Promoting Academic Engagement Through Insistence: Being a Warm Demander‪.‬

If educators are to bridge the black/white achievement gap, they must find a way to engage low-income and minority youth in academic learning. While ample evidence indicates that some teachers are highly effective in engaging students (e.g., Bempechat, 1998; Corbett, Wilson, & Williams, 2002; Irvine, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1994), the persistence of the achievement gap suggests that most are far less effective at engaging African American students. A positive psychological environment characterized by respectful interactions, a calm tone, minimal student resistance, and a clear academic focus (Patrick, Turner, Meyer, & Midgley, 2003) will help achieve increased student engagement and decreased task avoidance. One key strategy in creating a positive psychological environment is the teacher's capacity to "insist" that the students meet established academic and behavioral standards. This paper describes the purposes, structure, and tone of insistence, with examples from three low-income, predominantly African American classrooms on the first day of school. The teachers--one white (a 3rd-grade teacher, "Ms. Third"), one black (a 2nd-grade teacher, "Ms. Second"), and one Asian (a 5th-grade teacher, "Ms. Fifth')--were novices, with fewer than five years of classroom experience, who were selected based on observations during the previous year. Each was observed to set high academic and behavioral expectations and then insist firmly yet respectfully that students meet those expectations. Some have referred to this kind of teacher as a "warm demander" (Irvine, 2003; Kleinfeld, 1975). THE PURPOSES OF INSISTENCE