ERIC Number: EJ1208997
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Mar
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0039-3746
EISSN: N/A
Remediating Campus Climate: Implicit Bias Training Is Not Enough
Applebaum, Barbara
Studies in Philosophy and Education, v38 n2 p129-141 Mar 2019
A common remedial response to a culture of racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of oppression on college campuses has been to institute mandatory implicit bias training for faculty, staff and students. A critical component of such training is the identification of unconscious prejudices in the minds of individuals that impact behavior. In this paper, I critically examine the rush to rely on implicit bias training as a panacea for institutional culture change. Implicit bias training and the notion of implicit bias it is grounded in is examined and the advantages and limitations of this approach is elaborated. An exclusive focus on implicit bias, it is argued, can protect ignorance rather than correct it. Similar to implicit bias, microaggressions is a concept that has played a role in campus diversity interventions. An examination of microaggression education demonstrates how it corrects for some of the pitfalls of relying on the concept of implicit bias to improve campus climate. The ambiguity that is characteristic of microaggressions, however, hints at the need to explore the type of "unknowing" that both implicit bias education and microaggression education attempt to remedy. Building on the recent scholarship around the idea of epistemic injustice, crucial insights can be gleaned about the significance of shifting the focus from lack of knowledge to a willful resistance to know. In the final section, some implications for improving campus climate are drawn out.
Descriptors: Campuses, Educational Environment, Social Bias, College Faculty, Faculty Development, Aggression, Social Discrimination, Organizational Culture, Organizational Change, College Students, Staff Development, Intervention, Cultural Pluralism, Epistemology, Racial Bias
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A