ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the work of contemporary educator Christopher Emdin. Emdin says that the students and the teacher are apprentices to each other. The students teach their culture to the teacher and the teacher gives them the lesson to place into their cultural context. He argues that when the students understand the full context, they can see that like the art forms they practice there are rules for each. Emdin says co-teaching in reality pedagogy requires apprenticeship.38 Students are positioned as experts on how to deliver the content of a lesson while the teacher is their apprentice. Reality pedagogy draws from the students’ culture to enhance learning by using urban cultural practices such as hip-hop and rap. Democracy as a way of life depends on cooperation, trust, and communication. It requires free and full conversation about the issues of the day between people who have faith in the capacities of one another for intelligen.
