Unconscious Bias – Types of bias- Case studies

From -Stella Louis and Hannah Betteridge

Stereotyping is when we generalise about a particular group. In our experience, such generalisations are
common and influence how people interact with children and the opportunities they get. For example,
some of the most prevalent stereotypes we’ve heard are:
Only boys can build a dam
Jewish girls don’t climb trees
Asian children are passive and good at maths
Black girls are loud and bossy
Girls don’t play with sticks and stones
Black boys are good at sports

When left unchecked, stereotypes can fundamentally impact outcomes for children. When someone
remarks that ‘only boys can build a dam’ or ‘girls don’t play with sticks and stones’. These beliefs reinforce
gender bias and the more they are heard or felt the more likely it is that a child will internalise such beliefs
about themselves, which can be detrimental to their sense of self-worth.

Unconscious bias is when we intuitively draw on our stereotypes to make value judgements without enough
knowledge, evidence, understanding or reflection. Unconscious bias can show itself in a whole range of
ways including affinity bias, attribution bias and confirmation bias and – importantly – it may not even chime
with our consciously held beliefs.

The uncomfortable truth is that we are all biased in one form or another. Our bias can be conscious or
unconscious, innate or leant – and ultimately results in us placing disproportionate weight in favour or
against a person, idea, group or thing, often without evidence or just cause.

Whilst we all have them, failing to recognise or address our bias can have catastrophic results at an
individual and societal level. It entrenches prejudice. It entrenches inequity.

A case study in bias #1

5-year-old Kemi was excluded from a game because of her race. Whilst at school, one child said to her: ‘My
mummy said I’m not allowed to play with black girls’.

The educator supported Kemi to understand this experience and gave her a language to express how she felt
by reading her a story called ‘Little People, Big Dreams’: by Maya Angelou. The story is about a girl being
treated unfairly because of the colour of her skin -Kemi was able to identify with the main character in the
book and process what had happened to her. The educator also talked about race and the importance of
diversity and inclusion with all of the children. They were encouraged to discuss their views, by applying the
discussion to their own situation.

A case study in bias #2

7-year-old Ryan is South African and is currently fascinated with the Anglo-Zulu wars of 1879. During lockdown
he’s spent months re-enacting wars, sometimes as a British soldier and at other times a Zulu warrior. Ryan
dresses up and uses different objects as a gun, spear or shield. His mother had ongoing conversations with
him about the history of these wars, about the fact that a gun can kill more easily than a spear and thus how
these Anglo-Zulu wars were not fair on the Zulus.

However, his father wanted to stop Ryan from playing this game. He was quite concerned that the school will
see his play as prejudicial or racist, especially when Ryan acts as a British soldier and wants to ‘shoot the
Zulus’.

The educator explained that Ryan’s play was not racist, but the war was. Play is Ryan’s way of making sense of
his world by exploring ideas of good versus bad, different characters and working it all out. She also
encouraged Ryan’s mum to continue to teach Ryan the facts and to visit museums to help him develop a
framework for his understanding.

Affinity Bias
Affinity bias refers to when we display a preference towards children and families who share certain
qualities or characteristics with us, or people we like. Whilst we cannot fully eradicate affinity bias from our
observations, we should be alert to them because they influence how we see children and their families.
Many aspects of the Observe, Assess and Plan (OAP) process can be impacted by our natural affinities,
particularly if the educator shares the same cultural heritage as the child being observed and assessed. To
counteract this, we have to reflect more deeply on our assessments, checking our interpretations and
conclusions to ensure that we deal with issues of race, gender and identity honestly and openly.

There is so much we can learn about children and their culture, and it is vital that as educators we work with
their parents and guardians to understand their backgrounds and cultural norms. This means that we need
to make time to listen to families from different backgrounds. Finding out about the important events in
children’s lives and respecting every child’s home/family background and culture opens us up to differences
in approaches. It is in this way we can begin to break down stereotypes we may have of children and their
families, which could have a negative impact on their progression.

Case Study

Three-year old James was sitting on the carpet looking at a book. A few minutes later he was joined by three-
year old Dylan who tried to take the book away from him. James defended the book by gently pushing Dylan’s
arm away. Dylan screamed. The educator, asked James “What did you do?’ James replied, “I haven’t done
nothing.’ The educators instructed him to go and sit on the time out chair and smiled sweetly at Dylan.

When coming over to the book corner, the educator made an initial assessment snap of the situation. Without
asking Dylan what happened or further probing James, the educator made the assumption that James
instigated the situation and was the only one to blame. The educator showed no empathy towards James and
instead favoured Dylan. It is important to note that Dylan and the educator live on the same street.

Bias can take many forms and young children may become the focus of your unconscious bias if your brain
perceives them as different. Turning a blind eye to bias damages children’s development and learning.
When observing and assessing children who are not from the same cultural groups as ourselves, we need to
have strategies in place to check our conclusions. At the very least this means we question our OAP criteria
for bias in interpretation.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is when we search for information or interpret what we see in ways that confirm our pre-
existing beliefs. We pay specific attention to information or observations that support our views, leading us
to pay much more attention to our assumptions and beliefs than what is actually happening in front of us.
We may go out of our way to look for evidence to prove our expectations to be true, while at the same time
turning a blind eye to the information that challenges our beliefs.

Confirmation bias has an influence on how educators gather information, interpret and recall it. For
example, if we believe that a child is under achieving, we might seek out observations that reaffirm the need
to limit the opportunities we offer them rather than encouraging us to set up activities that will stretch
them. Confirmation bias can also reinforce stereotypes that we have about children.

Case Study

After reading the reception class a story, an educator begins to ask the group questions about the story.
Several white boys shout out the answers to her questions and are encouraged to participate further and
share their ideas as the discussion continues. Romeo, a Black boy, then calls out an answer. The educator
directs him to put his hand up if he wants to say something and tells him to stop being disruptive, despite
earlier encouraging the white children to participate. After several attempts to get the educators attention by
putting his hand up with the answer and being deliberately ignored by her, Romeo disengages from the
discussion altogether. The next day, Romeo continues to disengage from story time. His parents notice a
difference in his behaviour at home.

Attribution Bias

Attribution bias refers to the errors that an individual makes when trying to find reasons for their own
behaviours and motivations or the behaviours and motivations of others. Attribution bias is about when we
attribute the cause of a child’s behaviour to their character and not the situation. It can be devastating for
children to have their characters judged in this way when in reality they may have withdrawn from an
activity due to the situation.

For example, when we observe that a child has disengaged from the learning process, we might blame the
child for not conforming to our perceived norms, ignoring the fact that we repeatedly refuse to meet that
child’s needs to participate in the group discussion. Attribution bias affects how we feel about our own
behaviour and think about the children and families that we work with. Our observations of them are like
stories, sometime the stories are factual at other times they are based on what we think we see, our
attitudes and interpretation of children’s behaviour. How likely are we to put our assumptions, beliefs and
expectations into the story in positive and/or negative ways?

Case Study

In a small rural village preschool two sisters of mixed heritage attend an all-white setting. One day the staff set
up a role-play area as a hairdressing salon. It had all sorts of mirrors, brushes, shower caps, hairdryers and
product packages etc. The sisters raced into the hairdressers with their friends but very quickly came out
quiet, despondent. When the educator asked them what was wrong they replied, "There's nothing for us.”
When their mum came to pick them up the educator had a discussion with her about the children’s lack of
engagement. To facilitate the discussion, the educator took the mum into the role-play area. The mum
explained that the girls used Afro combs and different types of products in their hair. She kindly gave the
setting some resources to use and it sparked lots of positive conversations with the other children about
differences in hair and differences between people in general.
From this discussion the educator understood that she had not represented the girls’ culture well enough
and recognised that she would need to gather more information from the parents in order to counter her
Eurocentric practice that had initially excluded the girls. The two girls were not being difficult or challenging
because they didn’t want to engage. It is only by observing and listening to children attentively with an open
mind, that we begin to avoid attribution bias. Being open to how children learn, their interests and how they
think and solve problems, will help us to value them as unique individuals. Effective practice starts with
observation and it must involve children’s parents and guardians.