Acknowledging Bias and Stereotypes

Dr. Anna Marie FrankDePaul University

AAHPERD April 1, 2014

Overview• PETE student or practicing physical education

teacher (PPET), our biases are easily uncovered by our students as part of our hidden curriculum

• Unconscious support for the continuation of stereotyping

• Ineffective teaching-learning process• Identification is the first step to dismantling

negative stereotyping/bias

Content• PETE student may experience difference for the first

time on the college campus. • PPET will regularly encounter new students, often of

different cultures• Activities to help identify bias and stereotyping should

be used early and often• Acknowledge that stereotypes are integral to the way

our minds process information, pervasive, predictability, can be positive or negative, can be partly true but have consequences.

Understanding Prejudice • Welcome to UnderstandingPrejudice.org , a web site for

students, teachers, and others interested in the causes and consequences of prejudice.

• In these pages you will find more than 2,000 links to prejudice-related resources, as well as searchable databases with hundreds of prejudice researchers and social justice organizations.

• To the right, you'll also find a variety of interactive exercises offering unique perspectives on prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination.

Understanding Prejudice• Pretest prior to completing the

workshops/engaging in the website, then repeat to see how answers change

• Provides current level of bias on a certain item

• Be interviewed and asked questions/discuss when you should “draw the line”

“My father sincerely believes that science is a political plot, Christians are the most persecuted minority and Barack Obama is a full blown communist. He supports the use of force without question, as long as it’s aimed at foreigners. He thinks all liberals are stupid, who hate America. I don’t recall my father being so hostile when I was growing up. What has changed him? He consumes a daily diet of nothing but *** News. . . We are losing the nation’s grandparents, and it’s an American tragedy”.

Journalistic Approach• Overcoming Bias: A Journalist’s Guide to Culture

& Content, S. E. Christian 2012, HHP.• Project Implicit projectimplicit.net • Gauge your implicit associations about

characteristics: presidents, Asians, Arab-Muslims, skin-tone, gender, Native Americans, age, race, weight, religion, gender-career or disability.

Project Implicit resultsAsks you to make choices quickly and tried to measure how much you rely on implicit associations to make the decisions.

Declares that you have a slight, moderate or strong preference or little to no preference for the characteristic (white or black people) you are interested in.

Social Attitude Survey• To better understand how your culture has

shaped your thinking about others. • Results– Identify at least one question that was

particularly uncomfortable because your answer didn’t seem socially acceptable.

– Discuss in small safe groups

Social Dominance Orientation Scale• Describes a general attitude toward others,

toward social groups and one's regard for the various groups’ implicit value.

• Measures the extent to which a person desires his or her own social in-group to dominate and be superior to out-groups.

• General attitudinal orientation toward relationships between groups and the policies and structures that support …isms.

1=Very Negative 2=Negative 3=Slightly Negative 4=Neither 5=Slightly Positive 6-Positive 7=Very Positive

• 1. Some groups of people are simply not the equals of others.• 2. Some people are just more worthy than others.• 3. This country would be better off if we cared less about how equal all people were. • 4. Some people are just more deserving than others. • 5. It is not a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others.• 6. Some people are just inferior to other • 7. To get ahead in life, it is sometimes necessary to step on others.• 8. Increased economic equality• 9. Increased social equality • 10. Equality.• 11. If people were treated more equally we would have fewer problems in this country.• 12. In an ideal world, all nations would be equal• 13. We should try to treat one another as equals as much as possible. (All humans should be

treated equally.)• 14. It is important that we treat other countries as equals.

Category Width Questionnaire

• Category width refers to how broadly a person categorizes things. – Broad categorizers are tolerant and search for

appropriate information rather than making uninformed judgments.

– Narrow categorizers are unaccepting of conflicting information and en to make judgments based on their own cultural viewpoint.

1. I do well on tasks that require integrated information processing. 2. I do well on tasks that require detailed information processing. 3. Things can be very dissimilar and share a common quality and I

will use the same label to describe it. 4. I make strong judgments about others.5. I do well on tasks that require holistic information processing.6. I am confident that I perform well in social situations.7. I try to make sure I have sufficient information before judging

others. 8. I do well on tasks that require analytic information processing.9. I try to obtain a lot of information before making a decision.10. I react strongly to change.

Uncertainty Orientation Questionnaire

• Uncertainty oriented individuals have a need to understand others, are open minded and evaluate ideas on their own merit.

• Certainty-oriented individuals are not interested in finding our information about the world and others and are confident in their ability to explain the behaviors of strangers.

• I do not compare myself to others• If given a choice, I prefer to go somewhere new rather than

somewhere I’ve been before. • I reject ideas that are different than mine.• I try to resolve inconsistencies in beliefs I hold. • I am not interested in finding out information about myself.• When I obtain new information, I try to integrate it with

information I already have. • I hold traditional beliefs.• I evaluate people on their own merit without comparing them to

others.• I hole inconsistent views of myself.• If someone suggests an opinion that is different than mine, I do

not reject it before I consider it.

Generative Knowledge Interviewing

• Groups of 3-one story teller and 2 listeners• Tell a story of when you felt different or the

concept of difference• Listeners can not agree or talk about their

related experience.• Take notes when they hear a “red flag”-can

ask for clarification or to ask probing questions about what there are hearing.

Closure & Questions• I am Other • Seek to decrease others as what they

are and increase the way we see others as who they are.

• Comments?• Questions?