Reducing implicit racial bias in preservice teachers by facilitating impact awareness

WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Jeffrey Aaron Gagliardi (Creator)
Institution
Western Carolina University (WCU )
Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
Advisor
John Habel

Abstract: Implicit racial bias has a measurable impact on the judgments and evaluations of Black individuals by Whites, as well as communication between these two groups. The purpose of this study was to develop an efficient, researched-based intervention for raising awareness about aversive racism in order to establish impact awareness (Gawronski, Hofmann, & Wilbur, 2006) and achieve measureable reductions in implicit bias in preservice teachers who were students in a public, regional comprehensive university in the Southeast. Participants in the experimental group were engaged in activities in which they learned about and discussed aversive racism and implicit bias, while the members of the control group was not exposed to this material. All participants then completed the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) (Payne, Cheng, Govorun, & Stewart, 2005) as a measure of implicit racial attitudes, and they responded to vignettes describing a White or Black student with academic and behavioral difficulties to determine biases in participants’ approach to these situations. Twenty-six days following the intervention, participants in the experimental group completed the AMP and responded to vignettes once more to determine changes to implicit bias over time.

Additional Information

Publication
Other
Language: English
Date: 2014
Keywords
Aversive Racism, Cultural Responsiveness, Education, Impact Awareness, Implicit Bias, Race
Subjects
Student teachers -- Attitudes
Racism in education -- United States -- Prevention

Email this document to