Key Theme #4 from the Anti-Bias Survey of ACPE Members

In preparation for the 2021 ACPE Annual Conference Creating Room to Breathe, ACPE has identified themes from the Anti-Bias survey of ACPE members. In the following weeks, ACPE will be publishing the key themes that emerged from the Anti-Bias survey results.

Key Theme #4: Microaggressions become abuses of power in settings of power differentials

What seems a natural or inconsequential thing to say can come across to someone else very differently, especially when the person speaking is an educator and the person listening is a student. The asymmetry of power that educators hold is to support and protect the learner in the vulnerability of learning. When we are unaware of the harmful impact of our words, we can do harm, as evidenced in the qualitative comments in our survey.

Many students are afraid to push back because the same educators use the final evaluations to punish these students in writing for perpetuity. Other certified educators witness their peers/colleagues’ questionable behaviors at best and poor self-awareness at least but leave it up to the students to report the offending educators to ACPE. In fact, a particularly egregious educator was well known in a region to be tyrannical and racist and was talked about in whispers by other educators, but never reported by their peers. Further, there is no way to anonymously trigger an ethics investigation further putting students in harm’s way like it or not. Centers can have racist directors who disparage and abuse students and use the CE as a tool to do the same and without the student putting themselves into danger nothing can be done. It is a critical flaw.