Beacon Press: For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y'all Too
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For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y'all Too

Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education (10th Anniversary Edition)

Author: Christopher Emdin

10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood . . . And the Rest of Y’all Too from award-winning educator Dr. Christopher Emdin

Featuring a new preface from the author and a foreword from renowned education researcher Lisa Delpit, this 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller offers a new generation of teachers the pedagogical tools to improve education for urban youth of color

Merging real stories with theory, research, and practice, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood . . . and the Rest of Y’all Too is the much-needed antidote to traditional top-down pedagogy, radically reframing the landscape of urban education for the better


Drawing on his own experience of feeling undervalued and invisible in classrooms as a young man of color and merging his experiences with more than a decade of teaching and researching in urban America, award-winning educator Christopher Emdin offers a new lens on an approach to teaching and learning in urban schools.

He begins by taking to task the perception of urban youth of color as unteachable, and he challenges educators to embrace and respect each student’s culture and to reimagine the classroom as a site where roles are reversed and students become the experts in their own learning.

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to unleash the brilliance and eagerness of youth and educators alike—both of whom have been typecast and stymied by outdated modes of thinking about urban education.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. Merging real stories with theory, research, and practice, Emdin demonstrates how by implementing the “Seven C’s” of reality pedagogy in their own classrooms, urban youth of color benefit from truly transformative education.

For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood . . . and the Rest of Y’all Too has been featured in MotherJones.com, Education Week, Weekend All Things Considered with Michel Martin, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, PBS NewsHour.com, Slate, The Washington Post, Scholastic Administrator Magazine, Essence Magazine, Salon, ColorLines, Ebony.com, Huffington Post Education.
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For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y'all Too

ISBN: 978-080702627-4
Publication Date: 12/1/2026
Size:5.5 x 8.5 Inches (US)
Price:  $19.95
Format: Paperback
Not Yet Published
Will Ship On: December 2026
(Backorder policy)
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