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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
The sections on cogens, coteaching, and code switching were incredibly practical. Really looking forward to hearing Emdin speak in the spring.
I seem to be the only person that didn't love this book. Maybe I have just been reading too many professional books lately, but I actually didn't finish it. I am worried I missed all of the good stuff. It isn't that I don't agree with many of the points in the book, I do, I just couldn't get into the writing style, I suspect. I will also comment that Emdin's suggestions are just good teaching, not necessarily particular to one group of students.
Super insightful and necessary for white teachers who teach youth of color especially in NYC
Edmin says, "The kind of teacher you will become is directly related to the kind of teachers you associate with. Teaching is a profession where misery does more than just love company--it recruits, seduces, and romances it. Avoid people who are unhappy and disgruntled about the possibilities for transforming education. They are the enemy of the spirit of the teacher." If only those at the higher levels (district/state/federal) would understand this, education in the schools would be transformed!
This book is full of interesting and sometimes wild ideas that seem hard to enact in the classroom given some school cultures / subject areas / age groups. With that being said, I think any teacher can find something in this book to appreciate and ruminate on, whether they are a white person who teaches in an urban setting or not. The book would definitely benefit from a multimedia add-on that allows the reader to see some of the proposed practices in action. Additionally, coming to terms with Emdin referring to students as neoindigenous is a bit of a mind hurdle. Overall, an dense but digestible read that is very useful and helpful to have in one’s toolkit.
I have read many anti-racism as well as many urban pedagogy books, and I am dedicated to this work and learning to be a better white teacher for students of color. My low rating is not a critique of his philosophy in any way; it is a harsh critique of a pretentious writing style married to a miss-placed narrative. The introduction was the best part of the book, which quickly lost its way. Readers are presented with the beginning and end of his career without the journey between. It is the journey which could have illuminated a path for others. The advice he does share is so obfuscated with vague academic language the reader is left searching for anything to glean which might improve practice.
I'm not a white person who teaches in the hood (I'm "the rest of y'all), but this book was fantastic and gave me so many great ideas for my school and classroom along with a new way of looking at education.
Dr. Emdin includes lots of practical ideas that allow students to keep their cultural backgrounds while in school. We don’t have to “save” them from their urban lifestyle, we have to use that to provide them an education appropriate to who they are.
Edmin's book shows the depths and methods needed to go in order to institute transformative teaching and learning in a classroom that engages all students. He names his approach reality-based pedagogy and its core idea is that it is impossible to teach students if you do not embed their realities into the classroom; altering how one may teach, how power is negotiated, and what it means to demonstrate learning. Clearly from the title, there is a specific context to which he is speaking, but the application of his approach can potentially open up any classroom (e.g. it's easy to imagine how this could play out in a rural environment). He explores his pedagogy through his own triumphs and setbacks as he aims to help his students channel their enthusiasm and interest into productive learning experiences that reflect what he hopes they will learn with how it fits within their worlds. It's a powerful book that in many ways takes the ideas of Paulo Freire and Lisa Delpit and demonstrates particular ways one can execute them in the classroom.
Loved the intro, very pertinent especially about how important it is to allow students to be who they really are, and how rare that is in American classrooms, particularly for Black and Native American students. I skimmed after the first 3 chapters because I'm not a K-12 teacher and a lot of the recommended activities weren't applicable, plus it was a library book. Still glad I read the first bit! Author seems like a cool guy.