Lisa Delpit

Lisa D. Delpit is an American educationalist, researcher and author known for her work on educational equity and cross-cultural communication in the classroom. In 1990 she received a MacArthur Fellowship, the only educator honored that year, in recognition of her scholarship. She has held positions including executive director of the Center for Urban Educational Excellence at Florida International University, the Benjamin E. Mays Chair at Georgia State University, and the first Felton G. Clark Distinguished Professorship at Southern University and A&M College. Delpit's most influential arguments challenge progressive education approaches that withhold explicit instruction from students of color, contending that children need direct teaching in the conventions of the culture of power to gain full access to academic and economic opportunity, while also having their own cultural strengths recognized. Her scholarship focuses on literacy and language development for African American and low-income students.