Using Mindfulness to Promote Transformative Learning in Implicit Racial Bias Training

Abstract

Implicit bias classes have become a common practice with the aim of creating more inclusive work and learning environments. Such classes are aimed at helping individuals identify unconscious habits of mind and behaviors around race, which can be a disorienting experience. By seeing such classes through the lens of transformative learning theory, the instructor can help students through the disorienting experience with a transformative learning process. Transformative learning is a process of changing perspectives and habits of mind, ultimately resulting in changes in behavior. Recent research around the practice of mindfulness reveals a strong indication that a regular mindfulness practice can aid in helping individuals change habits of mind and behavior. The article provides brief examples of how teaching students about the neuroscience of bias, coupled with leading mindfulness techniques, enhances students’ grasp of concepts around bias to better embed the learning in multiple ways. Mindfulness becomes a tool for helping students develop awareness of their biases and for transforming inherited habits of mind into more positive and inclusive mind-sets.