Abstract
Hip Hop culture has shown an increasing presence in mainstream schooling over the last 15 years. This presence has taken many forms, including extracurricular programs, pedagogical tools, and whole-school approaches to student learning and development. Yet, discourse explicitly exploring the use of Hip Hop to facilitate wellbeing outcomes in schools remains limited. To explore the state of current research at this particular intersection, this paper presents a narrative synthesis of 22 research articles reporting on the use of Hip Hop interventions for wellbeing in school settings. Results indicated a growing rate of published research articles in this area, focusing health promotion for underprivileged students of colour in urban US settings, and the need for more methodologically sound research which critically engages with socio-political contexts. Nevertheless, important benefits were reported across studies, demonstrating the value of Hip Hop in promoting across the physical, social and mental wellbeing.
Highlights
Hip Hop’s role in education settings has received significant attention in recent decades
The only other element reported as the program focus was “dance,”2 yet it often shared this focus with “rap.” Four articles reported a more wholistic approach, centring three or more elements with explicit reference to Hip Hop culture
Connections to wider literature on the therapeutic benefits of Hip Hop is unmistakable, given interventions consistently followed, or were framed within, the work of key Hip Hop or and rap therapy theorists such as Don Elligan (2004 ; 2012) and the late Edgar Tyson (2002 ; 2004). This link to existing therapeutic discourse signifies the relevance of this work to music therapy, as has previously been shown in texts such as Hadley and Yancy's (2012) Therapeutic uses of rap and hip hop
Summary
Hip Hop’s role in education settings has received significant attention in recent decades This has been related to pedagogical applications, both as a way to engage students, and as an educational discourse that aligns closely with critical pedagogies (Petchauer, 2009). Given its socio-historical foundations are built on both resisting oppression and celebrating community, this process of engagement can be seen to foreground inclusion and diversity, rather than perpetuating structural disadvantage (Alim, 2007) Such factors are considered by many as critical for pursuing social justice through education in the 21st Century (Ladson-Billings, 2015)
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