Holding Students to High Academic Expectations: Local Constructions of Face-Work and Warm Demanders

• In Event: Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Toward a New Ethnic of Care, Love, and Collaboration in Schools

Abstract

K-12 public school teachers must persuade students, especially those deemed underachieving, to invest time and effort in academic assignments. Scholars identify characteristics of warm demanders, who insist on student achievement of high standards, work tirelessly on their behalf, and use culturally relevant approaches (Delpit, 2012). Most teachers do not match these characteristics. How do teachers communicate their academic expectations, and how does this vary across classroom contexts? What are the implications for educational equity? This paper brings together conceptual frameworks on teacher talk (Cazden, 2001), culturally responsive teaching (Delpit, 2012), and face-work (Goffman, 1967). It sheds light on how teacher speech acts used to persuade students to meet academic expectations do or do not serve students’ classroom identities.

Author

• Judith L. Pace, University of San Francisco