How teachers of color create institutional change

How teachers of color produce critical race talk to advance racially marginalized groups’ educational and humane interests.

Introduction

In a time of increasing public awareness about race, academic institutions are becoming more receptive to conversations on the topic. Previous research illustrates how efforts to avoid speaking about race perpetuate the advancement of racist structures. Simultaneously, research also indicates that teachers of color disproportionately carry the burden of facilitating talks focused on race and racism. As a result, these teachers have to navigate conversations based on their geography, lived experiences, and physical presentation. Teachers who can navigate the power dynamics in their respective work environments while leveraging their identities to move organizational conversations towards more effective critical race talk successfully. 

Josephine H. Pham is an Assistant Professor of Critical Studies in Education at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Much of her research focuses on how teachers of color in K-12 settings navigate their spaces to make their institutions more equitable and just. 

Methods and Findings

The author conducted a two-stage longitudinal study over two years to understand the antiracist actions of six teachers of color in K-12 schools, mainly comprised of students of color. Over the 2016-2017 school year, all six teachers participated in the study’s first stage, which entailed several one-on-one interviews, focus group discussions, and observations to understand their justice-oriented behaviors in institutions. For the second stage, four teachers participated in an ethnographic study focused on their conversations about race. Pham collected 110 hours of video and audio recordings across the study. The author intentionally chose teachers of color with a range of racial identities, ethnic identities, gender identities, years of experience, educational levels, and experience teaching various grade levels and subjects. Additionally, the teachers were located in various geographic contexts within Los Angeles. 

The setting of this study is significant in the author’s analysis; Pham notes that while critical race talk might be more socially accepted in Los Angeles, it still could be contentious as it would be in most parts of the United States. 

The author builds upon previous work in raciolinguistics, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and critical geography to understand how speakers navigate racial dynamics through critical race conversations. Raciolinguistics studies how race is constructed through language and how racial constructs influence language. CRT is an academic and legal field analyzing the relationship between institutionalized racism, resistance efforts, and the interests of dominant social groups. Critical geography examines the role of physical space in power dynamics and inequality. 

Through this work, Pham develops a place-based raciolinguistics, which is both:

1. A theory explaining the norms for interactions that uphold and replicate “white supremacist, colonial, cis-heteropatriarchal normativity in locally specific ways” and 
2. A linguistic, ethnographic hermeneutic to analyze how the significance of race and place are re-developed and changed to amplify racially marginalized people’s educational opportunities. 

Findings

Pham identified three ways that teachers of color advance the educational and humane interests of racially marginalized groups through critical race talk:

1. “Intentionally inviting white discomfort;”; 
2. “Renegotiating embodied tensions of co-producing critical race talk;” and
3. “Purposefully (dis)engaging in critical race talk.”

To highlight these actions and illuminate their impacts, the author delves into an instance where one teacher demonstrates them:

Example

• In naming and pushing back on white supremacy and power dynamics, one teacher, “Lucia,” embraced white participants’ discomfort in a conversation. Lucia’s tactics were shaped by her time in anti-colonial and teacher-led organizing. Within her past racialized experiences with communications, she was accused of being harsh or divisive when discussing race; hence, in this conversation, she took a warm, approachable tone with the primarily white educational leadership team. For instance, she ended many sentences with questions to gain consensus with her white counterparts. She also directly named white supremacy and centered personal critical race talk to upend discourse that avoided talking about race, even when race was central. In one instance, she directly pushed back against the myth of reverse racism. Additionally, she highlighted her solidarity with students of color by grouping herself with them by using the pronoun “we” when highlighting the violence they face. 
  
  Another teacher, “R. Love,” demonstrated how different people engage in critical race talk based on their lived, racialized experiences and status in power structures. As a Black woman, R. Love framed her role as a “caring and credible” speaker to give her the influence to increase Black students’ educational resources and opportunities. As a Black woman, her presence created opportunities for more imaginative educational spaces centering on Blackness. For instance, she gave a presentation within her institution about her experiences and expertise supporting Black boys’ education, during which she was emotionally expressive and moved the audience deeply. In this presentation, she was able to garner responses by displaying her vulnerability about racist experiences she’s witnessed her students undergo; her vulnerability was conveyed through her passionate tone and her willingness to cry in front of others.
  
  Furthermore, she positioned herself as having a status as high as and equal to her peers. She undertook an additional role of teaching one of the few classes in her school that elevated the importance of culture and race. Through her racialized and gendered social positionality and her work in this class, she helped other participants of the study freely express their racial identities and the difficulties they encountered teaching social justice classes in their institutions. 
  
  A third teacher, “Ryan” purposefully engages and disengages in conversations about race. Ryan demonstrated comfort and ease with speaking about race in casual interactions, which he does through channeling his racialized and gendered privileges as an Asian American male teacher in a predominantly Mexican American school. For instance, he challenged another teacher who asked him a racially insensitive question through a joke, which allowed the other teacher to reflect on the effect of the question without feeling attacked. Alternatively, he learned that disengagement could be an effective tool for progressing racial justice with groups of people with diverse ideologies. For instance, when organizing other teachers to be prepared to strike, he disengaged critical race talk to achieve his goal of moving people who are ideologically in the middle. This was an example of disengaging in critical race talk that moved groups towards racially just outcomes. 

Conclusions

The figure below visualizes how racialized speakers within institutions further social change. The blue boxes represent the placed-based and societal contexts the teachers must navigate. 

Through this research, the author demonstrates that teachers’ overall power in driving organizational transformation depends on their power, racial literacy, and social positioning and re-positioning. Pham also illustrated how the teachers’ impact is inextricably tied to identity and space by using the examples of the three teachers. Moreover, further research into the full impacts of affect, emotions, and embodiment is necessary to understand their interconnected effects on critical race talk. 

Understanding school districts’ role in educational change

A survey of existing literature exploring school districts’ roles in educational reform

Introduction

This study examines the role of school districts as institutional actors in systemic educational reform, with a particular focus on increasing student academic achievement and advancing educational equity. Historically, educational reform efforts have concentrated on schools, teachers, and state policies while often overlooking the district’s potential to contribute significantly to reform. In this article, Rorrer, Skrla, and Scheurich argue that districts play a vital role in systemic reform by presenting four interdependent and co-evolving roles necessary for districts to embrace in order to to enhance equity and improve student outcomes. These interdependent and co-evolving roles are (1) providing instructional leadership, (2) reorienting the organization, (3) establishing policy coherence, and (4) maintaining an equity focus.

Andrea K. Rorrer is the Director of the Utah Education Policy Center at the College of Education at the University of Utah and has expertise in school district leadership. Linda Skrla is a Professor Emerita of Educational Administration at Texas A&M University and specializes in educational equity, emphasizing accountability policy and district leadership. James Joseph Scheurich is a Professor in the Urban Education Studies program at Indiana University Indianapolis; Scheurich’s work focuses on schools in urban areas where high populations of children of color reside. 

Methods and Findings

The researchers synthesize existing literature on districts’ roles in educational reform, integrating findings across various studies. The researchers identified four primary roles that are necessary for districts  to play in order to advance equity and improve achievement.

• Role 1: Providing Instructional Leadership – This role involves going beyond administrative functions and actively supporting instructional quality. This involves generating the will and building the capacity to sustain reform efforts across schools. Some examples of this work include demonstrating effective instruction and offering professional development. 
• Role 2: Reorienting the Organization – This role involves aligning organizational structures, policies, and practices to support reform goals, which may include decentralizing decision-making or fostering a culture that promotes equity. Examples of this work are improving processes in an organization and changing the norms, values, and expectations at the district level. 
• Role 3: Establishing Policy Coherence – This role involves serving as mediators between state, federal, and local policies, ensuring that external mandates are integrated with district-specific goals and practices. Examples of this work include aligning resources and policy with intended outcomes. 
• Role 4: Maintaining an Equity Focus – This role involves acknowledging and addressing historical inequities in their systems, foregrounding equity as a central goal in all reform efforts. Examples of this work include acknowledging past inequities for which the district played a role and bringing equity to the foreground. 

The findings demonstrate that these roles are interdependent and must evolve in response to one another. Districts that successfully enact these roles create environments where educational equity can flourish, ensuring that all students have access to high-quality education, regardless of background.

Conclusions

The study concludes that school districts are not passive implementers of external reforms, but rather, they are active institutional actors capable of driving systemic change. By embracing their roles in instructional leadership, organizational realignment, policy coherence, and equity, districts can lead efforts to improve student outcomes and close achievement gaps. The researchers call for future studies to explore the complexity of district reform efforts, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of how these roles interact to produce meaningful, sustained improvements in education.

Reflecting on 40 years of corporate diversity training

Introduction

This study provides a retrospective analysis of corporate diversity training from its inception in the 1960s to 2008, the year this study was published. It explores training’s evolution in response to legislative, social, and business changes. Over time, diversity training moved from a compliance-based approach to one focused on improving workplace relationships and leveraging diversity as a driver of business performance. This paper reviews the historical context of diversity training, provides corresponding case studies from companies like Sodexo and Hewitt Associates, and discusses current trends and challenges in diversity training.

Rohini Anand, the global chief diversity officer at Sodexo, and Mary-Frances Winters, founder of The Winters Group, bring their extensive experience to this analysis. Both are recognized experts in diversity and inclusion, with Anand leading global diversity efforts at Sodexo and Winters specializing in organizational development and diversity consulting.

Methods and Findings

The researchers divide the history of diversity training into several phases, each characterized by shifts in focus and motivation:

• Phase 1: Compliance (1960s–1970s) – Early diversity training focused on compliance with civil rights legislation. The primary objective was to avoid litigation by providing information on anti-discrimination laws and company policies.
• Phase 2: Assimilation (1980s) – As the regulatory environment relaxed, companies focused on assimilating women and people of color into existing corporate cultures, often through programs designed to help these groups adapt rather than changing the corporate culture itself.
• Phase 3: Emergence of Diversity (Late 1980s) – The publication of Workforce 2000 highlighted demographic changes in the workforce, prompting companies to shift from compliance to managing diversity as a business imperative. This phase introduced the concept of diversity as a strategy for business survival.
• Phase 4: Fostering Sensitivity (Late 1980s–1990s) – Diversity training expanded to include all employees, not just women and people of color. However, many training programs were criticized for being too confrontational or superficial, leading to mixed results regarding behavior change and acceptance.
• Phase 5: Business-Driven Diversity (2000s) – The focus shifted to developing diversity as a core business competency, emphasizing inclusion and cultural competence. Companies like Sodexo and Hewitt Associates integrated diversity into their business strategies by using training to enhance leadership skills and improve business outcomes.

Case studies of Sodexo and Hewitt Associates demonstrate different approaches to diversity training. Sodexo, a global food and facilities management company, embedded diversity and inclusion into its culture through continuous learning and leadership accountability. Hewitt Associates, an HR consulting firm, built a foundation of understanding among senior leaders before rolling out diversity training to the broader organization.

Conclusions

Corporate diversity training evolved significantly between 1964 and 2008, from focusing on legal compliance to a business strategy that aims to foster inclusion and enhance performance. While diversity training’s efficacy remains a topic of debate, companies like Sodexo and Hewitt Associates demonstrated that when diversity is integrated into core business strategy, it can drive both employee engagement and business success. 

Understanding the state of faculty of color in academia

 A survey of two decades of literature exploring faculty of color’s experience in academia.

Introduction

Academic institutions endeavor to increase diversity within their faculty as they attempt to better meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations entering an increasingly diverse world. Still, in 2005, people of color comprised only 17% of full-time faculty. Of that 17%, 7.5% were Asian, 5.5% were Black, 3.5% were Latino, and 0.5% were Indigenous Americans. Moreover, only 12% of tenured professors were people of color; 6.5% were Asian, 3% were Black, 2% were Latino, and 0.3% were Indigenous Americans. 

The authors specify three levels of academia in which faculty of color disproportionately face discrimination:

1. “Departmental,” or within academic departments
2. “Institutional,” or within schools
3. “National,” or the more significant macroeconomic conditions of US academia

Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner is an Emeritus Professor at Arizona State University in the division of educational leadership and policy studies, Lincoln Professor of Ethics and Education, and Doctoral Program director for Higher and Postsecondary Education. Juan Carlos González is affiliated with the Division of Urban Leadership and Policy Studies in Education, University of Missouri Kansas City. J. Luke Wood is the president of California State University, Sacramento.

Methods and Findings

To understand the layers of the root of the underrepresentation of faculty of color, the authors reviewed 252 works published between 1988 and 2007. These works include journal articles, dissertations, books, reports, and book chapters. The authors wrote this article to be informative to people in the field. 

Help and difficulties come from all three levels of academia (the departmental, institutional, and national), which means that each level of academia can simultaneously support educators while also being detrimental to their careers. 

Within each level of academia, the authors highlight the help and barriers faculty of color face and recommend interventions to address the barriers directly. Support comes from the departmental and institutional levels. 

There are more mitigating aspects than helpful ones, and they exist at all three levels. Challenges come from the departmental, institutional, and national levels. 

In response, the authors make recommendations relevant to each level of academia. 

• Departmental recommendations are to:
  • Make yearly performance reviews more inclusive for faculty of color. This includes diversifying the processes and criteria for evaluating faculty before and after tenure. 
  • Provide opportunities for faculty to express themselves more authentically as individuals. For example, departments should consider research or writing styles that may not conform to “Western academic standards.”

• Institutional recommendations:
  • Commit to diversity goals
  • Promote leaders who promote diversity. This means designating 

• National recommendations:
  • Provide faculty of color with connections to diverse communities
  • Reduce salary inequities between faculty of color and white faculty

• Departmental and institutional recommendations:
  • Create diversity-centric recruitment, hiring, and retention plans 
  • Increase diversity in the student body and faculty
  • Provide training on handling the challenges faculty of color encounter
  • Provide networking and collaboration opportunities to faculty of color

Conclusions

This research demonstrates the complexities that faculty of color face within academia. Moreover, it outlines the steps that policymakers, institutions, and individuals should take to ameliorate the issues that faculty of color encounter. 

The authors also highlight sources for deeper research, including a literature review of older articles, websites, and videos not included in this study. Furthermore, they mention the following areas for future research:

• More in-depth research on faculty from specific racial groups and faculty women of color
• Research on faculty of color outside of 4-year universities like community colleges and technical schools
• Research into faculty of color with intersectional marginalized identities beyond race
• Research on mentorship outside of the academic settings

How firms improve customer trust through diversity disclosure

An investigation of whether or not firm diversity disclosures help their customers’ perceptions of the firm.

Introduction

In this study,  researchers investigate the impact of disclosing and not disclosing workforce diversity on consumer perceptions, which  is particularly relevant in the current socio-political climate, as companies were increasingly expected to demonstrate their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) following the growth of social movements after George Floyd’s death. As public demand for firm transparency in workforce diversity has intensified, this paper examines the effect of such transparency on customer perceptions of a brand.

Maya Balakrishnan is a Technology and Operations Management doctoral candidate at Harvard Business School. She researches business operations, including how companies can foster trust from consumers through operational change. Jimin Nam is a Marketing doctoral candidate at Harvard Business School. She researches the effects of businesses’ reactions to sociopolitical events on their relationships with customers. Ryan W. Buell is the C.D. Spangler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and he studies companies’ interactions with their customers and how internal operational change affects customer conduct and business performance. 

Methods and Findings

The researchers conducted three study designs with nearly 1,875 participants to understand the effects of disclosing or not disclosing workforce diversity data. 

• Study 1: Measuring consumers’ perceptions about a company as a result of its overall workforce diversity disclosures
• Study 2: Measuring consumers’ perceptions about a company as a result of its disaggregated workforce diversity disclosures (e.g., measuring leadership diversity vs. workforce diversity)
• Study 3: Testing whether higher perceived commitment to DEI initiatives is a causal mechanism for how disclosing workforce diversity improves attitudes about brands. 

Diversity data can be found within EEO-1 forms, which detail the demographic breakdown of workforces. Companies with over 100 employees are required to submit these forms to the federal government. Typically, these forms are kept confidential by the federal government; therefore public disclosure of this data would be atypical  business practice. 

The study utilized a series of controlled experiments with U.S. participants who were presented with scenarios in which companies either disclosed or withheld their workforce diversity data. Participants were randomly assigned to different conditions that varied based on the level of transparency about the company’s diversity. These conditions included complete disclosure, partial disclosure, and non-disclosure of diversity statistics. Researchers collected data on participants’ attitudes towards each company based on their perceived commitment to DEI and overall brand perception.

The findings were robust to demographic and attitudinal controls across various experimental setups: transparency about workforce diversity invariably led to more favorable consumer perceptions. This was consistent even when the disclosed diversity data showed significant racial disparities within the companies. Interestingly, the positive effect of disclosure on consumer attitudes was observed and sustained regardless of the diversity level presented, which indicates that consumers value transparency over the specifics of the data disclosed. This suggests that the act of disclosing itself carries more weight in shaping consumer attitudes than the actual contents of the diversity data.

Conclusions

The researchers find that openly sharing diversity data can only improve how customers perceive a company. This positive effect on brand attitude underscores the importance of transparency in corporate DEI practices. Companies gain consumer trust and brand loyalty by being forthcoming about their workforce diversity, which in turn supports broader social accountability and progress towards inclusive practices.

Linking psychological and educational outcomes for university students

Introduction

University students’ sense of belonging is increasingly recognized for its impact on their retention, motivation, and enjoyment. The psychological need for belonging, a concept central to Baumeister and Leary’s theories and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, facilitates social integration in addition to academic engagement and success. This research highlights the critical role of belonging in supporting student persistence across academic, social, and emotional dimensions within university settings.

Megan Louise Parker is a lecturer at the Southern Cross University; her work centers on improving student engagement and inclusion. Royce Willis is also a lecturer at Southern Cross University whose work focuses on environmental and educational psychology. Lastly, Johanna Elizabeth Nieuwoudt is a senior lecturer at Southern Cross University. Her research focuses on increasing student success, particularly for students from diverse backgrounds, in higher education settings; Nieuwoudt specializes in curriculum design and delivery.

Methods and Findings

Deploying a mixed-methods study approach, the research team utilized a questionnaire to explore the relationship between students’ sense of belonging and their academic persistence and satisfaction. 578 Australian university students were included in the study. Using this sample, the study reveals that first-generation university students experience lower levels of belonging compared to their peers. This lower sense of belonging can have a negative effect on their academic engagement and is associated with a lower likelihood of completing their studies. Interestingly, the researchers found similar patterns between first generation students and students who had only one parent attend university. 

The researchers explored a broad set of demographics, including year in school and first-generation in university status.

The survey responses indicate a clear link between a strong sense of belonging and enhanced student motivation and enjoyment, which in turn correlates with higher academic achievement and retention rates. Conversely, students who frequently considered leaving their university reported significantly lower levels of belonging, which underscores the importance of fostering inclusive, supportive learning environments that cater to diverse student backgrounds.

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that a sense of belonging plays a critical role in enhancing student retention and academic success, especially for first generation students. It demonstrates that universities should adopt targeted strategies to nurture this sense of belonging, particularly among first-generation students, to promote not only academic success but also psychological well-being and satisfaction. The insights provided by this research are important for informing policies and practices aimed at improving student engagement and reducing dropout rates in higher education.

White coworkers’ negative impacts on Black women’s careers

Understanding the negative peer effects of white coworkers on Black women.

Introduction

Studies aiming to understand the under-representation of people of color in high-earning positions typically focus on factors existing before hiring, like biases in the hiring process or pipeline problems. This paper highlights that while hiring is essential to increase diversity, promotion and retention are critical as well. Therefore, the authors focus on coworkers’ impacts on the career trajectories of their peers in this study.
Elizabeth Linos is the Emma Bloomberg Associate Professor for public policy and management and Faculty Director of The People Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Sanaz Mobasseri is an Assistant Professor of management and organizations at the Boston University Questrom School of Business, and Affiliated Scholar at The People Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Nina Roussille is an Assistant Professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Affiliated Scholar at The People Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Methods and Findings

To investigate peer effects, the authors analyzed the professional trajectories of 9,037 inexperienced new hires across seven years. They explore how having more white coworkers affects the promotion and retention of Black, Asian, and Latinx employees in high-paying professions. The authors made their target population early careerists as they understand the effects of early career outcomes on career trajectory. Even more, the authors focused on high-paying jobs in this study due to the disproportionate number of white employees in these spaces; Black women are the only group of workers who experience higher turnover and lower promotion rates as a result of the racial composition of their peers. A 14 percentage point increase in the share of white coworkers is associated with a 10.6 percentage point increase in Black women’s turnover. Black and white women have the largest turnover gap at 8.9 percentage points. 

Relative to their white counterparts, Black employees as a whole are 32% more likely to turnover in two years and 26% less likely to be promoted within 2.5 years of their hire date; this finding is both statistically and economically significant. Asian and Latinx employees also turn over at higher rates–10% and 3%, respectively–and receive promotions at a lower rate relative to white peers but at smaller, statistically insignificant rates. 

The authors examine three possible causal explanations for the differential outcomes of Black women in the workplace: 

• Assignment of responsibilities
  “One potential pathway through which the share of initial White coworkers may shape Black women’s career outcomes is by influencing characteristics of subsequent project portfolios… For instance, after initially working with a greater share of White coworkers, Black employees may not receive subsequent opportunities to work on enough projects, work on enough high priority projects, or may work on too many low priority projects to achieve long-term success at the firm.”
• Participation in projects
  “Black employees’ initial team experiences with a greater share of White coworkers may diminish their sense of belonging in later project teams, increase their efforts to manage their racial identity to make their White coworkers comfortable, dilute their motivation to participate, and negatively impact their satisfaction with their work, team, and supervisors.”
• Performance reviews
  “Black women who initially work with a greater share of White coworkers may receive lower performance evaluations, which in turn, influence their likelihood of turnover and promotion.” A 2.4 percentage point decrease in Black women’s performance reviews was associated with a 14 percentage point increase in white employees.

Conclusions

This paper analyzes peer effects in the workplace through an intersectional lens while highlighting the limitations of ongoing diversity efforts of focusing solely on recruitment. The authors call for more research on peer effects at the early stages of one’s career to understand the longer-term inequities people face. Moreover, they push for more analysis and investigation into peer-driven staffing and promotion models that may perpetuate inequality.

Understanding the effects of implicit racial bias on medical students

An overview of implicit racial bias in medical education.

Introduction

The field of research studying implicit racial bias in the healthcare and medical sectors is continuing to grow. While there is significant research examining implicit bias among healthcare professionals, the field has yet to produce many studies focusing on the specific effects on medical students experiencing that bias. 

Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander representation within the medical field remain lower than the general population, which ultimately results in adverse patient experiences and health outcomes for those minoritized patient groups.  

The authors offer three primary justifications for the importance of diving deeper into the role of implicit racial bias in medical education, citing the negative impact of implicit bias on:

1. Minoritized students’ mental health and academic performance,
2. Professional development of qualified minority healthcare professionals, and
3. Perpetuation of continued racial inequities in health outcomes. 

Olivia Rochelle Joseph is a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds School of Psychology. Stuart W. Flint is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds School of Psychology. Rianna Raymond-Williams is a PhD candidate at the Glasgow Caledonian University School of Health and Life Sciences. Rossby Awadzi is a medical doctor for the United Kingdom National Health Service. Judith Johnson is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds School of Psychology.

Methods and Findings

The authors begin with a narrative literature review of existing research published between 1995 and 2021. This covers the effects of implicit racial bias on medical education, contributors to bias, and possible solutions. 

Key findings on the causes and effects of implicit racial bias:

• Students’ implicit racial biases are consistent over time and may increase with healthcare education. Yet, longitudinal studies specifically assessing healthcare students’ implicit racial bias are extremely limited, which makes it challenging to understand the perceptions and effects of implicit racial bias across time or geographies.
• Peers, educators, clinical environments, and educational environments were all identified as sources of implicit racial bias within the medical education system. 
• Minoritized students are likely affected by interactions with other healthcare students and educators whose biases reflect those of the general population.  In turn, these students are victims of negative stereotypes, which leads to them altering their behaviors to counter negative stereotypes and enduring heightened pressure to demonstrate academic abilities. 
• Implicit racial biases shape educators’ lecture materials, clinical assessments, recommendation letters, and award distribution.
• Senior healthcare professionals propagate unconscious biases, which also leads to students of color’s disproportionate stress relative to their white peers. As a result, minoritized students report lower levels of social support, harmful educational environments, and higher rates of racial discrimination as a result of their race.

Effective interventions to address implicit racial bias in healthcare education include:

• Raise awareness of implicit racial bias
  “On an institutional level, recommended interventions include developing a commitment to auditing current practices and processes to identify and eliminate biased language, ideology, and misrepresentations of race, allocation of adequate resources to build capacity amongst staff, enforcement of accountability, and implementing transparent reporting systems for students and faculty to report experiences of bias.”
• Teaching bias mitigation strategies
  “At the organizational level, the author proposed the development of an inclusion strategy to show commitment to reducing bias, from hiring and retaining diverse faculty to admissions and assessment committees.”
• Reduce misrepresentation of race in the curriculum
  The authors highlight a successful implementation of a multi-stage approach comprised of “asking first-year medical students to engage with materials about implicit bias (e.g., books and film), encouraging students to take the IAT to identify personal biases, and engaging in open discussions with peers and faculty.”
• Organizational commitment to recruit and retain diverse staff
  The authors point to a study recommending “assessing the use of language in recruitment materials, considering where job opportunities are advertised, improving faculty reviewing processes to recognize talent within the diverse staff and provide clear information, mentoring, and support regarding formal processes for promotion.” They add that it is equally important to implement an effective inclusion strategy along with efforts to increase diversity.
• Creating trusting spaces
  “Many studies indicate the importance of informal networks and support groups and suggest faculty should help students to benefit from interracial communication by allocating diverse peers for group work.”

Conclusions

The authors highlight that medical students experience the effects of implicit racial bias, but the effects remain unclear. Hence, they conclude that more research should be conducted into the specific consequences of implicit bias on the well-being and academic progression of medical students of color. The authors also recommend conducting more longitudinal studies to understand the effects of different interventions and techniques across time and place. Lastly, they highlight the need for both interventions that target various contributing factors of racial bias and high-quality corresponding studies that assess the efficacy of these interventions.