From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood Reflections on Race, Culture, and Identity

A timely companion to the New York Times bestseller For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too


Progressive white educators on the challenges and reimaginings of anti-racist education, cultural responsiveness, and sustained liberatory learning practices

Designed for educators by educators, From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood is the white teachers’ guide to effective multicultural, anti-racist pedagogy.

Over 20 educators are featured in this book, representing different types of schools, different geographies, different durations of experience in the classroom, and different depths of experience in interrogating their whiteness. Throughout the text, nationally renowned educators and coeditors Dr. Christopher Emdin and sam seidel offer feedback and perspective on how to incorporate the practices and wrestle with the ideas outlined by the contributors.

Replete with practical reflections and actionable exercises, this book explores among other things:

—identity formation, healing, and growth in the early years of a teacher’s career

—the restrictive, harmful nature of standardization and the power of localization as a tool for transformation

—hip-hop as a vehicle for promoting culture and authenticity within the classroom

—whiteness as a racial identity and intentional anti-racist teacher trainings to identify and unlearn white supremacy

From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood is the essential classroom companion for every white teacher committed to fostering productive learning spaces that respect the races, cultures, and identities of their students. It offers all readers a window into the essential work that must be done to transform our nation's schools from sites of harm to sites of healing.

Christopher Emdin is professor of science education and the Maxine Greene Chair for Distinguished Contributions to Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. He is also Scholar/Griot in Residence at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The creator of the #HipHopEd social media movement and the Science Genius program, he is the author of the New York Times bestseller For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood . . . and the Rest of Y’all Too and Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation.

sam seidel is director of K12 Strategy + Research at the Stanford d.school. He has taught in a variety of settings, from first grade to community college, and directed youth programs for young people affected by incarceration. He is coauthor of Hip Hop Genius 2.0, Creative Hustle, and Changing the Conversation about School Safety.