The Personal Side of Prejudice and Bias

• What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.
• I’ve observed what I would consider to be a lot of prejudice and bias when I was working with the special needs population. I will say that what I observed was that these children are very separated from the “typical” education classrooms. I think the bias lies where the field of education in general doesn't work the same way with these children that they do with the "typical" population. One major difference is that they are often not given similar expectations in terms of what their behavior needs to be and what their educational standards are that they are supposed to be meeting.
• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?
• I think what diminishes the equity is the fact that the expectation is very different. I feel that what would make it more equitable is to create expectations across the board in both types of classrooms that are typical for their developmental stage and not just their age group.
• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?
• Looking at this causes me to feel very frustrated because in working with the special needs population directly, you get to see more of who these children are and what they can do if they are given the expectation and are consistently helped to follow through with these expectations.
• What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?
• I think what would have to change is the educational system. They would have to create standards based on the developmental level of children to make this situation equitable for both parties.