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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
slow-paced
This is a popular selection in my Schools & Society class
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Read as part of my challenge to myself to learn more about how to be a good teacher. Some of it was still a little over my head but the take-home message was that to be a good teacher I need to be aware of the cultural differences between my students and not expect them all to be just like me (i.e. raised white in a quiet, non-expressive family).
I had already figured that part out. :)
I had already figured that part out. :)
This was a read for a grad school class on schools and society. I thought it was very informative and super relevant to the classroom I am currently working in.
In this book, I saw some of my own failings as a work in progress teacher. I think it’s important to acknowledge that teaching can be an ongoing act of imperialism, so that we can do our part to transform students without alienating them. My take away strategies to give a go:
Co-gens- enlisted student committees for improving classroom culture
Radical Co-teaching- creating a culture that recruits students as teachers
Cosmopolitanism- a structure of belonging and need
Co-gens- enlisted student committees for improving classroom culture
Radical Co-teaching- creating a culture that recruits students as teachers
Cosmopolitanism- a structure of belonging and need
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The book brings to light many things for teachers to consider and reflect on. The focus is more at the secondary level of education. I would have liked to see some examples from the primarily level as well.
Rating this 3 stars partially based on what I got out of it, which is to say it wasn't transformative in part because I am not a teacher.
Emdin posits urban minority children have their own distinct culture, separate from mainstream white culture, that requires a totally different teaching approach--one that gives autonomy to students, accepts traditionally unacceptable behavior as part of engaged learning (e.g., getting out of one's seat, speaking out of turn), and integrates urban culture into the classroom.
I don't think I disagreed per se with anything Emdin suggests. Some of it I felt was actually a little obvious--kids are of course going to connect better with teachers and respect them more if the teacher puts a genuine effort into getting to know kids' worlds. I thought a lot of what Emdin posits as good teaching wasn't even specific to neoindigenous (as he calls them) kids, but just flat-out good teaching, for kids of any background. I suspect mediocre teachers can get by in wealthy school districts without horrible test scores or behavior management issues, whereas they won't do as well in poorer urban districts. Doing well as an urban teacher means you actually have to be really good at your job.
Still, if it were so easy to do these things, teaching in poorer urban school districts wouldn't be so hard. I think it's probably a good reminder for teachers in urban schools to remember that connecting personally with their kids goes a long way, and not to "other" students or label them bad. I doubt anyone goes into teaching intending to do that, but it's probably very easy to start doing. This book serves as a good reminder not to fall into that trap, even if it does seem "no duh."
I think where the wheels came off the bus from me in this book, though, was on implementation. I'm not a teacher, and my brief stint in college teaching the SAT to low-income high school students at a CUNY school very quickly disabused me of the notion that teaching well is easy without extensive training. So I'm sure some of my "well, that idea sounds nice, but how do you implement that?" confusion is due to not even being in a field. Still, I think even if I was a teacher, I'd be a bit lost. Emdin talks a lot about the concept of cogens, or groups of 4 students that meet with the teacher to discuss classroom issues regularly. What do cogens talk about?How do they actually talk about anything meaningful if the meeting is only supposed to be for a few minutes? The average high school teacher has 6-8 classes a day; how does he manage to have so many cogens on top of teaching? How much impact can a cogen actually have if they meet only 3 times for a few moments? It felt very theoretical to me and I just couldn't figure it out.
I'm not saying the idea is bad, but if I were a teacher and wanted to implement the idea, I would have to find videos or a mentor teacher or something to figure out how it is done.
The final parts of the book felt more actionable to me by comparison. Care about your students, immerse yourself in their culture, and value said culture.. I think caring about your students is just flat-out necessary to be a good teacher, irrespective of school environment, so the first part is kind of imperative in general. For the latter two, there is absolutely a power dynamic between teachers and poor minority students, especially if the teacher is white; the teacher can't live in an ivory tower and expect to be successful. The cogen stuff felt theoretical to me, but Emdin gives some really concrete suggestions on how to embed oneself in the community and win students' trust.
Emdin posits urban minority children have their own distinct culture, separate from mainstream white culture, that requires a totally different teaching approach--one that gives autonomy to students, accepts traditionally unacceptable behavior as part of engaged learning (e.g., getting out of one's seat, speaking out of turn), and integrates urban culture into the classroom.
I don't think I disagreed per se with anything Emdin suggests. Some of it I felt was actually a little obvious--kids are of course going to connect better with teachers and respect them more if the teacher puts a genuine effort into getting to know kids' worlds. I thought a lot of what Emdin posits as good teaching wasn't even specific to neoindigenous (as he calls them) kids, but just flat-out good teaching, for kids of any background. I suspect mediocre teachers can get by in wealthy school districts without horrible test scores or behavior management issues, whereas they won't do as well in poorer urban districts. Doing well as an urban teacher means you actually have to be really good at your job.
Still, if it were so easy to do these things, teaching in poorer urban school districts wouldn't be so hard. I think it's probably a good reminder for teachers in urban schools to remember that connecting personally with their kids goes a long way, and not to "other" students or label them bad. I doubt anyone goes into teaching intending to do that, but it's probably very easy to start doing. This book serves as a good reminder not to fall into that trap, even if it does seem "no duh."
I think where the wheels came off the bus from me in this book, though, was on implementation. I'm not a teacher, and my brief stint in college teaching the SAT to low-income high school students at a CUNY school very quickly disabused me of the notion that teaching well is easy without extensive training. So I'm sure some of my "well, that idea sounds nice, but how do you implement that?" confusion is due to not even being in a field. Still, I think even if I was a teacher, I'd be a bit lost. Emdin talks a lot about the concept of cogens, or groups of 4 students that meet with the teacher to discuss classroom issues regularly. What do cogens talk about?How do they actually talk about anything meaningful if the meeting is only supposed to be for a few minutes? The average high school teacher has 6-8 classes a day; how does he manage to have so many cogens on top of teaching? How much impact can a cogen actually have if they meet only 3 times for a few moments? It felt very theoretical to me and I just couldn't figure it out.
I'm not saying the idea is bad, but if I were a teacher and wanted to implement the idea, I would have to find videos or a mentor teacher or something to figure out how it is done.
The final parts of the book felt more actionable to me by comparison. Care about your students, immerse yourself in their culture, and value said culture.. I think caring about your students is just flat-out necessary to be a good teacher, irrespective of school environment, so the first part is kind of imperative in general. For the latter two, there is absolutely a power dynamic between teachers and poor minority students, especially if the teacher is white; the teacher can't live in an ivory tower and expect to be successful. The cogen stuff felt theoretical to me, but Emdin gives some really concrete suggestions on how to embed oneself in the community and win students' trust.
I wish this book had been published when I was completing my teacher education courses. It really drove home the fact that it is not enough to want black and latinx students in urban educational settings to succeed by following the "traditional" model for teaching and learning. The traditional model is often ineffective for these students because it is rooted in racism and requires students to suppress their "neoindigenous" roots in order to conform to a white, middle class ideal of being. It teaches them they are not good enough simply because of who they are and where they come from. Instead, Edim says teachers should learn about and embrace the cultures and values of their students, and incorporate them into their classroom and how they teach. He also says teachers should strive to get to know each individual student. It is only when teachers value who their students are that they will be open to learning from them. Nobody wants to learn from someone who thinks they are inherently better than you. This book preaches the opposite of everything my teacher education courses taught me.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
This book gives fantastic advice on teaching urban youth and, importantly(!!), gives clear and explicit directions for implementing that advice. He makes a case for understanding and connecting with your students; this advice is pretty obvious, but this book delves into great detail about how to establish these relationships with students and show that you really value them. It is an excellent guide that will benefit any teacher in dissecting the ways their teaching may be ineffective and stifling.
I want to make it clear that this book is worth the read. But I do have some questions or doubts about some suggestions. For example, while I can see the utility and transformative power of cogens, I’m curious about how effective they are; he makes it sound as if this is a guaranteed way to get students engaged in class and eager to help. But I think that is dependent on the teacher executing the method just right. I just have a hard time imagining that every student would respond well and step up to the task.
Another issue I have has to do with his insistence that students have distinct “jobs” they are responsible for in the classroom. He tells one anecdote of a student who skips a trip to Disney World because she’s in charge of lab equipment that day and doesn’t want to let her class down. In another one, a kid skips class (or school?), and the rest of the class is unable to take notes because he isn’t there to erase the boards. The author says he wouldn’t let any other student do it because it was that student’s responsibility. I think in general this method can make students feel valuable and needed, but I worry that this implementation is too much of a burden on students. He says it creates healthy peer pressure to come to school, but I can just as easily see how it would create anxiety in students and foster resentment if one student repeatedly fails to perform their duties. Perhaps the student the student could arrange for a replacement or let the teacher know ahead of time that they won’t be in class?
Overall, a very informative book!
I want to make it clear that this book is worth the read. But I do have some questions or doubts about some suggestions. For example, while I can see the utility and transformative power of cogens, I’m curious about how effective they are; he makes it sound as if this is a guaranteed way to get students engaged in class and eager to help. But I think that is dependent on the teacher executing the method just right. I just have a hard time imagining that every student would respond well and step up to the task.
Another issue I have has to do with his insistence that students have distinct “jobs” they are responsible for in the classroom. He tells one anecdote of a student who skips a trip to Disney World because she’s in charge of lab equipment that day and doesn’t want to let her class down. In another one, a kid skips class (or school?), and the rest of the class is unable to take notes because he isn’t there to erase the boards. The author says he wouldn’t let any other student do it because it was that student’s responsibility. I think in general this method can make students feel valuable and needed, but I worry that this implementation is too much of a burden on students. He says it creates healthy peer pressure to come to school, but I can just as easily see how it would create anxiety in students and foster resentment if one student repeatedly fails to perform their duties. Perhaps the student the student could arrange for a replacement or let the teacher know ahead of time that they won’t be in class?
Overall, a very informative book!