1 Teachers College Record Volume 121, 070301, July 2019, 38 pages Copyright © by Teachers College, Columbia University 0161-4681 W. E. B. Du Bois’s Concept of Sympathetic Touch as a Mediator of Teachers’ Expectations in an Urban School District DANIEL D. LIOU Arizona State University LETICIA ROJAS Brandman University Background/Context: Research has shown teachers’ expectations of students to be a powerful predictor of the racial opportunity gap. Yet, many teachers continue to profile White students and Students of Color very differently in schools when it comes to intellectual capacity and motivation to learn. One of the major ethical challenges of teachers’ expectations is how sym- pathy is constructed in the classroom. Too often, teachers exhibit sympathy through feeling pity for the life challenges facing low-income Students of Color, a dynamic that can result in the lowering of expectations via anticipation of school failure. Purpose/Objective: Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s (1935) concept of sympathetic touch, the purpose of this article is to introduce asset-based instructional practices rooted in sympathy as a method for confronting systemic problems of pity and deficit thinking which perpetuate low teachers’ expectations. There is a pressing need for an antiracist framework within which teachers can communicate sympathy in an appropriate manner that still hold students to high expectations for learning. This study intends to fill the gaps in the literatures of teachers’ expectations of students, social context of education, urban education, and teacher education by reenvisioning a way to effectively meet the needs of America’s diverse school populations. Participants: The study was conducted with a sample of nine teachers from low-income, racially segregated neighborhoods in a large urban school district. These teachers were selected for the study based on the following criteria: (1) minimum of three years of teaching experi- ence; (2) working with a majority of Students of Color; and (3) perceived by either their prin- cipals and/or counselors to have a positive impact in the classroom and positive relationships with their students. The participants were screened based on these criteria before their partici- pation in the study. We then drew on the literature to inform the final selection of the teachers. Research Design: This case study was conducted over the span of one year and included semistructured interviews, three rounds of teacher reflection prompts, informal observations, and a collection of archival data such as course syllabi, lesson plans, lists of ongoing activi- ties related to content instruction, flyers or other materials related to these activities, examples of students’ assignments, and photographs of classroom activities.