In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, our guest is Dr. Erik Girvan from the University of Oregon School of Law. Dr. Girvan's research focuses on how sterotypes, attitudes, and other biases might impact the decisions you make in schools. He joined us to talk specifically about implicit bias: the automatic, unconscious associations we make about people and their social roles. Addressing the way these biases make their way into our school policies and procedures is exactly the kind of work we need to do in order to create supportive environments.
During our discussion, we talked about how to know when our implicit biases are most likely to affect our decisions. These moments are called vulnerable decision points and they're most likely to happen when we are under pressure, stress, fatigue, or without much specific information. If that doesn't describe the reality we live in right now, I don't know what does. So, what do we do when life feels like one big vulnerable decision point? Dr. Girvan has some ideas to get you started.
For more information about the resources mentioned in this episode, check out the following links: