you're interested in learning more about cultural influences on child development - including parental, environmental, and media influences on child development - exploring Maryville's online Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Studies can help you pursue your professional goals.
Recommended Reading Early Childhood Education vs. Childhood Development Nature vs. Nurture Child Development: Exploring Key Differences How to Become a Child Life Specialist Sources American Psychological Association, Kids & the Media Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Child Development Basics Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Children's Environmental Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Early Brain Development and Health National Association for the Education of Young Children, The Social-Cultural Context of Child Development and Learning National Environmental Health Association, Children's Environmental Health Equity Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Early Childhood Development and Education Pediatrics The Conversation, "How Culture Influences Children's Development" The Urban Child Institute, What Do We Know About Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood? The Washington Post Verywell Mind, "Experience and Development" Verywell Mind, "Individualistic Cultures and Behavior" Verywell Mind, "Understanding Collectivist Cultures" U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Health Educators and Community Health Workers U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Preschool and Childcare Center Directors U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Workers U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Child Life Specialist" Wiley Online Library, "Environmental Influences on Health and Development: Nutrition, Substance Exposure, and Adverse Childhood Experiences" , "How Different Cultures Shape Children's Personalities in Different Ways" , Digital Screen Media and Cognitive Development

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Cultural Influences on Child Development | Maryville Online

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Explore cultural influences on child development, and learn how educators, parents, and social workers can use this information to improve services and care.

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Implicit bias refers to unconscious attitudes and stereotypes that influence our actions and decisions, even if we consciously reject prejudice. In educational settings, these biases can affect teacher expectations and interactions with students.

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Implicit bias, also known as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, is a negative attitude, of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group.

Implicit bias is thought to be shaped by experience and based on learned associations between particular qualities and social categories, including race and/or gender. Individuals' perceptions and behaviors can be influenced by the implicit biases they hold, even if they are unaware they hold such biases. Implicit bias is an aspect of implicit social cognition: the phenomenon that perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes can operate prior to conscious intention or endorsement.

Adapted from the APA Dictionary of Psychology and Wikipedia

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Implicit bias, also known as implicit prejudice or implicit attitude, is a negative attitude, of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group.

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Cultural competence is the ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures. It involves being aware of one's own cultural worldview, gaining knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and developing cross-cultural skills.

Noticing a student is not participating because at home she's not to speak unless called on, calls for the incorporation of turn taking strategies.

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Implicit bias can shape teacher expectations and lead to unequal treatment, often without conscious intent. For example, studies show that Black boys are more likely to be disciplined than their White peers for the same behavior. These patterns can negatively affect student achievement, self-esteem, and trust in school systems.

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The Role of Teacher Self-Reflection in Reducing Implicit Bias

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The Role of Teacher Self-Reflection in Reducing Implicit Bias

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Self-reflection is a crucial practice for educators aiming to identify and mitigate their own implicit biases. By regularly examining their attitudes, behaviors, and interactions with students, teachers can become more aware of unconscious biases that may influence their decisions. This process not only promotes fairness but also fosters an inclusive and supportive learning environment.

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What does a supportive learning environment look like? Many of us who spend our days in and out of classrooms can quickly conjure examples of classrooms where children seem to feel safe and seen and are eager to learn. But even in dynamic and nurturing learning environments, there are often disparate outcomes for students that correlate to race and class. Even seemingly supportive structures, including some approaches to classroom discipline and differentiated learning, can be implemented in ways that better support some children's learning and leave other students behind.

How can teachers ensure the practices they use are the best ones to support all their students? Decades of research show the importance of teacher expectations on student outcomes. However, there is far less information available about how to support teachers to challenge assumptions and internal biases that may impact those expectations. Teachers do not want to serve some students less well than others. What supports, then, are needed to change practices and assumptions that are so deeply ingrained that they are difficult to even notice, much less challenge?

As researchers and professors in San Francisco State University's Department of Education, we set out to develop a method to support teachers in identifying, reflecting on, and responding to aspects of their classroom practice that might be impacted by implicit bias. We hope this will help identify and increase educatars' level of emotional intelligence.

Based on existing research, we have identified at least three things that teachers can do to begin to uncover the biases in their practice:

Use critical self-reflection as a tool for teacher growth (Çimer, Odabaşi, & Vekli, 2013).

Gain access to conditions or structures such as facilitated reflection that support their self-improvement (Gullo, Capatosto, & Staats, 2019).

Be open to accessing counter-stereotypical exemplars-roles contrary to images or ideas that exist within one's mind (Gullo et al., 2019).

With these in mind, we worked with a small group of teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area to develop and pilot the Implicit Bias Reflection Tool (IBRT), a reflective tool that allows teachers, in collaboration with an instructional coach, to closely examine specific teaching episodes to uncover the role of bias in teacher-student interactions and develop alternative approaches that better support high expectations and student success.

The tool consists of a series of reflective questions that teachers can answer after viewing recordings of their teaching (see fig. 1 below). Teachers can self-record these videos or ask a colleague or coach to do so. After observing their own teaching, educators can use the IBRT to support self-reflection tied to action, allowing them to notice and name areas of potential bias and consider and enact changes to their practice.

We originally used Equip, an online observation tool used to track student participation to build a more equitable classroom. Through Equip, teachers were led through a series of discussions and prompts that helped them look introspectively at how their teaching might influence student outcomes. Based on analysis of the data from this first experience of facilitated reflection on practice, we then developed the prompts that became the IBRT.

Our primary focus in developing and piloting this tool was to better understand: What are the impacts of the IBRT in supporting teachers to notice and address implicit bias in their teaching practice? Any individual teacher action might be influenced by multiple factors, but taken as a whole, bias is impacting how teachers interact with and support, or fail to support, students of color. The IBRT was designed to help "rewire" the associations that teachers may have formed that lead to inequitable supports for the achievement of students of color.

The teachers in our pilot engaged in critical self-reflection of their teaching practice through the lens of identifying potential bias. They were all enrolled in the final stage of a master's degree program in elementary education and moving on to complete their field study course. They were interested in looking at how implicit bias might have been evident in their teaching practice.

Over a period of three months, and for a minimum of four times, these three teachers tested the IBRT. Their experiences and input helped us refine it to best support both teachers' awareness of implicit bias and their enactment of plans of action toward more effective practice.

Let's look at each teacher's experience in using the IBRT.

Amber: Beginning to Notice and Respond to Bias

Amber was a second-year kindergarten teacher during the IBRT project. She is Filipina American, and she taught in a school in which her students were predominantly African American. At the start of the project, Amber's ideas about her own bias focused on her emotional response to students' actions and a fear that when she responded to what she perceived as negative behaviors in the same child repeatedly, she might develop what she called "bias build up"-being predisposed to think that a child will engage in negative behaviors and thus interacting with or teaching them in ways that assumed the child was "problematic."

Using the IBRT prompts to reflect on and examine self-recorded videos of her teaching, Amber noticed that she tended to focus on the negative behavior of a small number of students even though many other students were engaged in similar actions that she had not noticed or corrected.

Several clear themes emerged from her completed reflections that indicated ways in which she both took up and potentially downplayed bias in her teaching practice:

1. An over-inference of students' motivations

2. Providing supports to encourage students' positive engagement of her preferred behaviors

3. Showing care to some students

Overall, Amber's reflections tended to focus on describing students who engaged in individual behaviors she deemed inappropriate, and the largest parts of her reflections described providing support to encourage her preferred behaviors. Inappropriate behaviors specifically named included: physical aggression, physical contact, calling out, making noises, retaliation, being emotional, being unmotivated, being easily triggered, non-participation, unresponsiveness, and disinterest. For instance, when describing students she felt did not want to do work or behaved in what she perceived as a distracting manner, she inferred the underlying reasons for that behavior, characterizing most students' behavior in comparison to the behavior she would have preferred.

Infractions described as disruptive or disrespectful are often ambiguous and can be interpreted widely. Therefore, as previously noted, when something is subjective, it can lead to interpretations that are formed based on unconscious associations shaped by teachers' prior experiences (Staats, 2015-2016). The IBRT allowed Amber to look introspectively and question her biased assessments of students' behavior. As a result of this deeper reflection, she became more aware of her own internal triggers, allowing her to pivot from a reactive response to a more supportive one.

Susan: From Reflection to Action

Susan, who identifies as Asian American, is a 6th grade teacher who at the time had taught one year in general education and one year in special education. During an interview prior to using the IBRT, Susan was asked how she defines bias. She responded, "I think of it as [something] we have, but we don't know that we have."

We wanted to further explore how Susan thought bias might show up in her classroom. She knew that she wanted to be conscious of her biases during the planning and execution of her lessons. Going into the study, Susan also knew that she wanted to understand the "why" behind her actions.

Susan's proactive disposition toward reflection created a strong foundation for appraising the biases in her teaching practice, even before engaging with the IBRT. Reflection is a key component to emotional intelligence that compels teachers to critically appraise themselves, their beliefs and attitudes, and the relationship they have with their students (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985). In initial reflections of videos of her practice, Susan was very aware of negative assumptions she might be making about students, such as behavior she termed "problematic." But in fact, the videos showed many instances of her providing positive support, such as offering fidget toys for students who struggled with focus.

Alongside this self-awareness, though, Susan showed examples of deficit thinking when reflecting on the videos, such as describing students as lacking in motivation. Using the IBRT, Susan was able to consider some assumptions that might be leading to bias. For instance, she noticed that the students whose actions she chose to highlight tended to be a small set of students who she saw as problematic.

Based on this observation, Susan planned to be more cognizant and systematic in carefully observing a wider range of students, not just defaulting to scanning the class for perceived problematic behaviors. She also uncovered interesting patterns in her teaching that she wanted to investigate more. For instance, she found that she was calling on boys more than girls during math class, something she did not anticipate and which did not match her stated belief about children's abilities and potential. The IBRT allowed Susan, an already deeply reflective educator, to identify specific aspects of her own practice that might be due to implicit bias, and to develop concrete plans toward more equity-informed practices, such as using random call methods like popsicle sticks.

Anna: Examining and Refining Curriculum

Anna was a white teacher in her 7th year of teaching and was completing a master's degree in literacy education during this project. As such, she was particularly attuned to her own and her students' literacy practices.

Unlike Amber and Susan, Anna's initial reflections on videos of her teaching, as well as her use of the IBRT, focused on instructional design and curricular elements, particularly on how students interacted with children's books that she selected to be inclusive of her students' cultures. She tended to highlight ways in which children showed engagement with and connection to stories that featured characters of a culture or race similar to theirs. For example, she recounted how a very quiet child in her class, who was Chinese American, talked about eating Dim Sum with her grandfather during a read aloud in which the main character did the same.

While Anna's stories tended to highlight positive cultural connections her students made, using the IBRT helped her challenge her assumption that students would connect with characters or story themes just because they included aspects of a shared culture. For instance, she realized that she had assumed a certain child would be eager to share their knowledge of Spanish while reading a book that had Spanish words in it, but, in fact, this student did not take an interest in the book at all. Throughout her piloting of the IBRT, she repeatedly noticed and named times when she made assumptions about what students would engage with based on their cultural backgrounds and ways in which children's reactions both confirmed those assumptions and surprised her.

Anna's desire for children to see themselves in the books they read seemed to be strengthened by her IBRT reflections, as she deepened her ideas about what it meant for children to "connect" with a story. The tool pushed her to examine her assumptions and to notice points of mismatch between what she assumed and how her students actually connected with the literature-and, as a result, reprogram her teaching methods.

Supporting Reflective Practice to Reduce Bias

Using the IBRT as a support for self-reflection sharpened these teachers' ability to identify potential areas of bias based on their own stage of development as a teacher. The first step in anti-bias work is to acknowledge that one holds biases in the first place. Without acknowledging bias, it is difficult to spearhead interventions that lead to more equitable classroom practices.

However, using a self-reflection tool like IBRT is just the first step. To lead to more substantive change, teachers can ask colleagues or a coach to give them feedback on their teaching and have a conversation on how the results from the IBRT compare and contrast with that feedback. For example, it would be helpful for leaders to pinpoint elements within their feedback tools that allow them to capture and articulate how bias might be showing up in a teacher's practice. On a classroom level, we see this type of reflection tool as a way for teachers to engage in bias reflection with more focus. Teachers can work alongside a coach or with colleagues. The process should not be rated or used in any formal observations or evaluations; otherwise it could be seen as punitive and off-putting.

A collegial support model will allow ideas about the impacts of and responses to bias to complement each other, creating conditions for more substantial change. This process of supported self-reflection positively correlates to emotional intelligence and can create more welcoming and supportive classrooms for a wider range of learners.

Reflect & Discuss

➛ How would a reflective tool like the IBRT help you in your teaching practice?

➛ Have you ever been surprised to learn about an unconscious bias you exhibit while teaching? How did it make you feel, and what steps did you take to correct it?

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Teachers need self-reflection tools to break the cycle of assumptions that undermine student success.

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Strategies for Addressing Implicit Bias in the Classroom

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Strategies for Addressing Implicit Bias in the Classroom

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To counteract implicit bias, teachers can implement strategies like diversifying classroom materials, using inclusive language, and fostering an open, respectful classroom environment. These actions not only mitigate bias but also enhance the learning experience for all students, creating a more equitable and inclusive atmosphere.

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Teacher Learning Activity: Understanding & Interrupting Implicit Bias

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Teaching Channel has created an activity for teachers to help better understand implicit bias and how to disrupt them.

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A cultural competence framework assists educators in developing the skills and mindset necessary to effectively teach students from diverse backgrounds. It typically encompasses valuing diversity, conducting ongoing self-assessments, managing differences, acquiring cultural knowledge, and adapting to the cultural needs of the community. Implementing such a framework promotes equity and inclusion within the classroom.

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I recently stumbled upon a social media thread that asked educators to post three words that they would tell themselves during their first year as a teacher. I found myself replying, "Learn them first". The "them" in my statement referred to the students who would spend the academic year learning and growing with me as their guide.

During my tenure in education, it has become evident that the more I know about the students, the greater my impact on their emotional, social, and academic well-being. Knowing intricate details of why they do what they do, holidays that they celebrate, their family structure, their cultural values and norms, allows me to exercise a level of cultural competence that proves beneficial to my students.

What is Cultural Competence?

As it pertains to the field of education, Diller and Moule, authors of Cultural Competence: A primer for educators, states, "Cultural competence focuses on the ability to successfully teach students who come from cultures other than our own. It entails developing certain personal and interpersonal awareness and sensitivities, developing certain bodies of cultural knowledge, and mastering a set of skills that, taken together, underlie effective cross-cultural teaching."

The average American classroom boasts a melting pot of students who come from various backgrounds with a plethora of beliefs. It is highly likely that teachers will have little cultural compatibility with at least 10% of their class. Therefore, in order for one to deem themselves an effective educator, they must possess more than content knowledge. They must have the ability to not only accept cultural differences, but to respect them and embed them into the core of the learning environment.

Likewise, leaders in education such as superintendents, district leaders, and school administrators must create working environments that are conducive to the melting pot of educators who grace our schools. We are far removed from the American educational system that was once comprised mostly of former white male coaches in leadership roles and white females as teachers. Gone are the days where the bulk of our schools and districts were segregated. Today's educational system is made up of a mesh of races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and belief systems. All of which carry value and must not only be tolerated, but accepted in order to adequately prepare our students for productive living in our world.

The Importance of Cultural Competence in Teaching

Culturally competent teachers establish classrooms that are inclusive and celebratory of the things that make people different. These classrooms are rich in discussions of cultural differences and what is acceptable and unacceptable among groups of people. In environments that are fostered by culturally competent educators, differences are not regulated to be celebrated during an assigned month. They are acknowledged, discussed, and celebrated throughout the school term. Teachers who lack cultural competence leave greater room for intolerance and bullying to occur under their guidance. They are more likely to misunderstand students who are different from their cultural norm.

Additionally, teachers who are not culturally competent are less likely to build authentic positive relationships with the students and parents who reside outside of their "normal", thus preventing them from truly making a positive difference in the lives of the students who are assigned to their tutelage. In some instances, teachers who are not culturally competent will utilize office referrals as a means to address behaviors that they do not understand as opposed to nurturing differences and using them as teaching and learning opportunities.

Ways to Address Cultural Competency Issues

This land of opportunity that we live in is great in theory; however, it is in practice where we seem to fall into error. Much of this failure stems from our refusal to not only accept but also respect differences. Having culturally competent teachers in every classroom will assist in getting us to the point where theory becomes a way of life. We get there by first acknowledging that there is a deficit of culturally competent teachers in our classrooms, and then we tackle "the how". How do we address cultural competency issues in education?

Take a microscopic look at who we are. We must consider our values and the nuisances that make up our psyche. Did we come from a two-parent home? Were or are we currently a part of the low, middle, or high class? What are our religious beliefs? After pondering all of these things, we should consider how they shape how we respond and relate to others. We must recognize, accept, and improve when the microscope reveals that who we are is preventing us from accepting and understanding others who are not like us.

Be intentional in our pursuit to understand others. School districts spend thousands of dollars annually investing in our ability to understand and teach content standards. Only a small portion of that amount is allotted towards professional development for teachers to acquire the skills necessary to become culturally competent.

This lack of investment is evident when we consider the testimonials of teachers who maintain that although they teach, the students do not care to learn. Most educators would agree that they are most successful working with students whom they have developed an authentic relationship. The more authentic the relationship between student and teacher, the greater the likelihood that the student is receptive to receiving knowledge. Investing financial resources into professional development geared towards helping teachers connect with students who are dissimilar to them will help eliminate the disconnect that prevents students from receiving the education that is being offered.

Look for ways to be inclusive. Our schools should be inviting to the community in which we serve. Regardless if a parent is from a lower or higher tax bracket, the treatment that they receive should be the same. As educators, we should search for ways to make sure that our PTAs, boosters, volunteer lists, and others reflect the body of students we serve. It is counterproductive to have a student body that is made up of various races, income brackets, and religious beliefs to only have a select type of parent representative serve in key volunteer roles.

Traditional event scheduling and invitations to volunteer and participate may not yield the results we need in diversifying inclusion in our schools. We must think outside the box by using mediums such as social media, church gatherings, and celebration dates that are special to different groups to increase inclusiveness.

Competency in utilizing differences as leverage to develop productive human beings is a must. The learners who grace our classrooms deserve to be taught by culturally competent educators who strive to relate to them beyond the information that they are relaying from a textbook.

References
Diller, J.V. and Moule, J. (2005). Cultural competence: A primer for educators. Belmont, CA: Thomas Wadsworth.

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Cultural Competence in Education - TeachHUB

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I recently stumbled upon a social media thread that asked educators to post three words that they would tell themselves during their first year as a teacher. I found myself replying, "Learn them first". The "them" in my statement referred to the students who would spend the academic year learning and growing with me as their guide.

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Valuing diversity means more than just recognizing differences—it’s about celebrating them and using them as strengths in the learning environment. When teachers respect and include different cultures, languages, and traditions in their teaching, students feel seen and valued. This boosts engagement and academic success.

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Everything we think, say, and do is processed through our own cultural backgrounds. But because culture is absorbed and passed down from generation to generation rather than explicitly taught, we're seldom aware of it.

Culture shapes not only our values and beliefs, but also our gender roles, family structures, languages, dress, food, etiquette, approaches to disabilities, child-rearing practices, and even our expectations for children's behavior. In this way, culture creates diversity.

Cultural diversity and teachers

For teachers, it is essential to see and understand your own culture in order to see and understand how the cultures of children and their families influence children's behavior. Only then can you give every child a fair chance to succeed.

Think about your own upbringing. How did your family's expectations affect what you did? Were your parents, siblings, and other relatives close or distant? Were they strict, lenient, or somewhere in between? Were your school's expectations any different? All of this, and more, plays a part in how you view the behavior of the children you teach.

These ideas lie at the heart of NAEYC's position statement Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education. Its guiding principles include

Recognizing that "self-awareness, humility, respect, and a willingness to learn are key to becoming a teacher who equitably and effectively supports all children and families"

Developing a strong understanding of culture and diversity

Understanding that "families are the primary context for children's development and learning"

One major takeaway from the position statement is that early childhood educators must support consistently warm and caring relationships between families and their children, respect families' languages and cultures, and incorporate those languages and cultures into the curriculum, their teaching practices, and the learning environment.

Cultural diversity and young children

Children bring their own set of culturally based expectations, skills, talents, abilities, and values with them into the classroom. And they begin to develop their self-concept (at least in part) from how others see them. To form positive self-concepts, children must honor and respect their own families and cultures and have others honor and respect these key facets of their identities too. If the classroom doesn't reflect and validate their families and cultures, children may feel invisible, unimportant, incompetent, and ashamed of who they are.

Many people, including educators, have long believed it is better to act colorblind and/or "cultureblind"-that is, to not acknowledge color or culture. But research has shown that this artificial blindness keeps us from recognizing, acknowledging, and appreciating important differences. Worse, it may lead to unintentional bias toward or disrespect for those who are different from us.

We know now that acknowledgments of color and culture are essential for legitimizing differences. Color and culture make each one of us special and enable us to offer unique gifts and opportunities to groups we are part of. At the same time, color and culture help children learn about each other and the world. In short, color and culture enrich classrooms.

To appreciate what each child can contribute to the class, teachers need to learn about each family's cultural values. Helping children to see themselves in your pedagogy, curriculum, environment, and materials enables them (and their families) to feel welcomed and valued.

Take a look around your classroom.

Does the artwork on the walls accurately reflect the children's lives, or are the walls covered with store-bought, stereotypical images?
Why not have the children create their own posters with their own artwork, things from home, and photos families can supply?

Are labels (and other child-focused texts) repeated in each child's home language, or are they in English only?
Why not forge connections and support children's learning by asking family members to help children use their home languages throughout the room?

It's important to see cultural and linguistic differences as resources, not as deficits. As NAEYC's equity position statement puts it, "Children's learning is facilitated when teaching practices, curricula, and learning environments build on children's strengths and are developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate for each child."

The difference between equitable and equal

Equal is not the same as equitable. Every child in your group has different needs, skills, interests, and abilities. Equal would mean giving all children the same activities, materials, and books. Equitable means ensuring that you consider each child's strengths, context, and needs and provide all children with the opportunities that will support them in reaching their potential.

It's crucial to recognize the inequities that children and their families face-in school and out. The position statement reminds us that "dominant social biases are rooted in the social, political, and economic structures of the United States. Powerful messages-conveyed through the media, symbols, attitudes, and actions-continue to reflect and promote both explicit and implicit bias." For example, research conducted by Yale University professor Walter Gilliam clearly shows that young African American boys are subject to higher rates of suspension and expulsion than their White European American peers.

How cultural diversity shapes behavior

Your culture and the children's cultures aren't the only cultures at work in your classroom. Every school and early childhood education program has a culture too. The cultures of most American schools are based on White European American values. As the makeup of the US population becomes more diverse, there is more cultural dissonance-which impacts children's behavior.

White European American culture has an individual orientation that teaches children to function independently, stand out, talk about themselves, and view property as personal. In contrast, many other cultures value interdependence, fitting in, helping others and being helped, being modest, and sharing property. In fact, some languages have no words for I, me, or mine.

Children who find themselves in an unfamiliar environment-such as a classroom that reflects a culture different from their home culture-are likely to feel confused, isolated, alienated, conflicted, and less competent because what they've learned so far in their home culture simply doesn't apply. They may not understand the rules, or they may be unable to communicate their needs in the school's language.

Rethinking challenging behavior

Because your responses to children's conflicts and challenging behavior are culture bound, it is all too easy to misinterpret children's words or actions. The next time a child seems defiant, ask yourself, Is that behavior culturally influenced? Could I be misunderstanding the child's words or actions?

For example, White European Americans tend to use implicit commands, such as, "Johnny, can you please put the blocks away?" Children raised in the White European American culture understand that they are being told to put away the blocks. But children raised in the African American culture may interpret this utterance differently. In their culture, adult commands are usually explicit: "DuShane, put away the blocks." To African American children, an implicit command in the form of a question may seem to offer a choice about how to behave.

Culture also defines personal space, including how much space feels appropriate in the block area, at circle/meeting time, and in the dramatic play area. In some cultures, children feel comfortable playing close to one another; in others, the same space may feel claustrophobic and lead children to hit or shove a playmate who seems too near. Similarly, you may stand too close or too far away, depending on children's cultures. For example, if Cadence doesn't pay attention to your request to keep the sand in the sandbox, you may be too far away to connect with her.

In White European American culture, teachers expect children to sit still and maintain eye contact to show that they're paying attention. But in other cultures, children might show their interest by joining in; they may learn through hearing or telling a story, watching others, or using trial and error. If they don't understand the lesson, they might have a hard time paying attention. Or they may be paying attention in a different way.

Culture counts

There are many rewards for teachers who take culture into account. You can form authentic, caring relationships with children and families; build connections between what children already know and what they need to know; select activities, materials, and instructional strategies that honor children's cultures and life experiences; and teach children the skills they need to succeed in a global society.

From the Pages of Young Children: Research on How Culture Affects Learning

For more examples of how culture affects learning, check out " Diverse Children, Uniform Standards: Using Early Learning and Development Standards in Multicultural Classrooms" in the November 2019 issue of Young Children. The authors, Jeanne L. Reid, Catherine Scott-Little, and Sharon Lynn Kagan, provide several examples of culturally influenced differences in how children pay attention, approach learning, seek guidance, and express their knowledge and skills. They also offer tips to help teachers address standards for early learning that are not sensitive to these cultural differences.

This article supports the following NAEYC Early Learning Program Accreditation standards and topic areas

STANDARDS 7: FAMILIES; 1: RELATIONSHIPS

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Valuing Diversity: Developing a Deeper Understanding of All Young Children's Behavior

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For teachers, it is essential to see and understand your own culture in order to see and understand how the cultures of children and their families influence children's behavior.

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Comprehensive Framework for Cultural Competence

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Comprehensive Framework for Cultural Competence

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This resource outlines five essential elements: valuing diversity, self-assessment, managing differences, acquiring cultural knowledge, and adapting to diversity

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NCCC: Curricula Enhancement Module Series

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Application of Cultural Competence in Service Delivery

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Application of Cultural Competence in Service Delivery

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Discusses how cultural competence enables effective work in cross-cultural situations, highlighting behaviors, attitudes, and policies.

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Cultural Competence In Health And Human Services | National Prevention Information Network

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Nowhere are the divisions of race, ethnicity, and culture more sharply drawn than in the health of the people in the United States. Despite recent progress in overall national health, disparities continue in the incidence of illness and death among African Americans, Latino/Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders, as compared with the US population as a whole.

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Provides a manual with activities and reflections to increase levels of cultural competence and appreciation of diversity issues.

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Comprehensive Review of Implicit Bias Research

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Comprehensive Review of Implicit Bias Research

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Analyzes 33 articles from 2018-2020, exploring the role of implicit racial bias in education and its effects on student outcomes.

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State of the Science: Implicit Bias in Education 2018-2020 | Kirwan Institute

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Over the past 10 years, the Kirwan Institute has explored developments in implicit bias research in education. Schools are oftentimes believed to have the power in promoting more positive racial attitudes and allowing all to partake equitably in society (e.g., Banks et al., 2006). However, teachers and school administrators who are entrusted with fulfilling this capacity, are themselves immersed in a social environment where implicit racial biases are pervasive (Nosek et al., 2007; Gullo & Beachum, 2020). For this multi-year State of the Science report, we examined 33 articles published between 2018-2020 that interrogated the role of implicit racial bias in education

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Impact of Implicit Bias on Teacher Expectations

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Impact of Implicit Bias on Teacher Expectations

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Discusses how teachers' implicit biases can lead to harmful expectations regarding students' achievements and potential for growth.

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Examining Implicit Biases of Pre-Service Educators Within a Professional Development Context

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The opportunity gap, or conditions and barriers that impede the academic performance and school experience of minoritized students, may be exacerbated by educators’ implicit biases. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand preservice…

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Explores how teachers' beliefs and expectations, influenced by implicit biases, affect student success, particularly among disadvantaged students.

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Whether or not a teacher "believes in" her students and expects them to succeed has been shown to affect how well that student does in school, particularly among disadvantaged students. But educators should be aware that those expectations can be influenced by their own implicit racial biases.

In a recent study that looked at interviews involving 16,000 U.S. teachers, Black and non-Black teachers were asked to predict their 10th-graders' future educational attainment. Would she graduate from high school? How about college? When asked about any specific Black student, White teachers were about 30 percent less likely than Black teachers to predict he or she would someday earn a college degree. For White students, the teachers' predictions, or expectations, were about the same.

"We cannot determine whether the black teachers are too optimistic, the non-black teachers are too pessimistic, or some combination of the two," wrote one of the study's authors, American University's Seth Gershenson, in an an August blog post. But, he noted, it is worrisome nonetheless, "as systematic biases in teachers' expectations for student success might contribute to persistent socio-demographic gaps in educational achievement and attainment."

The study also found that the racial mismatch of expectations was stronger for boys, and that the most optimistic group about Black male students was Black female teachers (even more so than Black male teachers.)

"These results are not meant to, nor should they, demonize or implicate teachers," wrote Gershenson. "Biases in expectations are generally unintentional and are an artifact of how humans categorize complex information." Hopefully, the authors suggest, the study's findings will lead to helpful discussions.

Although the U.S. public school system now has more non-White students than White students, White teachers still account for 84 percent of the teaching force.
What is Implicit Bias and Can it Be Fixed?
Implicit biases are defined by the Kirwin Institute as attitudes or stereotypes that are activated unconsciously and involuntarily. They are not the same as biases that a person might try to hide because they're unpopular or socially incorrect. Social scientists believe that implicit biases are learned as young as age 3, and may be fueled by stereotypes perpetrated in the media, or beliefs passed along by parents, peers, and other community members.

"Our belief here is that we all have implicit biases," said Maureen Costello, director of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center working toward equity in schools. And it's not just teachers, she points out. Recent studies, prompted by police shootings in Ferguson and elsewhere, have looked at implicit biases among law enforcement officers and found that both White and Black officers often have implicit biases about Black community members.

The consequences for Black communities policed by biased officers has been tragic, but it can be equally consequential in schools, points out Becki Cohn-Vargas, the co-author of Identity Safe Classrooms: Places to Belong and Learn. "This is not about blaming or pointing fingers," she said, but it clear that the decisions made by teachers also do affect children's life trajectories. Unequal discipline, for example, may fuel the school-to-prison pipeline that has disproportionately affected students of color.

But what's important to know about implicit biases is that, once people are made aware of them, those biases can be successfully addressed. "We can mitigate them. We can interrupt them. You can train your mind to catch yourself," said Costello. "It's like breaking a habit, but the first thing you have to do is become aware of the habit."

Awareness is the first, foundational step. (To take an Implicit Assessment Test (IAT) online, visit Teaching Tolerance's Test Yourself webpage.) The second step, suggests Costello, is developing a sense of reflectiveness. Ask yourself, "Is the way I'm approaching this student affecting outcomes?" And consider the data available in your classroom: Who do you call on, and how often? (Do you need to switch to a randomized technique, like pulling popsicle sticks?) How do you seat students, or group them? Are you treating everybody the same when it comes to homework, or are you giving a break to the kid you think has a bad home life or little chance of getting to college?

Researchers also suggest it's helpful to "refute" and "counter" the negative stereotypes that fuel biases, said Cohn-Vargas. That means recognizing these stereotypes really aren't true, and opposing them with ideas that are: for example, it's not true that all Black boys are loud and disruptive; it is true that students who talk a lot often are enthusiastic.

Cohn-Vargas suggests it's also important for educators to recognize their students as people who are individuals.

Much of this kind of work is done by culturally competent NEA members, trained by NEA trainers, through NEA's National Diversity Training Program. Additional resources to help NEA members work with students who may not look like them are available online, including NEA's Diversity Toolkit and Teaching Tolerance's "Culture in the Classroom" project.

"I'm actually encouraged by some of the things happening in positive psychology," said Costello. "If you end every day by journaling or writing down three things that were great in your class, and give yourself a little time for mindfulness and meditation, you can help retrain your mind to see the positive rather than the negative."
Photo: Associated Press

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When Implicit Bias Shapes Teacher Expectations | NEA

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"It's like breaking a habit, but the first thing you have to do is become aware of the habit," says expert.

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Research on Teacher Bias and Student Relationships

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Research on Teacher Bias and Student Relationships

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Examines how child characteristics like race and gender influence teacher expectations and relationships, impacting student achievement.

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Provides an overview of how unconscious associations and attitudes influence judgments and behaviors, with implications for education.

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An implicit bias is an unconscious association, belief, or attitude toward any social group. Implicit biases are one reason why people often attribute certain qualities or characteristics to all members of a particular group, a phenomenon known as stereotyping.

It is important to remember that implicit biases operate almost entirely on an unconscious level. While explicit biases and prejudices are intentional and controllable, implicit biases are less so.

A person may even express explicit disapproval of a certain attitude or belief while still harboring similar biases on a more unconscious level. Such biases do not necessarily align with our own sense of self and personal identity. People can also hold positive or negative associations about their own race, gender, religion, sexuality, or other personal characteristics.

Causes of Implicit Bias

While people might like to believe that they are not susceptible to these implicit biases and stereotypes, the reality is that everyone engages in them whether they like it or not. This reality, however, does not mean that you are necessarily prejudiced or inclined to discriminate against other people. It simply means that your brain is working in a way that makes associations and generalizations.

In addition to the fact that we are influenced by our environment and stereotypes that already exist in the society into which we were born, it is generally impossible to separate ourselves from the influence of society.

You can, however, become more aware of your unconscious thinking and the ways in which society influences you.

It is the natural tendency of the brain to sift, sort, and categorize information about the world that leads to the formation of these implicit biases. We're susceptible to bias because of these tendencies:

We tend to seek out patterns.Implicit bias occurs because of the brain's natural tendency to look for patterns and associations in the world. Social cognition, or our ability to store, process, and apply information about people in social situations, is dependent on this ability to form associations about the world.

We like to take shortcuts. Like other cognitive biases, implicit bias is a result of the brain's tendency to try to simplify the world. Because the brain is constantly inundated with more information than it could conceivably process, mental shortcuts make it faster and easier for the brain to sort through all of this data.

Our experiences and social conditioning play a role. Implicit biases are influenced by experiences, although these attitudes may not be the result of direct personal experience. Cultural conditioning, media portrayals, and upbringing can all contribute to the implicit associations that people form about the members of other social groups.

How Implicit Bias Is Measured

The term implicit bias was first coined by social psychologists Mahzarin Banaji and Tony Greenwald in 1995. In an influential paper introducing their theory of implicit social cognition, they proposed that social behavior was largely influenced by unconscious associations and judgments.

In 1998, Banaji and Greenwald published their now-famous Implicit Association Test (IAT) to support their hypothesis. The test utilizes a computer program to show respondents a series of images and words to determine how long it takes someone to choose between two things.

Subjects might be shown images of faces of different racial backgrounds, for example, in conjunction with either a positive word or a negative word. Subjects would then be asked to click on a positive word when they saw an image of someone from one race and to click on a negative word when they saw someone of another race.

Interpreting the Results

The researchers suggest that when someone clicks quickly, it means that they possess a stronger unconscious association.﻿﻿ If a person quickly clicks on a negative word every time they see a person of a particular race, the researchers suggest that this would indicate that they hold an implicit negative bias toward individuals of that race.

In addition to a test of implicit racial attitudes, the IAT has also been utilized to measure unconscious biases related to gender, weight, sexuality, disability, and other areas. The IAT has grown in popularity and use over the last decade, yet has recently come under fire.

Among the main criticisms are findings that the test results may lack reliability. Respondents may score high on racial bias on one test, and low the next time they are tested.

Also of concern is that scores on the test may not necessarily correlate with individual behavior. People may score high for a type of bias on the IAT, but those results may not accurately predict how they would relate to members of a specific social group.

Link Between Implicit Bias and Discrimination

It is important to understand that implicit bias is not the same thing as racism, although the two concepts are related. Overt racism involves conscious prejudice against members of a particular racial group and can be influenced by both explicit and implicit biases.

Other forms of discrimination that can be influenced by unconscious biases include ageism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism.

One of the benefits of being aware of the potential impact of implicit social biases is that you can take a more active role in overcoming social stereotypes, discrimination, and prejudice.

Effects of Implicit Bias

Implicit biases can influence how people behave toward the members of different social groups. Researchers have found that such bias can have effects in a number of settings, including in school, work, and legal proceedings.

Implicit Bias in School

Implicit bias can lead to a phenomenon known as stereotype threat in which people internalize negative stereotypes about themselves based upon group associations. Research has shown, for example, that young girls often internalize implicit attitudes related to gender and math performance.﻿﻿

By the age of 9, girls have been shown to exhibit the unconscious beliefs that females have a preference for language over math.﻿﻿ The stronger these implicit beliefs are, the less likely girls and women are to pursue math performance in school. Such unconscious beliefs are also believed to play a role in inhibiting women from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Studies have also demonstrated that implicit attitudes can also influence how teachers respond to student behavior, suggesting that implicit bias can have a powerful impact on educational access and academic achievement.

One study, for example, found that Black children-and Black boys in particular-were more likely to be expelled from school for behavioral issues. When teachers were told to watch for challenging behaviors, they were more likely to focus on Black children than on White children.

Implicit Bias In the Workplace

While the Implicit Attitude Test itself may have pitfalls, these problems do not negate the existence of implicit bias. Or the existence and effects of bias, prejudice, and discrimination in the real world. Such prejudices can have very real and potentially devastating consequences.

One study, for example, found that when Black and White job seekers sent out similar resumes to employers, Black applicants were half as likely to be called in for interviews as White job seekers with equal qualifications.

Such discrimination is likely the result of both explicit and implicit biases toward racial groups.

Even when employers strive to eliminate potential bias in hiring, subtle implicit biases may still have an impact on how people are selected for jobs or promoted to advanced positions. Avoiding such biases entirely can be difficult, but being aware of their existence and striving to minimize them can help.

Implicit Bias in Healthcare Settings

Certainly, age, race, or health condition should not play a role in how patients get treated, however, implicit bias can influence quality healthcare and have long-term impacts including suboptimal care, adverse outcomes, and even death.

For example, one study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that physicians with high scores in implicit bias tended to dominate conversations with Black patients and, as a result, the Black patients had less confidence and trust in the provider and rated the quality of their care lower.﻿﻿

Researchers continue to investigate implicit bias in relation to other ethnic groups as well as specific health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, mental health, and substance use disorders.

Implicit Bias in Legal Settings

Implicit biases can also have troubling implications in legal proceedings, influencing everything from initial police contact all the way through sentencing. Research has found that there is an overwhelming racial disparity in how Black defendants are treated in criminal sentencing.﻿﻿

Not only are Black defendants less likely to be offered plea bargains than White defendants charged with similar crimes, but they are also more likely to receive longer and harsher sentences than White defendants.

Strategies to Reduce the Impact of Implict Bias

Implicit biases impact behavior, but there are things that you can do to reduce your own bias. Some ways that you can reduce the influence of implicit bias:

Focus on seeing people as individuals. Rather than focusing on stereotypes to define people, spend time considering them on a more personal, individual level.

Work on consciously changing your stereotypes. If you do recognize that your response to a person might be rooted in biases or stereotypes, make an effort to consciously adjust your response.

Take time to pause and reflect. In order to reduce reflexive reactions, take time to reflect on potential biases and replace them with positive examples of the stereotyped group.

Adjust your perspective. Try seeing things from another person's point of view. How would you respond if you were in the same position? What factors might contribute to how a person acts in a particular setting or situation?

Increase your exposure. Spend more time with people of different racial backgrounds. Learn about their culture by attending community events or exhibits.

Practice mindfulness. Try meditation, yoga, or focused breathing to increase mindfulness and become more aware of your thoughts and actions.

Recap

While implicit bias is difficult to eliminate altogether, there are strategies that you can utilize to reduce its impact. Taking steps such as actively working to overcome your biases, taking other people's perspectives, seeking greater diversity in your life, and building your awareness about your own thoughts are a few ways to reduce the impact of implicit bias.

A Word From Verywell

Implicit biases can be troubling, but they are also a pervasive part of life. Perhaps more troubling, your unconscious attitudes may not necessarily align with your declared beliefs. While people are more likely to hold implicit biases that favor their own in-group, it is not uncommon for people to hold biases against their own social group as well.

The good news is that these implicit biases are not set in stone. Even if you do hold unconscious biases against other groups of people, it is possible to adopt new attitudes, even on the unconscious level.﻿﻿ This process is not necessarily quick or easy, but being aware of the existence of these biases is a good place to start making a change.

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Is It Possible to Overcome Implicit Bias?

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An implicit bias is an unconscious belief about a group of people. Learn more about how these biases form and strategies to reduce their influence on behavior.