For White Folks Teach in the Hood: A Reflection

Christopher Emdin’s book, For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood… And The Rest of Y’all Too is an excellent resource for teachers serving urban or underserved populations of students. The book addresses the common issue in a classroom with racial and socioeconomic diversity of students not having their needs understood or met, and feeling as though they do not belong in a classroom not built for them. The book provides techniques for fixing this and some insight into how a privileged teacher may go about instructing students who have not had the same opportunities that they did. Below is my own reflection on the text, which hopefully will be helpful to others involved in education as well.

5 Key Insights –

1. White teachers often neglect or fail to connect with students of color either due to a lack of effort or lack of ability. In my own teaching, it will be crucial for me to put forth effort to connect with students of color and look to credible resources if I struggle. I cannot rely on just my own experiences because they may not be similar to others and I could end up losing some students.
2. Oftentimes even teachers who really care about their students do not understand their culture or needs enough to relate to them and help them to succeed. This goes back to me being able to use outside resources to improve myself if I feel I am struggling. Of course I am willing to put in effort, but acknowledging that I may be misplacing that effort and adjusting will be important for me.
3. One of the most important components of getting students engaged and enjoying school is to make them feel like they belong and are needed in their classroom. This is where connecting with students and giving them useful assignments in class is so beneficial to them. Busy work or homework that students feel is unnecessary will not help them learn. They must be exposed to content that is made relevant to them and feel like they need to be at school in order to fulfill a role.
4. Giving students the agency to become the experts in their own learning is an important aspect of teaching for students who may be unengaged or disconnected from school. This can be relevant to all students but especially to marginalized groups. Giving them opportunities to control their learning can be refreshing to those who may not get to control many aspects of their life, and I will work hard to give these opportunities whenever I can. This will also help me to engage students in content.
5. The term “neo indigenous” is one that can be applied to many students, and that aspect of their identity is important to them and their attitudes towards formal education. This is where I will need to be mindful. Acknowledging student struggles and their identities is how I will be able to emotionally connect to students and hopefully get past the savior mentality so many teachers tend to accidentally adopt.

3 Learning Events Focused on Aspects of Emdin’s Book

1. Assignment of Roles in the Classroom
   1. When I was a high school student, I often found the assignment of roles in the classroom to be unnecessary and somewhat annoying. However, I have been lucky enough to have many opportunities to have a sense of belonging throughout my life. For some students, especially those are “neo indigenous,” those experiences are not as common. In these cases, having a role in the science classroom as someone who passes out equipment, collects work, distributes papers, or communicates with the office can be a huge deal. It can be a way to offer students a place where they are needed and feel comfortable, as described in Emdin’s book. In his example, a student felt so comfortable and needed in their classroom role they skipped out on a vacation so that their role was not unfulfilled. This story is a powerful one, and shows me how important these roles can be to some students. They are definitely worth implementing in the classroom.
2. Biology Project Focused on a Location of Student’s Choice
   1. In an effort to allow students to connect to their own culture and use it in the science classroom, an idea for a biology project dawned on me. When studying ecology and ecosystems, integrating culture may seem difficult. However, if students are given a choice on the location of their ecology and ecosystem analysis, an opportunity presents itself. For this assignment, students would have to create a presentation on an ecosystem. Allowing students to choose the location of this ecosystem allows the “neo indigenous” students to explore their culture and the ecology around it if they feel that is something they wish to do. This acknowledges their culture in a respectful way and allows them to talk about it in class. It also gives students control over their own learning, which will help to motivate and engage them.
3. Co-Teaching with Students
   1. Another idea to enhance a science classroom’s ability to teach students who feel disconnected from school as a result of their identity is a new take on the term co-teaching. Instead of working with multiple teachers, in this method students become their own co-teachers. As Emdin puts it, they become experts of their own learning. In a science classroom after content has been delivered to students, they will create their own lesson plan to explore the content further. Each student will do this. Creating a lesson plan for themselves means they get to self-reflect and incorporate techniques they will engage with and learn well with. Accountability may be difficult here, but the idea is that these students will be reached in a new way and stay more engaged and feel more agency. They will have the power to control their experience at school, which for many “neo indigenous” students is a new chance.

Social Media Resources

This TED Talk by author Christopher Emdin addresses some of the themes from his book and how educators can create meaningful experiences for students.

This link takes you to Christopher Emdin’s X account. Here discusses his writings as well as his thoughts on education and how to improve it as a system.