January 8, 2024 • 28 mins
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Hey there! Ever thought about how your own thoughts and blind spots might be shaping how you connect with others at work? In this latest episode, we're taking a close look at some tricky stuff that can trip up even the most experienced counselors: confirmation biases.
We're exploring how confirmation biases work as sneaky blind spots in school counseling, subtly guiding decisions and interactions as counselors lean towards information that aligns with their existing beliefs.
We'll explore the ins and outs of how our biases can affect our relationships with students, our colleagues, and our campuses as a whole. I'll share some cool strategies to shake off those biases and make our schools more inclusive and awesome places to learn.
Tune in for a chat that'll get you thinking and arm you with the tools for caring and effective counseling, all while maintaining a positive and empowered perspective. Can't wait for you to join the conversation!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steph Johnson (00:00):
Hello school counselor, Welcome back to the
School for School Counselorspodcast.
I'm so glad that you're backhere with me for another episode
, and this week we're going tobe talking about managing your
confirmation bias.
Do you know your blind spots inyour counseling work, in your
(00:20):
work on your campus as a whole,or in your relationships with
your students or coworkers?
How well can you identify thoseblind spots?
Do you know what to do withthem Once you find them?
We're going to talk about allthat coming up in this episode
of the podcast.
I'm Steph Johnson.
I'm your host, as always, afull-time school counselor, just
(00:44):
like you, and I am driven andinvested by the idea of
supporting my colleagues,empowering you and advocating
for the school counseling worldas a whole so that we can better
and more effectively serve thestudents on our campuses.
And I am just tickled to deaththat you're here with me this
(01:04):
week for this episode.
Now, we all carry some uniquebeliefs.
We carry values.
Those things shape who we areand it's natural right.
That's what makes us unique andspecial and different from
everyone else around us.
But as school counselors, it'simportant to remember that those
(01:27):
personal perspectives caninfluence the way we see the
world and when it influences ourworld, it often also influences
the way we see our students,the way we see our
administrators and the way wesee our work as a whole, and so
we have to be really attuned andon the lookout for confirmation
(01:53):
bias.
Now, you might remember,confirmation bias is our
tendency to lean towardinformation that aligns with
things we already know orbelieve.
So, in other words, we're goingto favor information that
confirms our preexisting beliefs, we're going to favor
(02:13):
information that confirms ourown values, and our brains are
immediately going to try todiscount any opposing evidence.
We're going to minimize it,we're going to gloss over it.
Sometimes we don't evenacknowledge it's there, and this
all comes together to createconfirmation bias.
(02:34):
It's important for us, inparticular, to be able to
challenge confirmation bias,because it's imperative for us
to remain open-minded in ourwork and that we're able to make
good decisions and draw goodconclusions in our school
counseling.
So in this episode, we're goingto talk about a few simple ways
(02:58):
that we can navigateconfirmation bias and make sure
that we are growingprofessionally as compassionate
and effective school counselors.
You know, one of the reasonsthat this topic came to mind was
I just wrapped up doing aworkshop with my school for
(03:19):
school counselors, mastermindmembers and we were preparing
for National School CounselingWeek as well as Random Acts of
Kindness Week.
Both of those weeks are comingup in February and so we wanted
to gather our members together.
We wanted to crowdsource someideas for those weeks coming up.
We helped them get thingsplanned and going already on
(03:41):
their books so they don't getsurprised by it at the last
minute and to really maintain anopen mind about the purpose and
the power particularly ofNational School Counseling Week.
You know a lot of ourcolleagues and friends have
already developed biases aboutthis week.
They've already developed somepredetermined ideas about what
(04:05):
National School Counseling Weekshould be.
Perhaps what others on theircampus think of National School
Counseling Week.
Often it's not very flatteringand I see a lot of people draw
the conclusion that others ontheir campus just don't care,
they don't respect them becausethere's not a lot of gratitude
initiatives being aimed at them,that kind of thing.
(04:27):
And it really got me thinkingabout the other types of
confirmation biases that wecarry throughout our day.
Side note.
I just wanna be very clear onthis.
You know, National SchoolCounseling Week not ORS, not
counselors.
There's a difference.
National School Counseling Weekbenefits us best when we view
(04:51):
it as an opportunity foroutreach, for education about
our roles and to really startbuilding bridges, not only with
the people that we work with,but with our students and our
parents.
You might be one that feels likethat shouldn't be necessary,
that we shouldn't be called abomb to do that kind of work,
(05:12):
but whether or not you feel weshould, it's an imperative.
These days, Our roles are sodifferent between states,
between districts and evenbetween campuses.
It's super important that youuncover some of the mystery of
your program on your campus andmake sure that people feel they
understand what your job is,what you're doing all day.
(05:34):
It leaves them less room todevelop biases as well.
All right, so there areprobably four main types of bias
that you can experience as aschool counselor.
Now start researching this andyou'll see you start going down
the rabbit hole pretty quicklyof all the different kinds of
(05:55):
biases that are possible.
But basically, I think we'reprobably looking at four main
types.
Number one you may developbiases about yourself.
It could be something like aself-serving bias, where you
solely attribute gains orimprovements to your own efforts
(06:16):
.
That sounds really it doesreally sound self-serving.
I don't think that's the way weintend it when it happens, it's
just kind of the way itpercolates in our brain.
Things like collaborativebiases when we're working in
groups and we kind of excludeother people's input and tend to
embrace our colleagues, ourcounseling teams, and put more
(06:40):
readily those kinds of things.
We can experience bias regardingour administrators.
We might stereotype them, wemay just make assumptions about
their motivations or their goals.
On campus we might selectivelyremember things about our
administrators that confirm thebiases that we've created about
(07:02):
them in our minds.
Or we may have a negativitybias about them.
They're never going to care,they're never going to
understand, they're never goingto accept me as part of their
team, those kinds of things,instead of really looking at the
potential for change.
So we've got biases aboutourselves, biases about our
(07:22):
administrators, some otherconfirmation biases that we can
develop, our biases about ourstudents, and these to me seem
really dangerous.
Things like expectation biases,where we kind of think that
we've predetermined a student'spath.
Sometimes we have culturalbiases and we make assumptions
(07:45):
based on our own culturalbackground and we don't really
take others' backgrounds intoaccount.
Sometimes we develop a haloeffect with students.
So those are really interesting.
We let some sort of a positivecharacteristic about them
influence our overall perceptionand then we start to miss
things or we start to feel likewe shouldn't have to work on
(08:05):
things that maybe need a littlebit of help.
And then the last big categoryof confirmation bias I think
that can be present is bias justregarding our campus as a whole
or sometimes our work as awhole, Things like affinity bias
, where we favor colleagues thathave backgrounds like ours, who
(08:26):
have work styles like ours orinterests that align with our
interests, and so we kind ofpreclude perspectives from
individuals with other kinds ofdiverse backgrounds.
That's really dangerous.
Perhaps we experience someprojection bias.
There are lots of things thatcan come into play and, like I
(08:47):
said, you can go down a rabbithole with all these different
categories and subcategories ofbias.
But we wanna make this simplethis week, because the point is
we need to be able to recognizethese things, we need to be able
to confront them head on and beable to handle the aftermath of
that, because sometimes it'snot super pleasant, but if we
(09:10):
can do that, it's going to makeus better school counselors,
better at our jobs andultimately better advocates for
students.
So let's take on first ourbiases about ourselves.
We're gonna have to engage in alittle bit of self-reflection
here.
We're gonna have to take a hardlook at our beliefs and our
(09:34):
values and determine what kindsof biases have we developed
about the world because of them?
How might your views influenceyour interactions with students?
How might they limit yourunderstanding and limit your
understandings?
This is really hard to confrontsometimes, but if we can
(09:57):
acknowledge these things, we canopen this door where we can
start to grow and step morefully into our role as a helper
on campus.
We too need to continually bemindful of our thoughts in the
moment, to check in withourselves about what thoughts
(10:19):
and feelings are dominating ourminds when we're working with
students, when we're havingthose heart-to-heart discussions
.
That way we can recognize biasas it starts to creep in.
We can consciously adjust ourperspective and make sure that
we're making decisions or makingsuggestions with fairness and
(10:41):
with equity and mind.
Jumping into professionaldevelopment opportunities that
challenge our perspective orthat broaden our exposure to
other viewpoints really expandsour professional expertise.
So seek out opportunities thatstretch you Don't just think of
(11:02):
it as school counselingprofessional development.
Really become a lifelonglearner.
That may not be professionaltexts, it may not be academic
research journals, it may bethings like reading some good
fiction, reading some goodself-help books, anything that
you can do to really broadenyour perspective about the world
(11:24):
and your place in it.
And then last and I think thisis an important one and it's one
that we don't look at oftenenough but highlighting the
opportunities to seek feedbackfrom colleagues and students.
This one is a hard one becausewe don't want to hear what we
(11:44):
would think of as the bad things.
We don't sometimes want thatconstructive criticism.
We want to hear how awesome weare, what a great impact we've
made, how our role on campus iscelebrated, and sometimes we're
afraid to open ourselves up toany other kinds of feedback.
But if you can be receptive tosome constructive criticism, if
(12:09):
you can encourage those kinds ofopen conversations, genuinely
ask for input and then bereceptive to that, it's only
going to help you grow as aperson.
And as a school counselor, youknow, I say often I tell my
students I'm specially trainednot to get my feelings hurt and
(12:32):
while that is somewhattongue-in-cheek, I think it's
mostly true and I really have tomaintain a particular mindset
in order to make that work.
But I have to remember thatthat feedback isn't designed to
you know, bring me down.
It's not designed to stick aknife in my heart.
It's a reflection of anotherperson's experience and if it's
(12:54):
a less than stellar reflectionon my end, that's my cue.
Everything needs to change andin order to be not only a
responsible but an ethicalschool counselor, I really need
to consider that.
All right, so we've talkedabout holding a mirror up to
ourselves.
We've talked about opening upopportunities to receive some
(13:18):
constructive criticism andreally challenge our own biases
about ourselves.
Now let's talk about our biasestoward our administrators.
Now, I touched on this earlierwhen I was talking about the
National School Counseling Weekdebates, but I think sometimes
we forget that our job isn'tjust supporting students right,
(13:41):
Our job is also building somereally great relationships on
campus so that we caneffectively advocate for
students.
No one's going to be open orreceptive to solutions or
suggestions if we can't maintaina happy and healthy
(14:01):
professional workingrelationship.
So I think we have a few thingswe've got to do here so that we
don't fall into these holds ofbias about our administrators
thinking things like well, theschool counseling program just
isn't important to them.
I mean it shows In the level ofbudget they give me, in the way
that I'm scheduled on campus,in the way that they never have
(14:23):
time for me, on and on and on,and on and on.
And we don't stop to take otherfactors into consideration.
Now, does that mean that allschool administrators have the
best interests of the schoolcounseling program at heart?
Unfortunately no, but we atleast want to approach things in
(14:43):
a positive frame of mind untilwe have direct evidence to the
contrary.
There's a difference betweenbias and evidence.
Do you have the evidence or doyou just have an assumption or a
feeling?
Very important to tease thatout.
First, you've got to have opencommunication between counselors
(15:07):
and administrators.
Some of you are rolling youreyes right now, going there is
absolutely no way on this earththat's ever going to happen.
And it's not because I don'twant it, it's because they won't
.
Let me Ever been in a positionlike that I have.
I've been there.
I know what you're talkingabout.
We do know that when we havethe ability to communicate
(15:27):
openly, we create this spacewhere we can acknowledge and
address our own biases about ouradministrators, and perhaps
they can do the same on theirend.
But if you don't feel like youhave this opportunity.
That means the first step inyour framework is building
situations in which you can bothlearn to know each other, then
(15:50):
to like each other, then totrust each other, so that you
can communicate.
This is a lot like what you doin your school counseling
conversations.
Be honest, sometimes you getstudents or parents in your
office that you don'tparticularly like right off the
bat.
Right, it's just human nature,that's just the way it works.
(16:14):
Some personalities just don'tmesh well with each other right
away.
But you have the tools andexpertise to usually craft those
conversations and direct themin a way where you can have a
productive conversation andperhaps even walk away from it
feeling like you've gained abetter understanding of each
other.
(16:34):
Right, and so we have to do thesame thing with our
administrators, and sometimesthis takes time.
Sometimes, with someadministrators, this takes a lot
of time To the tune of years Tobe able to get them to know you
, then to like you, then totrust you.
But that's okay.
Just remember, all of this isnot all about you.
(16:58):
There are probably otherfactors that have contributed to
this situation, and if you'regonna stick in it for the long
haul.
You've just gotta give it yourbest, most diligent effort to be
able to untangle all of that soopen communication, but also
seek to understand theirperceptions and their
(17:18):
decision-making processes.
So often to us it seems cut anddried, right, Black and white.
You either do this or you dothat.
Open and shut.
It's easy.
But oh my goodness, If you'veever had the opportunity to
follow a school administratorclosely, even for a day, you
know it is a tough job.
(17:40):
And so by really sitting downand intentionally focusing on
trying to understand their sideof the coin, trying to
understand their challenges, wecan begin to develop a bit of
empathy for their situation, andthen we'll start to really look
(18:01):
toward the reasoning behindtheir decisions.
And that's where we wanna be,that's the frame of mind we
wanna be in, so we can startavoiding these confirmation
biases about our administrators.
Well, there, you know.
You heard what they just said.
It just proves it.
They just don't care.
We wanna avoid that line ofthinking at all costs, because
(18:22):
all it does is breed animosityand breeds contempt between the
two of you, and it doesn'tcreate a good working
relationship for anybody.
And that's not how you wannaspend your days.
That is not the way you wannado it.
Third, in our bias aboutstudents, we have to be really
(18:44):
aware of recognizing diversity.
We have to be very willing andready to acknowledge and
appreciate diversity in ourstudents' backgrounds.
We should be attending culturalevents, we should be engaging
in conversations with studentsthat have backgrounds that are
(19:06):
different from ours and weshould really be making a
conscious effort to learn abouttheir experiences.
Now, on the surface, this feelslike it goes without saying.
Right, it's just one of thecomponents of good counseling.
But how often have you feltintimidated to ask a question
(19:27):
because you felt it might soundsilly or make you look stupid,
and so you just kind of avoidedit.
You just kind of pretend likeyou understood or pretended like
you knew the ins and outs ofsomething, when really you
didn't.
You were just afraid to ask thequestion.
I'll be honest, I've been thereand that's part of my journey
as of late is not being afraidto ask more of those questions
(19:50):
and really express my genuinecuriosity and willingness to
learn about students' culturesthat are different than mine,
and chances are the students aregoing to love that.
They're going to love thechance to teach you about that
Staff members perhaps that havedifferent backgrounds than yours
, are going to jump at thechance to teach you a little bit
(20:14):
about what they believe or howthey grew up or what they
observe in the routines of theiryear.
So let them.
Let them teach you and you willbecome a better person for it.
Challenge your stereotypes andyour preconceptions about
students.
Sometimes we develop astereotype about a student.
(20:37):
We speak to them once or twiceand we think we have them all
figured out.
But if we talk to them a littlemore deeply about their
interests, their dreams or theirchallenges, we really gain a
deeper understanding of whatthey're all about and really
start to appreciate thediversity of personalities on
(20:57):
our campus.
So don't sell yourself short.
Don't just assume because ofthe way a student looks, the way
they speak, the way they dress,that you have them all figured
out, Because I promise you youdon't, you just don't, and you
know that.
You know that, but it's easy toslip into those kinds of biases
(21:18):
.
So that brings me to sharingexperiences, sharing insights
about diversity in studentpopulations.
Join a space where thoseexperiences, challenges or
success stories can all beshared, because once you are
(21:38):
able to engage in these kinds oflearning conversations, we're
going to strengthen ourunderstandings and our abilities
to support every student,regardless of their background.
These kinds of professionalcommunities can also hold a
mirror up to us, to force us tochallenge some of our
assumptions in the best, mostproductive ways.
(22:02):
So seek a quality consultativecommunity that can help you grow
in that way.
Lastly, we need to confront ourbiases about our work or about
our campus as a whole.
Those could be things likedeveloping a more comprehensive
understanding of what's going onat your school.
(22:23):
Sometimes we think we have itall figured out.
We know exactly whateverybody's fears are, what
their stressors are, what theirhopes and dreams for the campus
are, and we find out later thoseweren't entirely accurate.
So make sure that you'reattending school events, you're
showing up at extracurricularactivities and that you're just
(22:44):
present in the day-to-day rhythmof the school.
You're accessible, you'revisible, you're engaging in
things going on on your campus.
That way, you're going to startbreaking down those walls of
bias.
It's a lot harder to hold biasabout other people when you're
face-to-face with them on aregular basis.
(23:04):
Right, and being out and aboutthis way helps you develop a
more nuanced understanding ofthe challenges that are facing
your campus, as well as thesuccesses that that campus is
experiencing and you want toknow all of that, to be able to
be very well-rounded, to be ago-to resource and an ultimate
(23:26):
helper.
Remember, on committees, Becomean integral part of the
decision-making process on yourcampus.
Get in positions where you canreally hear other people's
concerns, or you can really hearother people's insights, so you
can truly understand wherethey're coming from.
That's going to break down alot of walls of bias and then
(23:51):
again, promote that opendialogue.
This doesn't have to be aformal process, doesn't need to
be.
Let's just make an appointmentand sit down and have a dialogue
together.
It doesn't no, it doesn't needto be like that.
In fact, I would recommend thatit not be like that.
But if your staff truly knowsyou and believes that you do
(24:13):
have an open door policy andthat they can come to you and
talk to you, and that you're notgoing to get your feelings hurt
, that you're not going to feelresentful when they reflect your
actions or your words back atyou, you can make a lot of
headway here.
So encourage others to bringyou their questions.
Encourage them to bring youtheir concerns or their
(24:35):
frustrations and be ready tohear those with an open mind and
with a sense of curiositythat's going to help break apart
your blind spots so that youcan really have a full view of
what's going on on your campus.
It is so important, like I said,to remember that our personal
(24:57):
perspectives influence the waythat we see the world.
So if we get stuck in anegative mindset or if we start
to see ourselves as thesevictims right as objects of
manipulation, or sometimes in anopposite way is something more
than what we are.
(25:17):
To be honest with you,sometimes we can see ourselves
as being better than we reallyare.
Things start to go sideways.
So use bias as an opportunityfor reflection and as an
opportunity for growth.
Bus through the limitations ofyour thinking.
(25:39):
Take a hard look at yourthought processes regularly and
make sure you're keeping them incheck so that you can always be
working to grow past them.
You're right.
I hope this helps shape yourperspective of your work as you
are serving students, familiesand staff members on campus.
(26:00):
This week, I'm truly humbled bythe number of folks who are
tuning into the podcastregularly, each and every week.
You have no idea how much thatmeans both to me and to my team.
Before I let you go.
I do want to remind you abouttwo things going on in our
(26:21):
School for School Counselorsworld right now.
Number one is our new yearrestart.
This is a free series designedto help you with the ins and
outs of all the pesky littlenagging to dos that sometimes we
forget about when the schoolsemester gets underway and then
they jump up and bite us laterand we go oh man, I wish I would
(26:41):
have thought about that.
This series will be your guidein getting all of those taken
care of and off your plate.
It's completely free to join.
You can go find out moreinformation at
schoolforschoolcounselorscomslash restart.
And the other big exciting newsis that our Get the Job program
(27:01):
is going to be opening very,very soon.
This is a program that is oftenimitated but never successfully
duplicated.
We are the original interviewstrategy program for school
counselors and we have thetestimonials and the feedback to
prove that it works.
This is not cookie cutteradvice.
(27:21):
This is not a bunch of baloneythat we gathered off Google and
put together to sell you astrategy.
Those crawl all over me andthere's lots of them around,
especially for school counselors.
This is research based.
It has an evidence base behindit and it has hundreds and
hundreds of hours of testing andcollaboration behind it.
(27:44):
It is designed to help you bethe most successful school
counseling candidate that youcan possibly be.
If you want more details on theGet the Job program, you can go
to our websiteschoolforschoolcounselorscom.
Slash get the job.
We'll also have the link herein the episode description if
you wanna go.
Click on that and you can gocheck it out.
(28:05):
We just wanna see you put yourbest foot forward this interview
season.
If you're gonna be looking fora new position, we wanna be
cheering for you and rooting foryou and supporting you every
step of the way.
All right, well, thanks againfrom the bottom of my heart for
joining me for this episode, andkeep listening because there
(28:25):
are more coming your way.
Until then, I hope you have thebest week.
Take care.
Hello school counselor, Welcome back to the
School for School Counselorspodcast.
I'm so glad that you're backhere with me for another episode
, and this week we're going tobe talking about managing your
confirmation bias.
Do you know your blind spots inyour counseling work, in your
(00:20):
work on your campus as a whole,or in your relationships with
your students or coworkers?
How well can you identify thoseblind spots?
Do you know what to do withthem Once you find them?
We're going to talk about allthat coming up in this episode
of the podcast.
I'm Steph Johnson.
I'm your host, as always, afull-time school counselor, just
(00:44):
like you, and I am driven andinvested by the idea of
supporting my colleagues,empowering you and advocating
for the school counseling worldas a whole so that we can better
and more effectively serve thestudents on our campuses.
And I am just tickled to deaththat you're here with me this
(01:04):
week for this episode.
Now, we all carry some uniquebeliefs.
We carry values.
Those things shape who we areand it's natural right.
That's what makes us unique andspecial and different from
everyone else around us.
But as school counselors, it'simportant to remember that those
(01:27):
personal perspectives caninfluence the way we see the
world and when it influences ourworld, it often also influences
the way we see our students,the way we see our
administrators and the way wesee our work as a whole, and so
we have to be really attuned andon the lookout for confirmation
(01:53):
bias.
Now, you might remember,confirmation bias is our
tendency to lean towardinformation that aligns with
things we already know orbelieve.
So, in other words, we're goingto favor information that
confirms our preexisting beliefs, we're going to favor
(02:13):
information that confirms ourown values, and our brains are
immediately going to try todiscount any opposing evidence.
We're going to minimize it,we're going to gloss over it.
Sometimes we don't evenacknowledge it's there, and this
all comes together to createconfirmation bias.
(02:34):
It's important for us, inparticular, to be able to
challenge confirmation bias,because it's imperative for us
to remain open-minded in ourwork and that we're able to make
good decisions and draw goodconclusions in our school
counseling.
So in this episode, we're goingto talk about a few simple ways
(02:58):
that we can navigateconfirmation bias and make sure
that we are growingprofessionally as compassionate
and effective school counselors.
You know, one of the reasonsthat this topic came to mind was
I just wrapped up doing aworkshop with my school for
(03:19):
school counselors, mastermindmembers and we were preparing
for National School CounselingWeek as well as Random Acts of
Kindness Week.
Both of those weeks are comingup in February and so we wanted
to gather our members together.
We wanted to crowdsource someideas for those weeks coming up.
We helped them get thingsplanned and going already on
(03:41):
their books so they don't getsurprised by it at the last
minute and to really maintain anopen mind about the purpose and
the power particularly ofNational School Counseling Week.
You know a lot of ourcolleagues and friends have
already developed biases aboutthis week.
They've already developed somepredetermined ideas about what
(04:05):
National School Counseling Weekshould be.
Perhaps what others on theircampus think of National School
Counseling Week.
Often it's not very flatteringand I see a lot of people draw
the conclusion that others ontheir campus just don't care,
they don't respect them becausethere's not a lot of gratitude
initiatives being aimed at them,that kind of thing.
(04:27):
And it really got me thinkingabout the other types of
confirmation biases that wecarry throughout our day.
Side note.
I just wanna be very clear onthis.
You know, National SchoolCounseling Week not ORS, not
counselors.
There's a difference.
National School Counseling Weekbenefits us best when we view
(04:51):
it as an opportunity foroutreach, for education about
our roles and to really startbuilding bridges, not only with
the people that we work with,but with our students and our
parents.
You might be one that feels likethat shouldn't be necessary,
that we shouldn't be called abomb to do that kind of work,
(05:12):
but whether or not you feel weshould, it's an imperative.
These days, Our roles are sodifferent between states,
between districts and evenbetween campuses.
It's super important that youuncover some of the mystery of
your program on your campus andmake sure that people feel they
understand what your job is,what you're doing all day.
(05:34):
It leaves them less room todevelop biases as well.
All right, so there areprobably four main types of bias
that you can experience as aschool counselor.
Now start researching this andyou'll see you start going down
the rabbit hole pretty quicklyof all the different kinds of
(05:55):
biases that are possible.
But basically, I think we'reprobably looking at four main
types.
Number one you may developbiases about yourself.
It could be something like aself-serving bias, where you
solely attribute gains orimprovements to your own efforts
(06:16):
.
That sounds really it doesreally sound self-serving.
I don't think that's the way weintend it when it happens, it's
just kind of the way itpercolates in our brain.
Things like collaborativebiases when we're working in
groups and we kind of excludeother people's input and tend to
embrace our colleagues, ourcounseling teams, and put more
(06:40):
readily those kinds of things.
We can experience bias regardingour administrators.
We might stereotype them, wemay just make assumptions about
their motivations or their goals.
On campus we might selectivelyremember things about our
administrators that confirm thebiases that we've created about
(07:02):
them in our minds.
Or we may have a negativitybias about them.
They're never going to care,they're never going to
understand, they're never goingto accept me as part of their
team, those kinds of things,instead of really looking at the
potential for change.
So we've got biases aboutourselves, biases about our
(07:22):
administrators, some otherconfirmation biases that we can
develop, our biases about ourstudents, and these to me seem
really dangerous.
Things like expectation biases,where we kind of think that
we've predetermined a student'spath.
Sometimes we have culturalbiases and we make assumptions
(07:45):
based on our own culturalbackground and we don't really
take others' backgrounds intoaccount.
Sometimes we develop a haloeffect with students.
So those are really interesting.
We let some sort of a positivecharacteristic about them
influence our overall perceptionand then we start to miss
things or we start to feel likewe shouldn't have to work on
(08:05):
things that maybe need a littlebit of help.
And then the last big categoryof confirmation bias I think
that can be present is bias justregarding our campus as a whole
or sometimes our work as awhole, Things like affinity bias
, where we favor colleagues thathave backgrounds like ours, who
(08:26):
have work styles like ours orinterests that align with our
interests, and so we kind ofpreclude perspectives from
individuals with other kinds ofdiverse backgrounds.
That's really dangerous.
Perhaps we experience someprojection bias.
There are lots of things thatcan come into play and, like I
(08:47):
said, you can go down a rabbithole with all these different
categories and subcategories ofbias.
But we wanna make this simplethis week, because the point is
we need to be able to recognizethese things, we need to be able
to confront them head on and beable to handle the aftermath of
that, because sometimes it'snot super pleasant, but if we
(09:10):
can do that, it's going to makeus better school counselors,
better at our jobs andultimately better advocates for
students.
So let's take on first ourbiases about ourselves.
We're gonna have to engage in alittle bit of self-reflection
here.
We're gonna have to take a hardlook at our beliefs and our
(09:34):
values and determine what kindsof biases have we developed
about the world because of them?
How might your views influenceyour interactions with students?
How might they limit yourunderstanding and limit your
understandings?
This is really hard to confrontsometimes, but if we can
(09:57):
acknowledge these things, we canopen this door where we can
start to grow and step morefully into our role as a helper
on campus.
We too need to continually bemindful of our thoughts in the
moment, to check in withourselves about what thoughts
(10:19):
and feelings are dominating ourminds when we're working with
students, when we're havingthose heart-to-heart discussions
.
That way we can recognize biasas it starts to creep in.
We can consciously adjust ourperspective and make sure that
we're making decisions or makingsuggestions with fairness and
(10:41):
with equity and mind.
Jumping into professionaldevelopment opportunities that
challenge our perspective orthat broaden our exposure to
other viewpoints really expandsour professional expertise.
So seek out opportunities thatstretch you Don't just think of
(11:02):
it as school counselingprofessional development.
Really become a lifelonglearner.
That may not be professionaltexts, it may not be academic
research journals, it may bethings like reading some good
fiction, reading some goodself-help books, anything that
you can do to really broadenyour perspective about the world
(11:24):
and your place in it.
And then last and I think thisis an important one and it's one
that we don't look at oftenenough but highlighting the
opportunities to seek feedbackfrom colleagues and students.
This one is a hard one becausewe don't want to hear what we
(11:44):
would think of as the bad things.
We don't sometimes want thatconstructive criticism.
We want to hear how awesome weare, what a great impact we've
made, how our role on campus iscelebrated, and sometimes we're
afraid to open ourselves up toany other kinds of feedback.
But if you can be receptive tosome constructive criticism, if
(12:09):
you can encourage those kinds ofopen conversations, genuinely
ask for input and then bereceptive to that, it's only
going to help you grow as aperson.
And as a school counselor, youknow, I say often I tell my
students I'm specially trainednot to get my feelings hurt and
(12:32):
while that is somewhattongue-in-cheek, I think it's
mostly true and I really have tomaintain a particular mindset
in order to make that work.
But I have to remember thatthat feedback isn't designed to
you know, bring me down.
It's not designed to stick aknife in my heart.
It's a reflection of anotherperson's experience and if it's
(12:54):
a less than stellar reflectionon my end, that's my cue.
Everything needs to change andin order to be not only a
responsible but an ethicalschool counselor, I really need
to consider that.
All right, so we've talkedabout holding a mirror up to
ourselves.
We've talked about opening upopportunities to receive some
(13:18):
constructive criticism andreally challenge our own biases
about ourselves.
Now let's talk about our biasestoward our administrators.
Now, I touched on this earlierwhen I was talking about the
National School Counseling Weekdebates, but I think sometimes
we forget that our job isn'tjust supporting students right,
(13:41):
Our job is also building somereally great relationships on
campus so that we caneffectively advocate for
students.
No one's going to be open orreceptive to solutions or
suggestions if we can't maintaina happy and healthy
(14:01):
professional workingrelationship.
So I think we have a few thingswe've got to do here so that we
don't fall into these holds ofbias about our administrators
thinking things like well, theschool counseling program just
isn't important to them.
I mean it shows In the level ofbudget they give me, in the way
that I'm scheduled on campus,in the way that they never have
(14:23):
time for me, on and on and on,and on and on.
And we don't stop to take otherfactors into consideration.
Now, does that mean that allschool administrators have the
best interests of the schoolcounseling program at heart?
Unfortunately no, but we atleast want to approach things in
(14:43):
a positive frame of mind untilwe have direct evidence to the
contrary.
There's a difference betweenbias and evidence.
Do you have the evidence or doyou just have an assumption or a
feeling?
Very important to tease thatout.
First, you've got to have opencommunication between counselors
(15:07):
and administrators.
Some of you are rolling youreyes right now, going there is
absolutely no way on this earththat's ever going to happen.
And it's not because I don'twant it, it's because they won't
.
Let me Ever been in a positionlike that I have.
I've been there.
I know what you're talkingabout.
We do know that when we havethe ability to communicate
(15:27):
openly, we create this spacewhere we can acknowledge and
address our own biases about ouradministrators, and perhaps
they can do the same on theirend.
But if you don't feel like youhave this opportunity.
That means the first step inyour framework is building
situations in which you can bothlearn to know each other, then
(15:50):
to like each other, then totrust each other, so that you
can communicate.
This is a lot like what you doin your school counseling
conversations.
Be honest, sometimes you getstudents or parents in your
office that you don'tparticularly like right off the
bat.
Right, it's just human nature,that's just the way it works.
(16:14):
Some personalities just don'tmesh well with each other right
away.
But you have the tools andexpertise to usually craft those
conversations and direct themin a way where you can have a
productive conversation andperhaps even walk away from it
feeling like you've gained abetter understanding of each
other.
(16:34):
Right, and so we have to do thesame thing with our
administrators, and sometimesthis takes time.
Sometimes, with someadministrators, this takes a lot
of time To the tune of years Tobe able to get them to know you
, then to like you, then totrust you.
But that's okay.
Just remember, all of this isnot all about you.
(16:58):
There are probably otherfactors that have contributed to
this situation, and if you'regonna stick in it for the long
haul.
You've just gotta give it yourbest, most diligent effort to be
able to untangle all of that soopen communication, but also
seek to understand theirperceptions and their
(17:18):
decision-making processes.
So often to us it seems cut anddried, right, Black and white.
You either do this or you dothat.
Open and shut.
It's easy.
But oh my goodness, If you'veever had the opportunity to
follow a school administratorclosely, even for a day, you
know it is a tough job.
(17:40):
And so by really sitting downand intentionally focusing on
trying to understand their sideof the coin, trying to
understand their challenges, wecan begin to develop a bit of
empathy for their situation, andthen we'll start to really look
(18:01):
toward the reasoning behindtheir decisions.
And that's where we wanna be,that's the frame of mind we
wanna be in, so we can startavoiding these confirmation
biases about our administrators.
Well, there, you know.
You heard what they just said.
It just proves it.
They just don't care.
We wanna avoid that line ofthinking at all costs, because
(18:22):
all it does is breed animosityand breeds contempt between the
two of you, and it doesn'tcreate a good working
relationship for anybody.
And that's not how you wannaspend your days.
That is not the way you wannado it.
Third, in our bias aboutstudents, we have to be really
(18:44):
aware of recognizing diversity.
We have to be very willing andready to acknowledge and
appreciate diversity in ourstudents' backgrounds.
We should be attending culturalevents, we should be engaging
in conversations with studentsthat have backgrounds that are
(19:06):
different from ours and weshould really be making a
conscious effort to learn abouttheir experiences.
Now, on the surface, this feelslike it goes without saying.
Right, it's just one of thecomponents of good counseling.
But how often have you feltintimidated to ask a question
(19:27):
because you felt it might soundsilly or make you look stupid,
and so you just kind of avoidedit.
You just kind of pretend likeyou understood or pretended like
you knew the ins and outs ofsomething, when really you
didn't.
You were just afraid to ask thequestion.
I'll be honest, I've been thereand that's part of my journey
as of late is not being afraidto ask more of those questions
(19:50):
and really express my genuinecuriosity and willingness to
learn about students' culturesthat are different than mine,
and chances are the students aregoing to love that.
They're going to love thechance to teach you about that
Staff members perhaps that havedifferent backgrounds than yours
, are going to jump at thechance to teach you a little bit
(20:14):
about what they believe or howthey grew up or what they
observe in the routines of theiryear.
So let them.
Let them teach you and you willbecome a better person for it.
Challenge your stereotypes andyour preconceptions about
students.
Sometimes we develop astereotype about a student.
(20:37):
We speak to them once or twiceand we think we have them all
figured out.
But if we talk to them a littlemore deeply about their
interests, their dreams or theirchallenges, we really gain a
deeper understanding of whatthey're all about and really
start to appreciate thediversity of personalities on
(20:57):
our campus.
So don't sell yourself short.
Don't just assume because ofthe way a student looks, the way
they speak, the way they dress,that you have them all figured
out, Because I promise you youdon't, you just don't, and you
know that.
You know that, but it's easy toslip into those kinds of biases
(21:18):
.
So that brings me to sharingexperiences, sharing insights
about diversity in studentpopulations.
Join a space where thoseexperiences, challenges or
success stories can all beshared, because once you are
(21:38):
able to engage in these kinds oflearning conversations, we're
going to strengthen ourunderstandings and our abilities
to support every student,regardless of their background.
These kinds of professionalcommunities can also hold a
mirror up to us, to force us tochallenge some of our
assumptions in the best, mostproductive ways.
(22:02):
So seek a quality consultativecommunity that can help you grow
in that way.
Lastly, we need to confront ourbiases about our work or about
our campus as a whole.
Those could be things likedeveloping a more comprehensive
understanding of what's going onat your school.
(22:23):
Sometimes we think we have itall figured out.
We know exactly whateverybody's fears are, what
their stressors are, what theirhopes and dreams for the campus
are, and we find out later thoseweren't entirely accurate.
So make sure that you'reattending school events, you're
showing up at extracurricularactivities and that you're just
(22:44):
present in the day-to-day rhythmof the school.
You're accessible, you'revisible, you're engaging in
things going on on your campus.
That way, you're going to startbreaking down those walls of
bias.
It's a lot harder to hold biasabout other people when you're
face-to-face with them on aregular basis.
(23:04):
Right, and being out and aboutthis way helps you develop a
more nuanced understanding ofthe challenges that are facing
your campus, as well as thesuccesses that that campus is
experiencing and you want toknow all of that, to be able to
be very well-rounded, to be ago-to resource and an ultimate
(23:26):
helper.
Remember, on committees, Becomean integral part of the
decision-making process on yourcampus.
Get in positions where you canreally hear other people's
concerns, or you can really hearother people's insights, so you
can truly understand wherethey're coming from.
That's going to break down alot of walls of bias and then
(23:51):
again, promote that opendialogue.
This doesn't have to be aformal process, doesn't need to
be.
Let's just make an appointmentand sit down and have a dialogue
together.
It doesn't no, it doesn't needto be like that.
In fact, I would recommend thatit not be like that.
But if your staff truly knowsyou and believes that you do
(24:13):
have an open door policy andthat they can come to you and
talk to you, and that you're notgoing to get your feelings hurt
, that you're not going to feelresentful when they reflect your
actions or your words back atyou, you can make a lot of
headway here.
So encourage others to bringyou their questions.
Encourage them to bring youtheir concerns or their
(24:35):
frustrations and be ready tohear those with an open mind and
with a sense of curiositythat's going to help break apart
your blind spots so that youcan really have a full view of
what's going on on your campus.
It is so important, like I said,to remember that our personal
(24:57):
perspectives influence the waythat we see the world.
So if we get stuck in anegative mindset or if we start
to see ourselves as thesevictims right as objects of
manipulation, or sometimes in anopposite way is something more
than what we are.
(25:17):
To be honest with you,sometimes we can see ourselves
as being better than we reallyare.
Things start to go sideways.
So use bias as an opportunityfor reflection and as an
opportunity for growth.
Bus through the limitations ofyour thinking.
(25:39):
Take a hard look at yourthought processes regularly and
make sure you're keeping them incheck so that you can always be
working to grow past them.
You're right.
I hope this helps shape yourperspective of your work as you
are serving students, familiesand staff members on campus.
(26:00):
This week, I'm truly humbled bythe number of folks who are
tuning into the podcastregularly, each and every week.
You have no idea how much thatmeans both to me and to my team.
Before I let you go.
I do want to remind you abouttwo things going on in our
(26:21):
School for School Counselorsworld right now.
Number one is our new yearrestart.
This is a free series designedto help you with the ins and
outs of all the pesky littlenagging to dos that sometimes we
forget about when the schoolsemester gets underway and then
they jump up and bite us laterand we go oh man, I wish I would
(26:41):
have thought about that.
This series will be your guidein getting all of those taken
care of and off your plate.
It's completely free to join.
You can go find out moreinformation at
schoolforschoolcounselorscomslash restart.
And the other big exciting newsis that our Get the Job program
(27:01):
is going to be opening very,very soon.
This is a program that is oftenimitated but never successfully
duplicated.
We are the original interviewstrategy program for school
counselors and we have thetestimonials and the feedback to
prove that it works.
This is not cookie cutteradvice.
(27:21):
This is not a bunch of baloneythat we gathered off Google and
put together to sell you astrategy.
Those crawl all over me andthere's lots of them around,
especially for school counselors.
This is research based.
It has an evidence base behindit and it has hundreds and
hundreds of hours of testing andcollaboration behind it.
(27:44):
It is designed to help you bethe most successful school
counseling candidate that youcan possibly be.
If you want more details on theGet the Job program, you can go
to our websiteschoolforschoolcounselorscom.
Slash get the job.
We'll also have the link herein the episode description if
you wanna go.
Click on that and you can gocheck it out.
(28:05):
We just wanna see you put yourbest foot forward this interview
season.
If you're gonna be looking fora new position, we wanna be
cheering for you and rooting foryou and supporting you every
step of the way.
All right, well, thanks againfrom the bottom of my heart for
joining me for this episode, andkeep listening because there
(28:25):
are more coming your way.
Until then, I hope you have thebest week.
Take care.
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