The Unbearable Unaccountability of Academia: A Critical Review of Implicit Bias Training for the Racialization of Discipline

Abstract

Implicit racial bias has gained attention as a central contributor to enduring racial disparities in various systems in the United States, such as in criminal justice, particularly regarding police violence—and in education as related to school discipline. Scholars in education have suggested multiple strategies and products (e.g., professional development modules) to raise awareness among practitioners about their implicit biases. Similar to other individualistic approaches, such as the concept of grit, the implicit-bias approach has gained popularity in academia and practice as a remedy for racial disparities. This paper criticizes these product-oriented, individualistic solutions, targeting changes in an individual’s psychological traits. Building upon a collective, participatory form of knowledge production activity led by a rural high school serving American Indian youth, we call for redirection to systemic transformation in the dysfunctional discipline system to address racial injustice in discipline with—not for—educators, students, families, and community members.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We conceptualize the Learning Lab methodology as adaptive systemic design tool through which local stakeholders devise locally meaningful solutions to address their daily problems of practice. Besides tackling the racialization of school discipline, the Learning Lab methodology has been used to create universal-design for learning-informed inclusive school system. It has also been instrumental in generating district-wide solutions to combat school bullying in school district in New Hampshire, U.S. or meeting the educational needs of students who are blind in Brazil (Ko et al., 2023).

2 Due to the scope of this paper, we cannot to report an exhaustive account of systemic design process and limitations inherent to the Indigenous Learning Lab methodology. However, we have documented and theorize the ethical considerations, participant dynamics, methodological constraints, and emerging possibilities in separate works (see Ko et al., 2021, 2022, 2023).