Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

Since its original publication, education professor Lisa Delpit’s Other People’s Children has become a foundational text in the struggle for equity in education. Drawing on her experience as a teacher, researcher, and Black woman navigating predominantly white institutions, the MacArthur Award-winning educator offers a searing critique of how power and race operate in the classroom—and how well-intentioned educators often fail the students they most want to help.

Delpit’s central insight—that academic struggles among children of color often result from cultural miscommunication, not lack of ability—has transformed the thinking of teachers, administrators, and teacher educators nationwide. With over 300,000 copies sold and awards including the American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice and Choice magazine’s Outstanding Academic Book, this classic continues to shape educational conversations across the country.

This thirtieth anniversary edition features a new foreword by Christopher Emdin, the New York Times bestselling author of For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood . . . And the Rest of Y’all Too, as well as a new preface by Lisa Delpit reflecting on education reform during the decades since Other People’s Children first exploded on the scene.