Teachers’ Awareness in Identifying Microaggressive Behaviors within the K-12 Classroom

Microaggression may be seen as a potential problem in schools since administrators and teachers may unintentionally perpetuate policies, beliefs, and ideas that appear unfair to diverse groups of students based on ethnicity, race, and culture due to unconscious or implicit bias. While bullying is known and recognized as an act of violence (Rigby & Smith, 2010; Waasdorp, Pas, Zablotsky, & Bradshaw, 2017) the awareness of microaggression as an abusive behavior is not as well known, recognized, or addressed within schools (Sue, 2010). The movement of microaggression is to bring awareness in how individuals communicate with persons within or outside a diverse community. Social interaction and behaviors of how individuals engage and communicate collectively, in small groups, or one-on-one is learned and can easily be modified if attention is brought to the specific instance and issue. Within the classroom, micro-aggressive behaviors can be the launching pad for in-depth conversations, awareness, and practices to learn appropriate means of communication between diverse populations who make up the school community. To dive deeper into the subject and the ramifications of microaggression, a critical lens is needed in how the topic is addressed within schools. This qualitative exploratory case study investigated how microaggressive behaviors as observed by teachers in the classroom are addressed. This study may bring clarity as to why microaggressive behaviors, if left unchecked by classroom teachers, are occurring, how to recognize such behaviors as acts of deprecation, and suggest strategies of intervention