For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood--and the Rest of Y'all Too ─ Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education

Merging real stories with theory, research, and practice, a prominent scholar offers a new approach to teaching and learning for every stakeholder in urban education.

Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in science classrooms as a young man of color, Christopher Emdin offers a new lens on and approach to teaching in urban schools. Putting forth his theory of Reality Pedagogy, Emdin provides practical tools to unleash the brilliance and eagerness of youth and educators alike—both of whom have been typecast and stymied by outdated modes of thinking about urban education. With this fresh and engaging new pedagogical vision, Emdin demonstrates the importance of creating a family structure and building communities within the classroom, using culturally relevant strategies like hip-hop music and call-and-response, and connecting the experiences of urban youth to indigenous populations globally.

Christopher Emdin is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also serves as associate director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education. He is an Alumnus Caperton and Hip-Hop Archive Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He was recently honored as a STEM Access Champion of Change by the White House and currently serves as a Minorities in Energy Ambassador for the US Department of Energy. The creator of the #HipHopEd social media movement and Science Genius B.A.T.T.L.E.S., and author of the award-winning bookUrban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation, Emdin has written on issues of race, culture, inequality, and education for theNew York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, among others.