Affiliation and alienation: hip‐hop, rap, and urban science education

Abstract

The critiques of rap artists and other participants in hip‐hop culture provide data for teachers and researchers to investigate the attitudes of US urban youth towards schooling. This study explores the complex relationships between hip‐hop and science education by examining how rap lyrics project beliefs about schooling, the relevance of existing curriculum, and the intellectual capability of urban youth. These lyrics also provide a synopsis of this population’s alienation from schooling and from science education in particular. By examining student discourses in two US high schools, this study shows how co‐generative dialogues, and other classroom procedures derived from hip‐hop culture, may be used to modify teaching and learning in science and to ameliorate urban students’ alienation from schools.