In an impassioned, entertaining and unifying presentation, Dr. Christopher Emdin spoke to fellow Black academics about retaining their unique voices while doing meaningful work with far-reaching impact.
During the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting, The Journal of Negro Education provided some counterprogramming with an event titled “UnAERA.” In its third year, UnAERA focuses on issues faced by Black educators and researchers. This year’s featured speaker was Emdin, a tenured professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Techology at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and an author of the New York Times best-seller For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’All Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education.
Dr. Ivory A. Toldson, editor-in-chief of The Journal, said UnAERA grew out of a desire to not stick to a typical script of objective research, but rather to make sure Black academics are contributing to the conversation in ways that open up the field to solve the issues they care deeply about.
“How do you be more intentional about your work? How do you be more available to our people? How do we not objectify our people by making them research subjects, but really capture their humanity and deal with all of the social forces that are against them?”asked Toldson. “Objective research, pure and simple, especially in the hands of people who are implicated in oppression, has not served us well,” he added.
Toldson described Emdin as someone who breaks down the science of educating Black children in a way that gets to the core issues. He said that Emdin has pushed back on the notion of pure objectivism and is bold and unapologetic about using an authentic Black aesthetic to develop creative and innovative solutions.
In a lyrical, griot-style conversation, Emdin began by detailing what guides his work. He said the first thing he always advocates for is the concept of hip-hop education. Utilizing the hashtag #HipHopEd, Emdin began a conversation on social media in 2011 that has grown into an education movement.
“In my career, I have oftentimes been faced with such venom by the idea of [utilizing] hip-hop and hip-hop culture and saying that hip-hop is an approach, a theory, a practice, a sensibility,” said Emdin.
