Question
What are some reasons for having bias?
Answer
Reasons for Bias
- Racial differences
- Income levels
- Personal preferences
- Dislike of parents
- Student(s) are slow
There are many reasons for bias. For example, perhaps identifying another race is difficult because all you grew up with were people of the same skin color as yourself. Perhaps at a young age, you overheard your parents talk badly about other people who were different than yourself. Racial differences should encourage you to find the similarities that we have instead of looking for the differences. But as we all know, human nature does not always do the right thing. Racial bias is more than likely a learned idea from childhood whether we know it or not.
Bias can come from many areas of thought. Perhaps you're jealous of others who have more materialistic items than you. Perhaps they earn more money. Or we could look at the other side of it. Perhaps understanding for a family who has no money to wash their clothes on a regular basis is a challenge. After all, how can they not prioritize the fact that their children are the smelly ones in class? This bias, dislike for others due to their income level, can stem from beliefs in the childhood home or even from watching others in your teenage years.
As you can see, there can be many reasons for bias. As teachers, we need to ensure that our own biases do not create hostility, dislike, or other negative features that can intrude on the classroom and assessment. When we assess we need to support non-biased assessments. This includes making sure that our own bias does not end up in writing while you are documenting observational assessments. Of course, this is going to be a challenge.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Helping Children Learn Through Bias-Free Observation and Assessment, presented by Rebecca Reynolds, EdD.
