I’m going to come right out and say it. I’m not a fan of surveys and I’m not sure I know anyone that likes taking surveys and yet they remain an important tool in our quest for feedback.
So naturally I did some digging into some psychological “whys” behind my bias in surveys and whether in designing my own, I could glean some tools and tips to sidestep it.
Turns out, there are some fascinating considerations to keep in mind when building a survey worth taking, and one of them is social desirability.
Social desirability bias in survey research is built around the psychological principles of in-group and out-group motivation—most people want to be in the majority on topics of opinion (Grimm, 2010). Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are generally considered positive social actions yet they continue to remain a dicey subject in almost every organization, including schools. Here in Illinois, the state board of education has several mandates requiring the inclusion of multicultural education including but not limited to women’s history, African American history, Asian American history, LGBTQ+ history and more.
So in crafting my survey around the question, how can we implement school-wide multicultural education lessons into our existing curriculum? I made the assumption that teachers are aware of these mandates. What’s unclear to me are the factors that influence whether teachers are or are not incorporating these mandates into their lessons. While I tried to craft questions that didn’t skew answers based on social desirability, I’m not sure it could be avoided with this particular topic. What I hoped to build was a survey that reserved judgement and bias no matter what side of the multicultural education conversation you are on, because it’s only through honest feedback, trust and empathy that we can employ change.
Feel free to take my survey!
References:
Grimm, P. (2010). Social desirability bias. Wiley international encyclopedia of marketing, 2. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444316568.wiem02057
