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202 reviews for:
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'All Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education
Christopher Emdin
4.11 AVERAGE
202 reviews for:
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'All Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education
Christopher Emdin
4.11 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
While in school, I read this book for a course I had on classroom management. I found the book to be insightful and found it interesting how the author saw and defined urban children as the neo-indigenous.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
very informative, I can see some things working in the classroom
This book is the right mix of practical problem solving, theory, and examples. I enjoyed it.
Dr. Emdin provides a wealth of knowledge for understanding, examining, and dismantling classroom colonialism while prioritizing the celebration and incorporation of neoindigenous cultures and customs. His delicate, detailed explanations of how and why the classroom needs to be changed to empower, value, and learn from youth of color (particularly in urban education systems) provide thought provoking and actionable steps for collaborating with students instead of colonizing them. This is a great read for anyone working in or alongside the public education system. I wish he wrote books on social work, too!
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
The first three chapters of this book were compelling and accessibly theoretical, but the 7 C's that followed felt overly prescriptive. I wish the book had focused more on explaining the nuance of terms like "neoindigenous," "reality pedagogy," and "Pentecostal pedagogy" instead of giving step-by-step guides to specific classroom procedures. Additionally, Emdin writes, "If one feels like what they have to say is of value in a particular place, they are more apt to transform the place into a community and partake in the activities that are valued within it," but much of his book seems dedicated to appropriating "neoindigenous" culture to help students be successful in the classroom as it exists today instead of truly transforming education.
I honestly did not care much for this book. I am a white music teacher at a racially diverse school and most things covered in this reading I already do or know of the pedagogical significance. I can't relate to what other white folk who teach in the hood do, but to me this book was not helpful. The author seems to assume every single white teacher has all these prejudices and assumptions on their urban students and that is not the case. "Call and response works well with the neo-indigenous" that works well with every demographic of students!! The reading suggests building relationships with students, again, a no brainer for any effective educator. This book was not what I was expecting and gave me no new tools to utilize as a white teacher in an urban environment.
A question for anyone who reads this: I'm curious about how dialect plays out in the classroom - when students speak African American English and the teacher speaks Mainstream English, and the education system strongly favors Mainstream. If anyone sees this review and has recommendations on resources on this topic, please share!
Summary:
The main idea is that school culture is based in the assumption that urban students have to be "saved" from their communities by learning to repress their cultural ways and act more white, just like colonial settlers "educated" Native American students by forcing them to shed any resemblance to their cultures. Traditional classroom management reinforces those who look, talk, and act according to a narrow idea of what the ideal student should be.
Working to understand the students' perspective is the key to making a place for urban students in education, in an ethical way and a practical way. The author says white teachers should learn from Pentecostal church/sermons, the hip-hop cypher, and immersion in the students' spaces how to better reach and elevate their students AS THEY ARE. And make student feedback the core of how the class is run.
Two major questions I have after reading this book:
1. As soon as he picks up a basketball, the author is immediately welcomed into his students' communities. He argues that all teachers should immerse themselves in their students' spaces to connect with them and learn how to best serve them. BUT he doesn't acknowledge the fact that he's a black man with a similar background to his students', so his experience immersing himself in his students' culture might be different than his white woman colleague's experience. For me as a small, young, white woman with a different personality and zero coolness or basketball skills to go off of, what would be different about how I'm received by my students and how I connect with them?
2. Should the teacher 100% disregard their comfort zone to make way for students' norms? For example: I do best self in conversations where I can finish my thought before the next person responds (where people don't generally interrupt one another). I don't know how much that's a white cultural thing vs. a regional Midwestern thing vs. my local community, but I operate better when I can finish my thought before I'm cut off. The author describes a scene where a student feels they have something to add and they jump up and take the marker from the teacher and give a better explanation to the class. The author says that a traditional teacher might be angry or punish the student for interrupting this way, while the reality pedagogue celebrates the students' engagement. But is it justified for the teacher to have any say in classroom norms based on their own preferences? How much voice can the teacher have in creating the class culture without repressing urban youth? I don't know, but I think the answer is more nuanced than the author made it out to be.
Summary:
The main idea is that school culture is based in the assumption that urban students have to be "saved" from their communities by learning to repress their cultural ways and act more white, just like colonial settlers "educated" Native American students by forcing them to shed any resemblance to their cultures. Traditional classroom management reinforces those who look, talk, and act according to a narrow idea of what the ideal student should be.
Working to understand the students' perspective is the key to making a place for urban students in education, in an ethical way and a practical way. The author says white teachers should learn from Pentecostal church/sermons, the hip-hop cypher, and immersion in the students' spaces how to better reach and elevate their students AS THEY ARE. And make student feedback the core of how the class is run.
Two major questions I have after reading this book:
1. As soon as he picks up a basketball, the author is immediately welcomed into his students' communities. He argues that all teachers should immerse themselves in their students' spaces to connect with them and learn how to best serve them. BUT he doesn't acknowledge the fact that he's a black man with a similar background to his students', so his experience immersing himself in his students' culture might be different than his white woman colleague's experience. For me as a small, young, white woman with a different personality and zero coolness or basketball skills to go off of, what would be different about how I'm received by my students and how I connect with them?
2. Should the teacher 100% disregard their comfort zone to make way for students' norms? For example: I do best self in conversations where I can finish my thought before the next person responds (where people don't generally interrupt one another). I don't know how much that's a white cultural thing vs. a regional Midwestern thing vs. my local community, but I operate better when I can finish my thought before I'm cut off. The author describes a scene where a student feels they have something to add and they jump up and take the marker from the teacher and give a better explanation to the class. The author says that a traditional teacher might be angry or punish the student for interrupting this way, while the reality pedagogue celebrates the students' engagement. But is it justified for the teacher to have any say in classroom norms based on their own preferences? How much voice can the teacher have in creating the class culture without repressing urban youth? I don't know, but I think the answer is more nuanced than the author made it out to be.
This book was written in the style of education research, but was focused on providing realistic advice for classroom teachers. I found that balance interesting, especially now with my year of experience reading educational research. (I didn't really do that much of it in my MAT program.) The strategies provided were useful. Some of them I felt like I'd learned on my own from my years teaching, some were new and intriguing to me, and some seemed unrealistic for the situations I'm familiar with. I'm just too sarcastic to make some of those strategies work. I think this is an important book to be read with teachers who have experience teaching in urban areas - I think it would work well with a group of pre-service teachers who had already completed their student teaching but had not yet nailed down many aspects of their teaching practice, to be discussed with more experienced teachers at the school where they're likely to go teach. It would be informative and interesting!