A Descriptive Case Study Approach To Understanding ‘warm Demanding’: Evidence From Public School Teachers Dissertations Example

Concept Paper

Graduate Faculty of the School of Education
Requirements for the Degree of
Belinda J. Haye
Prescott Valley, Arizona

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

Statement of the Problem 2
Purpose of the Study 4
Research Questions 4
Coding and Theoretical Framework 5
Definition of Key Terms 6
Chapter 2: Literature Review 8
Summary 12
Chapter 3: Methodology 13
Population 13
Procedure 14

References 15

Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography 20
Chapter 1: Introduction
One of the goals of educational institution is the development of “warm demanding,” an educational environment in which the educational, professional exhibits a warm, but demanding presence in the classroom (Bondy et al., 2007). Current research suggests that there is a distinct overlap between the success of students in a classroom and an instructor’s ability to facilitate self-efficacy in the environment itself (Bandura, 1977). The identification and application of a warm demanding attitude in teacher orientation has been linked to academic growths and successes; particularly in urban academic settings (Adkins-Coleman, 2010).
The “warm demander” approach to learning is believed to be effective in a wide range of classrooms with a wide range of learning styles (Shevalier & McKenzie, 2012). Much of the research that has been completed on this topic has been focused on the urban academic setting. In the warm demanding classroom, instructors set boundaries for the students, which is something that is reflected repeatedly during the academic day. This fosters a mentoring environment and a focus on self-efficacy (Carpenter Ford & Sassi, 2012).
The idea of the “warm demanding” approach to teaching is commonly associated with African American teachers in an urban school environment (Ford & Sassi, 2014). These instructors balance the needs for hard limits and respect of students with a more nuanced approach to authority (Ford & Sassi, 2014). There are a number of challenges commonly associated with cross-racial classrooms. A perfect example is one where the instructor is white and the rest of the classroom is some other racial group. Mismatches between the authority figure teaching style and the needs of the classroom can lead to underachievement by students (Adkins-Coleman, 2010).
There is a very real need for a focus on self-efficacy in mathematics study (Usher & Pajares, 2007). Research suggests that mathematics and science are two of the areas where the achievement gap is the largest. Shrinking the achievement gap between students of different races would be entirely possible if there was a better focus on classroom dynamics (Bondy et al., 2007). In the urban classroom, a focus on warm demandingness is seen as empowering to the students. This can help reduce the academic achievement gap that exists between urban and suburban schools (Ford & Sassi, 2014). There are ways to narrow the achievement gap. Kaniuka (2011) suggests that the educator present in the classroom is significantly involved in the success of non-White students in the urban classroom (Kaniuka, 2011). In addition to warm demandingness of the instructor, Kaniuka (2011) found that a small-school setting with rigorous classroom expectations significantly shrunk the academic achievement gap for students. This was seen in a case study about a single disadvantaged school (Kaniuka, 2011). Narrowing the achievement gap and raising Average Yearly Progress (AYP) through instructor presence has been a long-term goal of schools around the United States; especially in science and math literacy (Usher & Pajares, 2007).
Statement of the Problem
Since the adoption of the No Child Left behind Policy, schools have placed a greater focus on mathematics and reading instruction (Guisbond et al., 2012; Durlak, 2007; Hursh, 2007). Yet, despite this intent focus rendered by teachers, there exists a great debate concerning the effectiveness of the policy. For a lot of experts, rather than providing a wide and varied curriculum, the No Child Left behind Policy has forced the educational institutions to narrow down the curriculum (Guisbond et al., 2012). After a decade, the academic performance index (API) dropped for the first time in 2013 (Baron, 2013; Fry, 2013). The percentage of the (API) dropped from 53% to 51% (Baron, 2013). Milsom (2015) reported the underperformance of many sophomores in the United States is largely due to the educational environment fostered by several schools in the country. There are several factors attributed to the so-called disengagement of students. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following: long breaks, lack of support and overwhelming workloads (Milsom, 2015). In other universities, it is likely that the reasons for the decline are not fully known.
The literature suggests the significance of having teachers who are warm and demanding (Bondy, Ross, Hambacher, & Acosta, 2013; Bonner, 2014; Ford & Sassi, 2014; Houchen, 2013; Ross, Bondy, Gallingane, & Hambacher, 2008; Xu, Coats, & Davidson, 2012). Moreover, teachers with more experience tend to be better warm demanders (Bondy, 2007; Ware, 2006). An authoritative form of teaching style is said to work best in pushing the students to improve their performance. There is some preliminary evidence that warm demanding might be a factor in the decline in student academic yearly progress (Bondy, 2013; Bondy, 2007). One aspect of the local problem is that the behavioral details of successful warm demanding are not well-known; because there is no Professional Learning Community or other formal means of disseminating the knowledge and orientations of more experienced teachers to less experienced teacher (Bondy, 2013; Bondy, 2007). Gathering details of successful teachers’ warm demanding behaviors can address this aspect of the problem. The second aspect of the local problem is that less experienced teachers might lack self-efficacy (Kass, 2002), as a basis from which to adopt warm demanding (Bondy, 2013). A teacher with high self-efficacy knows how to apply warm demanding approach in the classroom. Learning how successful teachers build and sustain the efficacy around warm demanding is a manner of addressing this aspect of the problem.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this qualitative study is to (a) increase understanding of the phenomenon of warm demanding, as enacted by successful and experienced teachers at the research site and (b) describe ways in which a professional learning community and other means could be used to assist less-experienced teachers. The first goal is designed to allow for an effective pattern that can be utilized and transcribed through a module that is to be disseminated as part of an instructor’s teaching handbook. The experience of these successful teachers classified as good warm demanders will be analyzed through descriptive case study. It will follow a proper method of relaying the information that will be formulated from the analysis so that the phenomenon will be effectively taught to inexperienced teachers.
Research Questions
For the purpose of this study, the proponent has developed series of questions which will serve as guide to facilitate the course of the discussion. These include:
Q1. How do successful teachers cultivate warmth in the classroom?
Q2. How do successful teachers cultivate demandingness in the classroom?
Q3. How do successful teachers cultivate a mixture of warmth and demanding in the classroom?
Q4. How does warm demanding influence positive academic outcomes for students?
Q5. How can the orientation of warm demanding be conveyed to other teachers?
Q6. How do successful warm demanders build self-efficacy for themselves?
Coding and Theoretical Framework
Since this study will utilize a qualitative research methodology through a phenomenological study, the proponent would adapt a case study approach. Hypothesis are not exactly a part of a qualitative research but for the purpose of evaluation and testing, the proponent will use a coding approach to validate the result. The proponent of this study believe that efficiency and effectiveness of teaching approach relies on the competencies of the instructor in creating a teaching and learning environment that fosters openness and dynamic interaction not restricted by any social, political or cultural boundaries. To allow for such phenomenon to exist in the classroom the teacher should command authority inside the classroom. This authority will demand students to comply with the academic requisites necessary for learning thereby overcoming the common challenges experience in a typical classroom setting. In addition, fostering a warm demanding academic environment will allow students to personally overcome their personal issues as far as learning is concerned.
Definition of Key Terms
For the purpose of this study, the proponent decided to adapt a working terminologies that would guide the readers in understanding the content of the study. For better understanding and for a more suited application, the proponent decided to use both objective and subjective definition for the terminologies used in this paper.
Success. From within the context of this study, the proponent defines success as the effectiveness of the warm demanding approach in assisting teachers manage the teaching-learning process as indicated by the student’s improved performance in Math and Sciences.
Cultural Responsiveness. In the domain of pedagogy, cultural responsiveness is defined as the set of ways in which a teacher can alter aspects of pedagogy, communication, classroom management, and other factors to better align with the cultural needs and expectations of students (Bonner & Adams, 2012).
Galatea Effect. The Galatea Effect is defined as the tendency of a student to achieve at a higher level when encouraged by a teacher and to achieve at a lower level when not encouraged by a teacher (McNatt & Judge, 2004; Rowe & O'Brien, 2002).
Self-Efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as a belief in the ability to succeed in a particular behavior (Bandura, 1977; Bandura 1994; Bandura 1997; Bandura 2000; Bandura, Adams, & Beyer, 1977).
PLC. A professional learning community is defined as a group of teachers, sometimes including administrators and other non-teaching personnel, who meet regularly in order to share best practices (Tang & Lam, 2014).
Warm Demanding. Warm demanding is defined as a behavioral orientation in which teachers are able to convey both care and a desire for academic rigor and performance to their students (Bondy et al., 2013).
Chapter 2: Literature Review
There is a large body of literature, both recent and seminal, on warm demanding (Bondy et al., 2013; Bonner, 2014; Deng, Lin, & Lo, 2012; Ford & Sassi, 2014; Houchen, 2013; Jackson, Sealey-Ruiz, & Watson, 2014; McNatt & Judge, 2004; Ross et al., 2008; Rowe & O'Brien, 2002; Salkovsky & Romi, 2015; Xu et al., 2012). There are also many ways of engaging this body of literature. One appropriate means of structuring a literature review on warm demanding, is to proceed from (a) an overview of the theoretical basis for warm demanding to, (b) a discussion and analysis of empirical studies on warm demanding, leading to (c) an identification of both the gaps in the literature and the ways in which empirical findings have affirmed underlying theories of student success.
There is a close connection between the discussion of theory and the discussion of empirical findings in the literature review. There is already a general consensus that warm demanding is a highly successful classroom orientation (Bondy et al., 2013; Bonner, 2014; Deng, Lin, & Lo, 2012; Ford & Sassi, 2014; Houchen, 2013; McNatt & Judge, 2004; Ross et al., 2008; Rowe & O'Brien, 2002; Xu et al., 2012). However, one of the most pressing open questions in the literature is how teachers can become warm demanders.
The roots of the warm demanding theory lie in the 1960s-era discovery of the so-called Galatea effect, in which students were found to live up or live down to the expectations of their teachers (McNatt & Judge, 2004; Rowe & O'Brien, 2002). Subsequent empirical research demonstrated that teachers’ beliefs about the capacities of their students are, to some extent, self-fulfilling (McNatt & Judge, 2004; Rowe & O'Brien, 2002). This empirical finding confirmed what teachers and theorists had argued for a long time, namely that teachers’ positive orientation towards students is a prime determining factor in their academic success (Ladson-Billings, 1999). Warmth is one name given to this positive orientation; it comprises belief, encouragement, care, trust, and related emotions and orientations (Bondy et al., 2013).
Other empirical studies identified teacher demanding as an important factor in student success (Bondy et al., 2013). However, the demanding orientation was found to have hard limits. Teachers who were too demanding simply alienated their students, who either overtly or covertly rebelled against teachers’ expectations. Subsequent research combined the themes of warmth and demanding and noted that the combination of these two orientations was a far more likely predictor of student success.
There is thus a consensus among educational scholars that successful teachers manage to combine two distinct attitudes, warmth and demandingness (Bondy et al., 2013; Bonner, 2014; Davis et al., 2011; Ford & Sassi, 2014; Houchen, 2013; Ross et al., 2008; Rowe & O'Brien, 2002; Shevalier & McKenzie, 2012; Xu et al., 2012). Teachers who are warm but do not ask their students to push for achievement are often unable to motivate students to work harder inside and outside the classroom. Teachers who are demanding but not warm can alienate students. However, teachers who can combine the orientations of warmth and demandingness give students the combination of trust, motivation, support, and challenge that are associated with high academic achievement.
Despite the consensus in the academic literature about the success of warm demanding as a teacher orientation, there are few practical guides that can help teachers to understand what this phenomenon is, much less to implement it. One reason for this difficulty is that warmth and demandingness are both context-specific; in other words, the behaviors that seem warm and demanding to students depend greatly on the socioeconomic, cultural, and academic circumstances of those students (Ford & Sassi, 2014). Identifying and learning from successful warm demanders in a given setting is therefore an appropriate means of helping peer teachers understand how they, too, can become warm demanders in the classroom. The knowledge generated by the student of warm demanders can inform the content of a professional learning community, provide insight to administrators, and offer a template to teachers who are struggling with how best to adopt classroom orientations that are likely to engage their students.
Based on the empirical articles analyzed in this literature review, the list of behaviors associated with successful warm demanding can be easily conveyed. The true challenge lies not in the identification of what constitutes warm demanding, but rather in the identification of strategies that can allow teachers to adopt warm demanding within their own contexts. One of the points of consensus in the literature (Bondy et al., 2013; Bonner, 2014; Ford & Sassi, 2014; Houchen, 2013; Ross et al., 2008; Xu et al., 2012) is that teachers possess the capability of being warm demanders; the combination of education, pre-service training, and other factors in the standard process of preparing a teacher gives all teachers the tools they need to be warm demanders. If so, then what matters most in the adoption of warm demanding might not be fundamental skill-building but rather the identification of ways to enable teachers to exercise the skills they have, such as through the generation of self-efficacy.
One of the main points of interest in Bondy et al.’s (2013) article was that teachers with less than a year of experience, and asked to succeed in a cross-cultural setting, were in fact able to do so because they believed in their ability to be warm demanders. For these teachers, warm demanding was not a difficult orientation to understand, and it did not require them to devote time to the building of skills that they did not possess. Rather, to use the term Bandura (1997) employed in his discussion of self-efficacy theory, what the teachers in Bondy et al.’s study possessed was the ability to orchestrate their existing skills, an ability that was rooted in their belief. The same kind of findings were obtained by other scholars (Bonner, 2014; Bonner & Adams, 2012; Davis et al., 2011; Ford & Sassi, 2014) whose work was consulted in this literature review.
Understood from the theoretical perspective of self-efficacy theory, one of the key gaps in the literature is the lack of discussion of how teachers can build and sustain self-efficacy around various concepts and applications of the warm demanding orientation. The literature contains numerous details about the specific behaviors that comprise warm demanding, but there is comparatively less information on the topic of how teachers can come to believe in their ability to be warm demanders. Given the prominence of self-efficacy in the studies consulted in this literature review, this gap is an important one; teachers need to not only know more about the components of warm demanding but also about how to believe in their ability to enact these behaviors. With this literature gap in mind, Chapter 3 contains a description and defense of a descriptive phenomenological method for (a) identifying the warm demanding behaviors of successful, experienced teachers at the local research site; (b) identifying how such teachers are able to build and sustain self-efficacy around warm demanding; and (c) exploring how the knowledge achieved from (a) and (b) can be disseminated to other teachers, primarily through a professional learning community (PLC).
Summary
The warm demanding teacher recognizes the student cultural differences that may have a potential effect on their ability to successfully learn the material, which is being presented to them in the classroom. By acknowledging these differences and attempting to close the gap in perspectives; which arise from them, the warm demanding teacher is better able to relate the important learning objectives of the students in ways they can more easily understand and interpret within the framework of their existing knowledge base.
Caring about the student background is the first element. Secondly, the teacher approaches the students with the expectation that they can and will learn the lessons at hand. It is a no-excuses style of demanding positive results from the class. It is the complex interaction between the warmth of caring about their cultural differences combined with the insistence that the students are capable of mastering the material being presented to them, which gives this style of teaching its name. Warm demanding instruction is culturally relevant, critically caring and authoritative. Teachers take the philosophy that children’s lives can be improved through good education, and they take a personal level of responsibility for providing that education. This goal will motivate the teaching style, control the decision making process and practices utilized in the classroom. Teachers seeking to adopt the warm demander orientation; a proposed solution for the problem of declining academic achievement affecting the research site, require some form of guidance. The conclusion of the literature review is that self-efficacy can give teachers a template for adopting the behaviors that are most commonly identified with warm demanding.
Chapter 3: Methodology
The proponent of this study intends to use a qualitative methodology using phenomenological approach. This approach is preferred because of its ability to provide an in-depth analysis that involves the study of human behavior and the factors affecting the behavior. Qualitative researches aims to draw inferences base on the particular case presented and used in the study for extensive and comprehensive analysis (Silverman, 2011). However, unlike the quantitative methodology, qualitative approach do away with the use of statistic and rely on inferences made from observations and critical analysis. This study entitled A Descriptive Case Study Approach to Understanding Warm Demanding: Evidence from Public School Teachers will adapt a phenomenological study that is supported by a case study specifically moderated and observed by the proponent.
Population
This study entitled A Descriptive Case Study Approach to Understanding ‘Warm demanding’: Evidence from Public School Teachers is designed to understand how teachers in public schools adapt the warm demanding approach to fostering effective and efficient methodology in fostering teaching-learning process. For this particular case study, the proponent will observe 10 classes from selected public schools. The classes will be on Math and Sciences.
The selected population will be divided into two—the controlled group and experimental group. The experiment group will adapt a “warm demanding approach to education” while the controlled group will adapt the traditional relax environment. For the purpose of establishing a structure the proponent will adapt a Montessori Style of educational system in which the students are free to express themselves and conduct their own approach to learning which is opposite to the warm demanding approach.
Procedure
Each of the classes selected for the study will be evaluated base on how the instructor applies his or her authority over the students. The behavior of the students will be taken into consideration as well as their performance in the said classes. The responsiveness of the students to the applied authority as explained in the warm demanding approach shall be recorded.
The success of the warm demanding approach can be analyzed based on the ability of the teacher to motivate the students to comply and participate in the discussion and activities initiated during class. In addition, the students’ performance will also be taken in to consideration. Considering that the proponent will adapt a case study methodology, the class participating in the study will have a week to use the said system.
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Tang, E., & Lam, C. (2014). Building an effective online learning community (OLC) in blog-based teaching portfolios. The Internet and higher education, 20, 79-85.
Theron, L. C. (2013). Black students’ recollections of pathways to resilience: Lessons for school psychologists. School Psychology International, 34(5), 527-539. doi: 10.1177/0143034312472762
Torff, B. (2014). Folk belief theory, the rigor gap, and the achievement gap. The Educational Forum, 78(2), 174-189. doi: 10.1080/00131725.2013.878424
Usher, E., & Pajares, F. (2006). Sources of academic and self-regulatory efficacy beliefs of entering middle school students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 31(2), 125-141.
Usher, E., & Pajares, F. (2009). Sources of self-efficacy in mathematics: A validation study. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34(1), 89-101. doi: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.09.002
Xu, J. Z., Coats, L. T., & Davidson, M. L. (2012). Making science homework work: The perspectives of exemplary African American science teachers. TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD, 114(7), 1.
Yeo, G. B., & Neal, A. (2006). An examination of the dynamic relationship between self-efficacy and performance across levels of analysis and levels of specificity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(5), 1088-1101. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1088
Appendix A: Annotated Bibliography
Abrantes, J. L., Seabra, C., & Lages, L.F. (2007). Sampling "hard to reach" populations in qualitative research: The case of incarcerated youth. Qualitative Social Work, 60, 960-964.
This article discusses the difficulty of including certain groups of individuals in research studies. This study pertains to my research, because the individuals analyzed reveal a pattern of becoming positively impacted by innovative and highly creative teaching methods. Thus; the importance of including rarely analyzed populations in such studies is obviously paramount to the inclusivity and efficacy of the study.
Achinstein, B., & Ogawa, R. T. (2012). New teachers of color and culturally responsive teaching in an era of educational accountability: Caught in a double bind. Journal of educational change, 13(1), 1-39.
This study discusses the difficulty teachers find in attempting to reach students of color and to motivate them in an era where tests rule the day and determine the educational success or failure of an institution. It then indicates the way in which student backgrounds; resembles teacher backgrounds; thus causing empathy from teacher influenced external forces not to give in to this sort of sentimental thinking. Rather than allow themselves to be "swayed by emotion," these teachers may deliberately resist the messages encoded in their own emotions. This leaves students in need stranded in an educational setting where even those teachers most able to sympathize with them do not, deliberately, for fear of losing their own jobs or being derided among their peers.
Adkins-Coleman, T. A. (2010). "I'm not afraid to come into your world": Case studies of teachers facilitating engagement in urban high school English classrooms. The Journal of Negro Education, 79(1), 41-53.
This study reveals the necessity of teacher courage in entering spaces stereotypically believed to be dangerous or unwelcoming to them. It highlights the importance of encouraging well-meaning liberal teachers from all walks of life and backgrounds to step into impoverished or primarily students-of-color classrooms. This article indicates that the most expedient route to educational success for both teachers and students is to facilitate effective relationships between those willing to be brave. This courage is so often met with welcome rather than derision supports my theory of the value of kindness in this profession; and as a bridge-building factor in these spaces.
Anderson, E. (2012). Reflections on the "Black-White achievement gap". Journal of School Psychology, 50(5), 593-597. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2012.08.007
This article discusses the manner in which black students are presented with obstacles in their learning processes; which white students do not face. It highlights the many reasons this is the case; including facing stereotype-concretizing pressures from teachers, as well as, an increased likelihood of facing various challenges associated with poverty. Moreover, this article highlights the fact that many educated and very left-leaning individuals are currently discussing these matters with the hope of resolving the societal problems encoded therein. This article pertains to my research, because it suggests that black students require motivation and the assumption they will achieve on par with white students; rather than pity. It also promotes the notion that racism impacts all; not merely those most directly affected by its ravages.
Appel, M., & Kronberger, N. (2012). Stereotypes and the achievement gap: Stereotype threat prior to test taking. Educational Psychology Review, 24(4), 609-635. doi: 10.1007/s10648-012-9200-4
This study expresses the reality that students of color are presented with assumptions embedded in the questions they are faced with when taking tests. When threatened with these microaggressions enough times, these students develop a profound fear of test-taking and an anxiety congruent with the attack they have come to expect to find in the questions therein. This study supports my analysis that a clearheaded and compassionate approach to teaching these students is particularly necessary. For students who have come to view teachers as participants in an eternally derogatory system, these students may view the educational system as one with compassion.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215.
This article focuses on the importance of building self-esteem of students in order to inspire them to make the changes necessary in their behavior to bring about their academic success. This conclusion naturally engenders my own; that positive reinforcement and encouragement from teachers will create positive effects. Bandura is a psychologist in the Social Science department at Stanford University.
Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (pp. 71-81). New York, NY: Academic Press.
This entry in the Encyclopedia in question simply explores the elements of self-efficacy; which I discuss in my paper. It highlights the fact that students will often achieve based on their personal beliefs by breaking down self-efficacy as a determining factor in human behavior. Bandura is a psychologist in the Social Science department at Stanford University.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: Basic Books.
This article focuses on the importance of feeling a sense of empowerment over one's own life and circumstances; vis-à-vis, one's pursuit of one's educational goals. Thus, the mentorship students receive from teachers who aim to build a trustworthy rapport with students is particularly key here. Bandura has extensive experience in the fields of psychology and social welfare; he is currently a professor at Stanford University.
Bandura, A., Adams, N. E., & Beyer, J. (1977). Cognitive processes mediating behavioral change. Journal of personality and social psychology, 35(3), 125-139.
This article analyzes the various ways of how cognitive processes contribute to societal behaviors and ultimately the change of status in entire populations of people. The article highlights the many ways that brain chemistry can contribute either to higher or lowered expectations of an individual; both by that individual and by another, and that stereotypical modes of thinking and belief systems contributes to unhealthy behavioral patterns. This article profoundly concretizes the manner by which humans consider rational thought; including what humans perceive to be rational behavior changes nothing. However, it illuminates our own prejudicial thinking and the impacts it has on most people.
Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current directions in psychological science, 9(3), 75-78.
This article summarizes the extent to which collaboration and deliberate, intentional social change can engender positive results for entire communities. It highlights the means by which human behavior can be changed with a minimum of supervision from some external and grander other. It extends the way in which humans grapple with notions of social change to include the reality of individual change can often times lead to far greater change than is often accredited. Meanwhile, it supports my conclusion that ultimately teachers best serve students when encouraging one another to respond wholistically to student concerns and problems. Rather than treat students as failures, this article assures its reader, that students should to be treated as collaborators in discovering the mechanisms by which the larger world functions.
Berryman, M., SooHoo, S., Nevin, A., Arani Barrett, T., Ford, T., Joy Nodelman, D., . . . Wilson, A. (2013). Culturally responsive methodologies at work in education settings. International Journal for Researcher Development, 4(2), 102-116.
This article focuses on the positive progress which has been made thanks to cutting-edge strategies dictating the interaction between teachers and students; even those teachers from affluent neighborhoods and students who are not. The article highlights the way these kindness-inducing modes of thought can contribute to building a positive relationship between students and their teachers. The article highlights the efficacy of such strategies in building lasting change within the mindsets of these students, as well as; in the teaching styles of those professionals studied. The results are unambiguous and quite powerful.
Bobbitt-Zeher, D. (2004). Black American students in an affluent suburb: A study of academic disengagement (Vol. 33, pp. 414-416). WASHINGTON: American Sociological Association.
This article discusses the reality that affluence does not necessarily indicate success among black communities. It theorizes some of the reasons why this might be the case. The article ultimately concludes that racism is so prevalent in the educational system that black students experience the same humiliation at the hands of the system, regardless of their socioeconomic status. This fact is truly tragic considering the extent to which these students might otherwise embrace academia as a path to becoming a leader in their communities. Individuals prevalent in black history including Ida B. Wells and W.E.B. du Bois were well-known for their educational achievements. Such achievements facilitated their success in other areas; including their participation in the Civil Rights Movements of their time, is certain.
Bondy, E., Ross, D. D., Gallingane, C., & Hambacher, E. (2007). Creating environments of success and resilience: Culturally responsive classroom management and more. Urban Education, 42(4), 326-348. doi: 10.1177/0042085907303406
This article discusses the many ways teachers can contribute to the success of their students by creating a classroom environment in which tolerance is key; and acceptance the name of the game, so to speak. The teachers studied here were ones who have had the most success in working with students of different races and ethnic backgrounds than themselves, and are those with the most open-minded approach to instruction. These individuals have created great and lasting positive impact in the lives of their students simply by cultivating a mindset that questions stereotypical assumptions regarding the their abilities. This suggests that such deliberate openness benefits teachers in fulfilling their roles with efficacy, as well as, it benefits students.
Bondy, E., Ross, D. D., Hambacher, E., & Acosta, M. (2013). Becoming warm demanders: Perspectives and practices of first year teachers. Urban Education, 48(3), 420-450. doi: 10.1177/0042085912456846
This article highlights the journey that several first-year teachers take in embracing their role in the lives of their students. It reveals the necessity of learning to value difference and diversity in one's students; if one's intention is to become an effective purveyor of information. Moreover, it reveals that certain character traits are associated with success as a teacher; while others can become a significant impairment. The students are able to relax and embrace the influence of their teachers, and are able to accept their teacher as caring providers of education; rather than as strict disciplinarians. This suggests the role of caregiver can be seen as a sort of template for teacher behavior towards students, rigid, but always kind. These principles, if adopted, would engender a profound transformation in student relationships with teachers; and in the institution of teaching.
Bonner, E. P. (2014). Investigating practices of highly successful mathematics teachers of traditionally underserved students. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 86(3), 377-399. doi: 10.1007/s10649-014-9533-7
This article supports the notion that the most successful instructors do not merely focus on their academic subject when attempting to reach out to underperforming students. Rather, the teacher in question must attempt to connect on an emotional level with their students. Such students often have an emotional cause underlying their low performance; such connections can literally make the difference between success or failure in a classroom setting.
Bonner, E. P., & Adams, T. L. (2012). Culturally responsive teaching in the context of mathematics: a grounded theory case study. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 15(1), 25-38. doi: 10.1007/s10857-011-9198-4
Bonner and Adams describe the grounded theory case study. The case study discusses the four interconnected cornerstones of cultutrally responsive mathematics teaching (CRMT). To succeed; the classroom needs to have free communication, basic knowledge, trusting relationships, and continuous reflection and revision. Students who do not feel comfortable communicating in front of their peers need help from parents, teachers, and administrators to increase their confidence and basic knowledge. Once students feel they are up to date with their learning; they are more likely to participate, and share their thoughts and beliefs with their classmates and teachers. These cornerstones directly affect the classroom practices and promotes equity in mathematics. It is important to give urban students real world examples of using mathematics and science to help the students retain the information learned. These practices need to be enforced at all mathematical levels to reinforce the importance of mathematics and science on a daily basis.
Borg, J. R., Mary, O. B., & Harriet, A. S. (2012). Closing the achievement gap between high-poverty schools and low-poverty schools. Research in Business and Economics, 5, 1-10.
This article examines the achievement gap between low income minority students and high income white students. The subjects of the research include students in fourth and fifth grade math and reading classes. High quality teachers have more of an impact with smaller class sizes, especially in low performing schools; which tend to have the largest class sizes. In high income school communities, the student to teacher ratio is quite low, which creates ample opportunities for a one on one learning scenarios. This study claims it is a student’s cultural background that affects the test scores of minority children compared to a lack of school resources. This is evident in the test results of the minority students whom attend school in the higher income school districts. It is noted that the wording of questions asked in the testing are made to confuse minroity students in attempt to think the same way as their white counterparts.
Ford, A. C., & Sassi, K. (2014). Authority in cross-racial teaching and learning (Re)considering the transferability of warm demander approaches. Urban Education, 49(1), 39-74. doi: 10.1177/0042085912464790
Ford and Sassi discuss the role race plays in building productive student-teacher authority relationships. As of 2008, there were only 7.4% African American teachers compared to 82% European American teachers. These statistics have created another achievement gap between minority teachers and their white counterparts. Minority teachers were pushed out of schools after segregation came to an end. This gave European American female teachers the priority choice of where they wanted to work, and minority teachers were used to fill in the gaps. One would think European American teachers would want to leave the urban communities, but the high demand for teachers usually results in a higher income; which cannot be matched by smaller subruban and rural school districts. Warmth and demandingness are both context-specific related to the behaviors of students from urban school, because they tend to be left unattended more than their white counterparts. These differences include socioeconomic, cultural and academic circumstances of those students; which expains why warm demanding provides those students a tough- minded, no-nonsense structured disciplined classroom.
Gregory, A., Skiba, R. J., & Noguera, P. A. (2010). The achievement gap and the discipline gap: Two sides of the same coin? Educational Researcher, 39(1), 59-68.
The gap in achievement between urban and suburban school districts has been the focus of educational research over the past several decades. White researchers prefer to use race as the reason for the gap compared to researchers of color who explain the environment students live in as the cause for the gap. This research expresses how minority students are disproportionately suspended and expelled, compared to their white counterparts. These practices keep students of color out of their classrooms in detention or suspended at home. Racial and ethnic patterns related to school sanctions also contribute to the lag among students of color. This explains why students of color receive more severe punishments than white students. The length of a punishment can set an urban student behind their class by a week; which will never be made up, because teachers do not have the time or resources to back track for troubled students. Additionally, this research offers possible directions and suggestions for reducing the gap; especially focusing on discipline policies and practices of individual school districts.
Griner, A. C., & Stewart, M. L. (2013). Addressing the achievement gap and disproportionality through the use of culturally responsive teaching practices. Urban Education, 48(4), 585-621. doi: 10.1177/0042085912456847
Griner and Steward address the disproportionate representation of racially, culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse students in classes with children who have special needs. This is not helpful to the diverse students, and is distracting to the children with special needs. Students with special needs require warm demanding classrooms to create the structure and expectations of each individual student. Students who are misplaced in contained classrooms tend to act out more; because they follow the lead of the children with special needs, instead of mimicking students from a general class. Students misplaced in contained classrooms never catch back up to the other students in their graduating class, because the contained classrooms work at a much slower pace. The slow pace makes it impossible to cover all of the curriculum expectations of a student in a general class. Thanks to more research in schools, teachers and staff are encouraged to engage in a reflective culturally responsive curriculum. When the curriculum is culturally responsive; children become more engaged, because they are able to relate to the material on a personal level.
Houchen, D. (2013). “Stakes is high”: Culturally relevant practitioner inquiry with African American students struggling to pass secondary reading exit exams. Urban Education, 48(1), 92-115. doi: 10.1177/0042085912456845
Houchen explores the culturally relevant pedagogy to increase the success of students facing exit exams at the conclusion of high school. The exam topics and degree of difficulty vary depending on state and territory expectations. In Florida, only one third of African American students passed the test in 2010. These results need to take into consideration that the creators of the test only wrote the test from their own perspective. This research shows the value of understanding student perspectives of achievement, school processes and a strategic collaborative classroom environment. When teachers take into consideration the perspectives of their students, the classroom becomes a more productive environment. Associating curriculum topics with real world examples allows the teacher to show their students a different perspective. They can learn how other groups of people associate and identify with the same information. A broad world view helps minority students look beyond the reality they know, and apply it to the real world where everyone lives together.
Pintrich, P. R., & De Groot, E. V. (1990). Motivational and self-regulated learning components of classroom academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(1), 33-40.
This study examines the relationship between motivational orientation and self-regulated learning, as related to the academic performance of 173 seventh grade students in science and English classes. Self-efficacy is positively related to cognitive engagement and performance. Intrinsic value did not have a direct influence on performance, but strongly related to self-regulation and cognitive strategy use. Students who learn to self-regulate themselves by the middle school age are more likely to succeed later in life, because they are able to motivate themselves in a positive manner. Urban students do not self-regulate as well, because they are left unsupervised by parents who are working. These children are left without any adults checking to make sure their assignments are completed correctly. This is a disadvantage of minorities holding low wage jobs which usually requires most adults to hold more than one job at a time. Minority students need to learn to lean on each other to raise their chances of success, because they can self-regulate each other.
Price, D. V., & Tovar, E. (2014). Student engagement and institutional graduation rates: Identifying high-impact educational practices for community colleges. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 38(9), 766-782.
Price and Tovar discuss the importance of post-secondary certificates and degrees for American adults. Too many American adults do not further their education beyond the high school level, which keeps their incomes too low to support their households. The research explains the statistical relationship between student engagement and graduation rates. This relationship makes it important for minority students to join many different activities to show them how many different paths their lives can take once they complete their degree. Women appear to be the one minority group who are achieving degrees beyond high school with more ease than any other group. There are suggestions regarding changes to instructional practices and institutional policies. Additional vocational training may help bridge the gap between men and women earning degrees. In America’s patriarchal society; it is more important for women of all races to earn degrees, because they still earn less money than their male counterparts.
Rojas-LeBouef, A., & Slate, J. R. (2012). The achievement gap between White and Non-White students. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 7(1).
Rojas-Lebouef and Slate discuss the results of several studies about the different variables related to the achievement gap. This research combines the results of different tests conducted over the past few decades. It explains the gap between white and non-white students; especially those whose native tongue is not English. English as a second language (ESL) has been around for decades helping to close the gap between non- English speakers and those students whose native tongue is English. The research also demonstrates the varying reading and math differences between Hispanic and White Students. Similar to white students learning foreign languages, Hispanic students have to translate the words into their native tongue to ponder a question and then translate their answer back to English. The varying formatting between languages cripples students since they do not translate the words in the proper order; which in turn, makes the answer wrong even if the words were spelled correctly.
Shevalier, R., & McKenzie, B. A. (2012). Culturally responsive teaching as an ethics- and care-based approach to urban education. Urban Education, 47(6), 1086-1105. doi: 10.1177/0042085912441483
Shevalier and McKenzie conducted this research to be a great resource during urban teacher preparation. Clear definitions, models and examples inspire teachers to learn why they need to use culturally responsive teaching. Additionally, it explains how to implement these new techniques into their classrooms. Changing the layout of a classroom by moving desks closer together, instead of further apart, can create a new focus on building relationships and trust. This allows students the ability to collaborate, at times, when it is necessary. During any testing, folders can be used to separate each student’s work area to eliminate any chance of cheating. Students working together can help catch up student that were absent for any reason quicker, and with the least amount of distraction to the rest of the class. This keeps the class moving on pace to cover all areas of the curriculum before the conclusion of the school year.