Speaker 1: In this session, we want to take an opportunity to look at some tools for addressing bias in the school or classroom within the lens of culturally relevant teaching or culturally relevant pedagogy. So hopefully, if you watch the piece above in this module from The New York Times on bias, it's an important first step in understanding where we see some of this bias and how it comes to be in our classroom. So that's what we want to take a look at is, what are some tools that we can put in place to address bias that we have, that subconscious bias that we all have within our community? And really, we want to start with some of these assumptions. And if we think about it this way, when we look at bias, we have to identify these assumptions at the start, that we all believe that a student's color should not fate him or her to negative outcomes. We need to realize that discussing equity and race is uncomfortable. It is something that is not often talked about or isolated because it is uncomfortable. So if we're going to address bias, subconscious or overt, we need to put ourselves in that place of relative discomfort so that we can grow. Everybody has the opportunity to do that. And we can create that discomfort without providing effective strategies for equity is not going to be productive. So we can't just say, sit in the discomfort area and then all will be well because you will have been uncomfortable. No, we have to create discomfort and provide strategies for equity in order to be productive and to make productive change. And then finally, when we discuss equity and taking steps, we also have to know that we're going to make mistakes. I am by no means an expert in this, but I've had this conversation and put some things in place throughout my career that's been important for me. And I've made mistakes along the way, I'll be the first to admit. And that has helped me become a much better and a much more effective culturally relevant teacher to connect with kids. So I want to start with a piece from Cornelius Miner in an interview he did on the Heinemann podcast. And he's the author of a great book called We Got This. So let's hear from Cornelius Miner himself. You also write that your ability to sustain a life

Speaker 2: depended on your teacher's ability to see you authentically. Say more about that. As I've worked in my own classroom

Speaker 3: and worked through many people's classrooms, one of the things that I have to really resist doing is using this shorthand of seeing, where if I've got the kid that's the teacher pleaser, I've seen 20 other teacher pleasers before. And so if I meet a new kid that is a teacher pleaser, I start to treat them like all of the other teacher pleasers that came before them. Or if I've got a defiant kid, I start to treat that defiant kid like all of the other defiant kids before them. I don't get to see Rosa or Marshall or Virgil for who they are. I see them as this composite history that I've experienced. And that's not who kids are. And so I think that we can best reach kids when we can look at Marshall and see Marshall for who he is. And so even though Marshall might be resistant, he's resistant in a different way than last year's resistant kid was. And I can optimally teach Marshall when I labor to understand why he does what he does. And I think that's the best way to do that. So if we get to what Cornelius Miner says in that piece,

Speaker 1: in the context of addressing bias, it's an important piece for us to understand that every kid that we have in front of us is a new opportunity. It's not an opportunity to see another set of students with the same bias. It's an opportunity to see a different set of students another set of students with the same eyes. That when we approach students and the interactions that we have with students with a fresh set of eyes and a new opportunity, that's how we begin to make those personal connections. We know that one of the reasons subconscious bias happens is because we are disconnected from the reality of the human that's in front of us. Maybe because we've got a lot to do. We've got a lot of folks in our classroom. There's a lot to manage, but it is the reality. And so what Cornelius Miner points out is important for us to consider as we look at that. And so with what he says in mind, I want us to think about what that looks like when we're dealing with a particular student. Let's say it's a behavior issue or it's a potential problem in our class. One of the things that we can do to address our bias that we come into the situation with is creating neutralizing routines. And we're good at that as teachers, but we need to be reminding ourselves what is part of a good neutralizing routine. When we're faced with a situation where there's an action that has happened in our class and now we need to make some sort of response, instead of making those two very, very close together, we wanna separate that space a little bit. And the neutralizing routine can do that. And it allows us to step back for a moment and not allow that subconscious bias to seep in. If we think about this in terms of these steps and these pieces within a neutralizing routine, I think they're very helpful. We have to look at it as the interaction begins with an if-then statement. If you continue to do this, then what is going to be the consequence? And it's not a back and forth. It's the second piece is key. It needs to be brief and that there are clear steps that the student can use to move from this behavior and move out of the situation into a more appropriate reaction. And it has to be doable and achievable. And that neutralizing routine then has to interrupt the chain of events. So instead of moving from one thing after another, after another, after another, it interrupts that chain of events and allows us to spread that apart in order to stop the behavior, give us a chance to have a conversation with the student and move forward. When we think about it in terms of what we know, there's an event that happens, that setting event. And that could be because of a lack of positive interactions with students. We might be tired. So whatever that is, that setting event happens, and it's the context by which we're operating. And then the antecedent, maybe that student makes loud complaints about work. We're in that moment where we have, we're drawn and we're worn down. Then something happens and the student does something that puts us in this anticipated response. And our behavior then immediately, because of our reactions and because of what we're coding ourselves to do, is the student has made some sort of complaint about the work. So we're gonna institute the discipline and send the students to the office. And in that case, an office discipline referral because the behavior happened. And so then the consequences, the student leaves the class, but the key part there is that student escapes a social interaction and loses out on an opportunity, frankly, to learn the correct behavior that is necessary in the community. So instead, what we can do to address bias, and this is the key piece of lengthening the time between stimulus and response, is all of those things are still gonna happen, right? We are still maybe a lack of positive interaction with students, we're tired, it's December and things are happening. The student makes the complaint about work. And so we have this antecedent and setting event that's the reality. But instead, what if we do a self-assessment and we ask ourselves, is this a vulnerable decision point? Because the vulnerable decision points are exactly when bias creeps in. Subconscious bias steps in because we have a vulnerable decision point and our brain is kind of all crazy and it's in perhaps fight, flight or freeze mode as a teacher. And because of that vulnerable decision point, that bias seeps into the situation and makes the decision for us. So the antecedent has happened, the student's behavior is putting us in a position where we are making a snap judgment perhaps. If in that moment, we realize it's a vulnerable decision point, this is where the neutralizing routine comes in. And now we can say, here's an alternative response, see me after class, put that neutralizing routine in if it's a given five strategy or if it's a cool down spot, whatever the case is, we need to have those neutralizing routines ready to fill that space and that vulnerable decision point to create then the next step. And that's maybe perhaps moving us away from sending the student to the office and then we've taken that neutralizing routine and used it effectively. So there are a whole lot of neutralizing routines and there are some of these that are in our professional development on-demand portal, but I just wanna go through a couple of them. When we look at neutralizing routines to reduce bias, one of the very first things we can and should do as teachers is develop social contracts. And social contracts really do set the stage to promote student voice engagement and ownership of the learning environment. And we can always refer back to those social contracts as a neutralizing routine. If we go to those co-created documents, that helps us create space between stimulus and response to neutralize those opportunities where subconscious bias kicks in. I talk about given five, this is a systematic protocol to deescalate a situation and it allows us again to put in a neutralizing routine that's going to allow the system to work. We can have a restorative chat, which is an opportunity that brings people together in a formal discussion rather than punitive conversation. There's mindfulness protocols like TRY where you can stop, you can use a breathing practice, whatever it is that allows us to take that neutralizing routine and put it in place. We all know about check-ins and checkouts. Maybe it's a check-in and check-out sheet for a student. You could have opportunities to develop community. I personally love a two by 10 strategy and that is pick two students to have a conversation with for 10 days in a row. And maybe it's your toughest students, but you make an intentional effort at some point when you see them to have a conversation 10 days in a row, two students, and you have an opportunity to develop deeper relationships and get to know those people before we get to a moment where subconscious bias might creep in. And then of course, we wanna talk about culturally relevant teaching just as a framework in and of itself. It allows us to meet students where they are and integrate more fully their role in the class. And as we do this work in our district around deep equity, that's an important piece that we can keep in mind that when we use the elements of culturally relevant teaching or pedagogy, that creates a community where subconscious bias doesn't have a place because we've created that sense of space and community. And I wanna take some time to kind of go through some of those pieces around culturally relevant teaching and culturally relevant pedagogy. But the important part is that every chance we have to be an upstander, every chance we have to speak up and stand up and stop hate creates that culturally relevant community where students know that they have space that's safe, where they can be heard, and that can create opportunities for this kind of conversation. So what can we do within that? We know there are no shortcuts. We know that it is tough work. And so we have to do the right work. We can't just take something and put it in place and hope that it's gonna work because we know that that truck is gonna get stuck under the bridge. We gotta be ready and we gotta have these conversations and set the stage in such a way that we can create the most effective community of learning possible. So what does that look like? As we have been doing in our district, we've been talking a lot about deep equity and the work that Corwin Publishing has put together from Gary Howard around culturally responsive teaching. And there's a whole bunch of work that we can continue to do and modules around culturally responsive teaching that I hope you take an opportunity to learn with and learn from. But I just wanna kind of review again, when we look at this from our district's point of view, culturally relevant teaching is defined as teaching and leading in such a way that more of our students across more of their differences achieve at a higher level and engage at a deeper level more of the time. And here's the key without giving up who they are. So when we use neutralizing routines and when we make moves to take subconscious bias out of the conversation, we are allowing the students to fill that conversation without giving up who they are. And anytime we do that is a key part of our culturally relevant practice. So we've talked about this before, but when we look at culturally responsive practices, really number one is the first step. Students are affirmed in their cultural connections. They get it that we get them. And then another part is that teachers are personally inviting and students get it that we like them. And the third part is that the classroom is physically and culturally inviting. The school looks and feels like them as students and they have ownership within that classroom or school. Inside of school, they're reinforced for their academic development and we catch students being smart. Not catch students complying with what we want, but catch students being smart and being an active part of our community. And we've made instructional changes to accommodate differences. I love the idea that we are singing in harmony to our students' song. It's not that we're singing at them and they're supposed to get everything. We're singing with them and alongside them in harmony to the students' song. They're carrying the melody, but we're supporting them throughout the whole process. And the classroom for them is managed with firm and consistent caring control. It's not an issue where we're telling them this is how you're gonna behave, but that they know that they're going to be affirmed and respected in an environment where they are going to learn. And then they know that they can come and they can learn and they have a caring adult who is going to set the stage for learning because this is, they might refer to it as, it's the art of preemptive respect. If they know that they are going to come into a learning environment and be the most effective students, you're gonna have respect from the very beginning. And a final piece is that any interaction we have stresses collectivity as well as individuality. We learn together and alone. It's not something that is just delivered to them. It's learning with them, but there's also opportunities for them to learn on their own. And when we can build this learning community and we put relationships at the center of all of this, that is the core of any culturally responsive practice. And so those, when we look at those pieces and we put them in place, we can really do a lot to address bias in this process. Now, there's a whole lot of resources out there and they're linked in our module here, but we would not do ourselves any justice if we weren't talking about Gloria Ladson Billing's work on culturally relevant pedagogy. And I love this second article here, but that's just good teaching. And she's exactly right. This is not just something we do for our students of color or students who are in demographic subgroups in the minority. We do this for everybody because culturally relevant pedagogy meets everybody where they are and can provide a whole lot of framework for success. So there's a lot of information here on culturally responsive teaching resources and practices, but to the point about bias, and I wanna point out these two over here, equity practice spaces from MIT. This is an opportunity for you to practice what might happen within a classroom, given a scenario. And it's not graded, it's not scored, it's not shared with the community, but it's an opportunity for you to think of a scenario and what might be that point of bias. Where might that opening be for subconscious bias to step in and gives you a chance to practice and write out some responses around particular scenarios. It's a phenomenal resource, it's absolutely wonderful, as well as an article from the American Federation of Teachers, Understanding Implicit Bias. And that you can look for that on page 29 of the resource. The last piece that I want us to just point out and take a look at is a module from the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. It's the first free and publicly available online implicit bias module that is specifically tailored toward K-12 educators. And you can take these videos and these modules on your own and really look at the idea of race and ethnicity and how it plays a part within your classroom. They're phenomenal resources that anybody can use. But when it all comes down to it, we have to go back to what Gloria Ladson-Billing says, that good teachers create a net that's designed to catch all students. We're not creating a sieve where it just sorts out some students. Culturally relevant teaching and addressing our own subconscious bias allows us to design a net that catches all students in this process. So hopefully you've had an opportunity to think about this. Go back and look at some of those resources, share within the Hive techniques or resources that you know that are great and that work. And we really hope that you have an opportunity to put some space between those moments when you have a neutralizing routine that's that space between those that prevents that subconscious bias from creeping in. Thanks for learning alongside with us here.