HSTA offers PD course on implicit bias, microaggressions, stereotypes

As an educator, you strive to support your students and give them the tools they need to succeed. But the way you teach or treat your students may inadvertently have a negative impact on their behavior or academic performance.

Learn how to spot the signs in an open, honest environment through the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s new professional development course, “Countering Implicit Bias, Microaggressions and Stereotypes in Hawaiʻi Schools.”

Implicit bias refers to attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. HSTA members from across the state worked together to create this course for their colleagues. Their goal is to help educators become aware of these biases in themselves and others, and learn to address them.

“In order to be an effective teacher, you have to be able to reach all of your students, and in order to reach all your students, you have to understand who they are, where they come from, what their experiences are like,” said Isabella Ochoa-Bardwell, an academic coach at Kealakehe Intermediate School on Hawaiʻi Island. “You also have to be able to understand how your own experiences, your own biases affect your teaching and how to counteract that so that you can really teach every single student that you have, and really effectively teach them, reach them, and help them grow as students.”

Training was developed in partnership with the National Education Association through a racial and social justice initiative called HSTA CARES (Culture, Advocacy, Respect, Equity, Support). HSTA instructors tailored their course to reflect Hawaiʻi educators, students, and communities. One section, for example, touches on ethnic humor in Hawaiʻi.

Jacie Miyashiro, a teacher at ʻAiea High School on ʻOahu, said, “I think there’s this misconception in Hawaii that we are like this post-racial society where everyone’s so mixed that no one is racist here, but it’s not true. And so I think it’s more important for educators here to recognize how much we still have to grow in this area. I think it’s really important that teachers here recognize their own biases and analyze what they might be doing in their own classrooms.”

Participants will be challenged to analyze a content lesson plan or revise a current lesson plan with these biases in mind.

Inga Park Okuna, a counselor at Kalihi Uka Elementary School and HSTA Honolulu Chapter president, called it an eye-opening experience. “That helped me to analyze my own implicit bias and also to see it in the materials that we use in schools — to see it and look for it in what people say and how they behave, so I think it was very beneficial personally and will be beneficial to others as we reach out and teach this to other teachers,” she said.

Pinky Grace Francisco, who teaches at Kaʻū High and Pāhala Elementary on Hawaiʻi Island, added, “You may feel like you have not committed implicit biases, stereotypes or microaggressions. This PD course actually opens the door for you to become more self reflective and, thinking about metacognition and self-introspection, for you to become better as a person and as a teacher, too.”

The course runs Oct. 30, 2022, through April 4, 2023, and will be conducted online with five synchronous meetings via Google Meets. Registration closes Oct. 29.

To register

1. Go to PDE3 at pde3.k12.hi.us and add yourself to the course waitlist.
2. Register and pay the course fee at pd.hsta.org.
3. Once the course fee has been paid, you will be moved to the roster and a notification will be sent through PDE3.

Mahalo to our first HSTA CARES professional development and training team for their passion and dedication to this work: Kit Brizuela, Pinky Grace Francisco, Jacie Miyashiro, Ho’oipo Pa Nakea, Inga Park Okuna, and Isabella Ochoa-Bardwell.