White Hero Teacher and White Paternalism (#3)
What ‘white folks who teach in the hood’ get wrong about education
Christopher Emdin teaches at Columbia University Teacher College and is Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Columbia. He identifies a pervasive narrative in urban education: a savior complex that gives mostly white teachers in minority and urban communities a false sense of saving kids.
“The narrative exotic-izes youth and positions them as automatically broken,” he says. “It falsely positions the teacher, oftentimes a white teacher, as hero.”
He criticizes the “white hero teacher” concept as an archaic approach that sets up teachers to fail and further marginalizes poor and minority children in urban centers. In his book, “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood … and the Rest of Y’all Too,” Emdin draws parallels between current urban educational models and Native American schools of the past that measured success by how well students adapted to forced assimilation. Instead, he calls for a new approach to urban education that trains teachers to value the unique realities of minority children, incorporating their culture into classroom instruction.
I think framing this hero teacher narrative, particularly for folks who are not from these communities, is important. The model of a hero going to save this savage other is a piece of a narrative that we can trace back to colonialism; it isn’t just relegated to teaching and learning. It’s a historical narrative and that’s why it still exists because, in many ways, it is part of the bones of America. It is part of the structure of this country. And unless we come to grips with the fact that even in our collective American history that’s problematic, we’re going to keep reinforcing it. Not only are we setting the kids up to fail and the educators up to fail, but most importantly, we are creating a societal model that positions young people as unable to be saved.
I always ask my teachers why do they want to teach and I can tell by their responses how closely the white savior narrative is imbued in who they are or who they want to be. I always say, if you’re coming into a place to save somebody then you’ve already lost because young people don’t need saving. They have brilliance, it’s just on their own terms. Once we get the narrative shifted then every teacher can be effective, including white folks who teach in the hood.
I know that folks hear the title of my book “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood … and the Rest of Y’all Too,” and get upset. I’ve got folks who say to me “that’s inherently racist.” But no, because it’s a reality. The overwhelming CONTINUE READING: White Hero Teacher and White Paternalism (#3) | Educate All Students, Support Public Education
