Thanks for your elaborate comment.! You mentioned a subtle novel point related to the cognitive science of learning. While I am not an expert in this field, I think our brain naturally learns about unknowns by clustering them and extracting their features. I agree with you that this process is not harmful in general, but becomes totally absurd when applied for making prejudgments.

Communication is absolutely the most respectful way to learn from different cultures, identify with people from diverse backgrounds and finally acknowledge them as an individual humankind.

Hi Sara, sorry for the late reply to such a thoughtful comment. You’re right, these issues are gaining more traction within the academic world. Do we risk fundamental needs to complete hefty requirements of a degree? For research? In prior generations it was expected — but now we are in a different world with similar stresses that have grown to a higher standard with little to no change (physical, mental, financial, familial, professional, etc.).

What is even better is mindfulness encourages us to reflect and asks questions and have the ability to be open to the answers we received (to then reflect once more). It is my hope that it’ll be a way to allow for change to happen without much consequence within the academic world.

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Thanks Rathsara! Many of us from diverse communities have faced this challenge of switching back and forth from the “autopilot” to the “manual” mood. I think it is essential for us to realize such two moods exist, and then learn how to deal with them properly.

Thanks for reply Drew! I will keep your advice in mind. My time in industry (not really mentioned in the post) and academia have given me a lot of insight on how to best live my life. As you put it, life and our internal reward system change given the stage of our lives. Among my peers, I am a young 25 year old who is just scraping the potential on how to purse my goals as a future educator — and be there a long time. Again, thanks for your comment and I hope you are thriving with the freedom and autonomy you’ve earned :).

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Drew,

I really appreciate your final question here, “for how long?” I’d like to add another question to this, “what are the alternatives?” If the university degree is losing its value (which I believe it is as well), what metric will employers start using to differentiate and make decisions about hiring talented individuals? Given the dilution of the value of a degree (it’s still valuable, but the value varies wildly) what can/should the education establishment do to regain credibility amongst students, parents, and employers?

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Thanks for your comment on this Drew. Your comment makes me think of a saying along the lines of, “I may not agree with your thoughts, but I support your right to have them.” It is difficult to deal with thoughts we believe are somewhere along the offensive-evil spectrum, but the history of societies that have silenced such voices is not a good one. Civil disagreement and debate are important parts of a democracy. We need to be very thoughtful about where we draw lines on that.

Thank you for the comment! To me, it always seems more exhausting to be “impartial” or “treat everyone the same” than is it to just give a little acknowledgment to what makes each student unique. Plus, it goes outside of the classroom and into the lab. I just read this article about the racial bias in genetics research that could benefit from the same “multipartial” approach. https://www.sciencealert.com/we-re-still-not-doing-enough-to-make-our-genetics-studies-unbiased

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Thank you for the comment! I wonder if it would be beneficial or detrimental to tell your students about the results of the your implicit bias test. On one hand, I could see the helpfulness of saying “Here are some implicit biases I am trying to overcome.” The students might be likely to tell you if those biases are coming out and might appreciate the open conversation about biases in the class. But I could also see how that would open you up to more criticism.

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Thank you for the comment, Gary. That’s a great way to view it! I didn’t think of the student to student effects, but you make an excellent point that reinforces the idea.

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