Do No Harm: Graduate Admissions Letters of Recommendation and Unconscious Bias

Autor:	Brandi L. Newkirk-Turner, Thomas K. Hudson
Rok vydání:	2022
Předmět:	Do no harm Harm 05 social sciences 050301 education 050109 social psychology 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Unconscious bias Psychology 0503 education Social psychology
Zdroj:	Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. 7:463-475
ISSN:	2381-473X 2381-4764
Popis:	Purpose: Faculty members commonly write letters of recommendation (LOR) for students. Although letters can be helpful, they may do more harm if they include language that can negatively bias readers. The purpose of this article is to examine LORs written for Black applicants to speech-language pathology graduate programs for the presence of phrases that may bias readers (PBRs). Method: Using data from our program, we analyzed LORs for evidence of bias. Results: Across the 161 LORs, there were 202 instances of PBRs. The most PBRs were grindstone adjectives and doubt raisers/hedges. PBRs were not related to applicants' GPA, undergraduate institution type, or LOR word length. PBRs were related to admission offers. Conclusions: Results suggest a negative impact of PBRs in LORs written for Black applicants. Implications are discussed and recommendations for writing less-biased LORs are provided.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::3cc9c87f1874f674bfe5394e2a16fa59 https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_persp-20-00117 Zobrazit plný text záznamu