Hip Hop Pedagogy Research Articles

Knowledge of Self: Possibilities for Spoken Word Poetry, Hip Hop Pedagogy, and “Blackout Poetic Transcription” in Critical Qualitative Research

This article traces the development of Blackout Poetic Transcription (bpt) as a critical methodology for artist-scholars engaged with Hip Hop pedagogy in higher education spaces. We include Keith’s outline of the bpt method and Endsly’s first hand account of implementing the practice in an undergraduate classroom. Together, the authors grapple with mainstream and alternative identities within their Hip Hop praxis as spoken word artists and educators.

Introduction: Teaching for Critical Consciousness at the Intersection of Critical Media Literacy and Hip Hop Education

Introduction: Teaching for Critical Consciousness at the Intersection of Critical Media Literacy and Hip Hop Education

“I am not Jasmine; I am Aladdin”: How Youth Challenge Structural Inequity through Critical Hip Hop Literacies

Abstract Previous research on Hip Hop Education has advocated for the inclusion of critical media literacy in schools and for the recognition of Hip Hop music and culture as a central component of young people’s literate and social identities (e.g. Hall, 2017; Kelly, 2020; McArthur, 2016). This article places critical Hip Hop literacy at the intersections of media education, social justice education, and culturally sustaining pedagogies by discussing the role of Hip Hop literature and culture as a form of text that can foster young people’s critical consciousness development in the secondary classroom. Through analysis of data collected in a high school Hip Hop Literature and Culture class, this qualitative case study examines how critical Hip Hop literacy practices can support youth sociopolitical development in racially diverse classrooms and schools. The results of this study reveal the need for schools to support students in identifying, analyzing, and challenging structures of oppression through the development of critical Hip Hop literacies.

“It’s TikTok with no c!”: the Need for Critical Literacy Curricula in the Elementary Classroom

Abstract Students walk into the classroom with numerous hours of exposure to social media. Through different social media platforms, they engage in digital literacy and experience entertainment but also, questions, frustrations and different negotiations of their identities. This qualitative, ethnographic case study was done in an elementary classroom in the Midwest. Participants revealed their keen awareness to the viral debates that happened on TikTok (a mobile video- sharing app) regarding race and the frustrations they experienced through it personally. These findings suggest the urgent need for critical literacy curricula (specifically critical Hip Hop pedagogy) to be implemented within schools for dialogue to even begin which could eventually become an avenue for students to express their agency.

Inclusive Education for Disabled Refugee Children: A (Re)Conceptualization through Krip-Hop

Inspired by Hip-Hop pedagogy and the Krip-Hop movement, this paper aims to address the limits of inclusive education for disabled migrant students, by drawing on the community event “I am Hip-Hop” that took place in June 2019 in Italy. Through this community intervention, migrant and disabled migrant youth were provided a creative platform to reflect critically about their identity and journey. Ultimately, this paper offers teachers recommendations to anchor disabled migrant culture in educational practices.

Transferring differentiation and integration through picking up students’ speech by hip-hop and its appreciation

Janiec Jerzy, Transferring differentiation and integration through picking up students’ speech by hip-hop and its appreciation. Culture – Society – Education no 2(16) 2019, Poznań 2019, pp. 23–44, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI 10.14746/kse.2019.16.2.
 The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate the Hip-hop based Education (HHBE) and Hip-hop Pedagogy (HHPED) as two accommodating strategies that may be utilized fourishingly to differentiate a teaching-learning process further to integrate learners in any education-like environment, as the example the IB World School No. 006654 International School of Bydgoszcz (ISOB) has been chosen. This is the first study presenting international community in a truly homogeneous society (ca. 98% of Polish inhabitants in their country). The author enlists affirmative methodologies beginning with a hypothesis that the Hip-hop cultureis gaining popularity among adolescents in greater numbers. As a result of observations, interviews and survey he is acquainted with students’ wants and needs. There is a necessity to put them in a bigger picture by analyzing the phenomenon from a historical, sociological, political, economical and intercultural viewpoint on a local (Bydgoszcz’s) and global scale. And finally, the author is describing a use of the aforesaid strategies through transfer skills that are taught in the IB History and Social Studies classes.

Listening differently: youth self-actualization through critical Hip Hop literacies

Purpose This study aims to refocus the field of Hip Hop based education on youth identities and epistemologies rather than on the tangible artifacts of Hip Hop culture. It argues that centering classroom pedagogy and curriculum on youth self-actualization best supports the critical literacy development of students grappling with social and structural inequities within an ever-evolving youth and media culture. Design/methodology/approach Building upon previous literature on critical literacy, Hip Hop pedagogy and adolescent identity formation, this paper shares data from a semester-long teacher–researcher case study of a high school Hip Hop literature and culture class to explore how young people develop critical literacies and self-actualizing practices through a critical study of youth culture. Findings For youth engaged in Hip Hop culture, co-constructing spaces to discuss their consumption of popular media and culture in class allows them to openly grapple with questions of identity, provide support for each other in dealing with these questions and reflect more critically upon their self-constructed, performed and perceived identities. Originality/value This form of English education challenges traditional notions of teaching and learning as it positions students as co-creators of curriculum and as part of the curriculum itself. Building on research that frames Hip Hop pedagogy as a culturally relevant tool for engaging urban youth, this paper argues that educators should approach critical Hip Hop literacy development as a means by which young people across diverse educational and social backgrounds come to know themselves and others as part of the process of self-actualization and critical resistance.

“Be Current, or You Become the Old Man”: Crossing the Generational Divide in Hip-Hop Education

Hip-hop culture has been an influential force on a large segment of this generation’s teachers and a tool for building relationships with students. The contemporary hip-hop of today’s generation differs from that of many hip-hop educators/pedagogues. This case study explored how one hip-hop generation teacher attempted to cross this generational divide rather than discount youth culture in the classroom. The findings of this study focus on how the teacher’s personal identification with hip-hop culture informed his relationships with students and how he drew from key narratives and ideas in hip-hop to communicate his views of his classroom community.

If You Don’t Know, Now You Know: Utilizing Hip-Hop Pedagogy as a Tool for Promoting Change in Students and Community

Hip-hop began in the 1970s as an artistic response to social, political, and economic oppression within African American communities in the United States. This artivist movement allowed community members to convey social inequities through music. Decades later, educators have begun using hip-hop as an educational tool. Our study examined whether hip-hop, as an educational pedagogy, could be a catalyst for perceived community change, inside and outside a collegiate classroom. Results suggested that hip-hop pedagogy can be a positive tool in student learning and community change, creating a safe educational space encouraging inclusion, self-expression, and student/instructor engagement.

"When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong”: Enacting Critical Pedagogies of Hip-hop in Mainstream Schools

In the context of transformative practices in public education, hip-hop is often presented as a culturally relevant solution to the disempowering curriculum and structures that have consistently ignored the needs of minoritized youth. The stories we tell of hip-hop in schools typically highlight the successes of these programs, cultivating the illusion that hip-hop pedagogy is a straightforward approach to youth-centered, culturally-relevant education. However, as is the case with critical pedagogies in practice, many of the lessons to be learned rise out of the difficulties of enacting these pedagogies in real classrooms. As reflexive scholars, it is important to not only focus on our successes, but also to highlight our challenges for the purpose of improvement. Based on their individual experiences as teachers in classrooms engaged in hip-hop based education, the authors explore the challenges that exist within the practice of critical pedagogy and raise important questions about the efficacy of hip-hop pedagogy and liberatory education in traditional school settings.

Hip hop education = informed artist citizens

What follows is a spoken word piece delivered at the Suncoast Music Education Research Symposium in February of 2019 to a group of higher education faculty and doctoral students. It is the intersection of hip hop lyrics and my white privilege, effectively composed as an artistic response to demonstrate the deep knowledge contained within hip hop lyrics and the value gleaned from their critical analyses. The impetus for this piece was my desire to show the conference attendees an alternative to perpetuated and damaging stereotypes about hip hop, a problem which I perceive as the prevalent understanding of hip hop culture and the dominant critique used to oppress this beautiful art form in educational spaces. A caveat about how I chose to sample some of the lyrics is worth mentioning. In some cases, the first-person perspective of the artists, embodied by their use of ‘I’ or ‘we’ in a song, was not appropriate and lyrics were altered to ‘they’ or ‘them’. This choice was to show internal reflection rather than to imply a lived or even co-opted experience by the author. It is important to stress ‘they’ have informed ‘me’. Jvaust as listening to a piece of music would likely be more powerful than studying the score, this piece may best be received by watching the performance.

Real talk: Using song lyrics to teach perception and the Johari Window

ABSTRACTRap music is an essential component of hip-hop culture and hip-hop pedagogy. The activity uses music, in particular hip-hop music, as a means of teaching the Johari Window. Students were required to complete the Johari Window panels (open, blind, hidden, unknown) using lyrics from popular songs. The article details this activity and its applicability in communication courses.Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Small Group Communication, Intercultural Communication.Objectives: This activity aims to increase students’ understanding of the Johari Window and to demonstrate the applicability of the Johari Window to their everyday lives.

Solution or a “Fake Sense of Integration”?

During the past decades, rap music and hip hop culture have increasingly been utilized within the context of the Danish welfare state's integration project as a solution to societal problems with youths, who experience being marginalized and "Othered" within Danish society. This article addresses some of the contradictions that are related to this. By approaching the blend of hip hop pedagogy and policies against radicalization and criminalization of these youths through the theoretical lens of social technologies, it can be illustrated how mechanisms of power are conducted within social rap-based programmes. While such programmes are often considered as great successes by funding bodies and users alike, the article critically discusses how the use of rap as a resource for citizenship-building and inclusion of the target group in a broader societal context might entail the risk of actually excluding them.

Hip Hop Pedagogy as Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

This paper argues that Hip Hop Pedagogy is a version of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and should be a part of art education. Further, we believe that when exploring Hip Hop Pedagogy, teachers need to reference the work of Black female and non-binary artists. After an overview of Hip Hop Pedagogy and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, we argue that these approaches should be a consistent part of art education. Through the work of contemporary visual artist and DJ, Rozeal, we offer suggestions for art educators about how they might transition their practice to embrace some aspects of Hip Hop Pedagogy. Specifically, through sampling and the distinction of cultural appreciation versus appropriation, we believe that art educators can change their practice to make their teaching more relevant to their students and to contemporary culture.

Hip hop and music education: Where is race?

Abstract Engagement with hip hop – a cultural form that emerged from Black communities in New York City in the 1970s (Chang 2005) – as White listeners, musicians, educators and researchers requires asking thoughtful questions about race, racism and power. This introduction considers ethical issues that may arise from hip hop pedagogy and scholarship and explores the imperative to grapple with Whiteness when centring hip hop in our praxis. Power relations intricately shape hip hop education and hip hop research; as such, developing a practice of questioning and ‘second guessing’ ourselves as educators and researchers may allow us to develop an ethical practice for engaging with hip hop that centres race, racism and Whiteness, and refuses to reinscribe structural racist and salvationist power relations.

Hip-Hop pedagogy as production practice: Reverse-engineering the sample-based aesthetic

Abstract Hip-hop music practice contains a rich matrix of creative methods within its paradigm, which can inform and inspire music production pedagogy. The techno-artistic trajectory of rap production consists of numerous performing, engineering and production phases, while it may also involve self-contained developmental practices, such as the creation of intermediate content for sampling. The well-documented issues affecting phonographic sampling have given rise to alternative approaches, inviting both live musicianship and a dependence on synthesized sonics within hip-hop practice. As a hybrid production vehicle par excellence, Hip-Hop provides a fertile context for the application of diverse techniques in pursuit of inter-stylistic aesthetics. The article explores the spectrum of creative opportunities that lie between live performance, sample-based processes and notions of ‘composition’ as encompassed within the hip-hop paradigm. The aim is to identify under-represented aspects of contemporary music production and unexploited synergies in popular music curricula that may benefit from further integration.

Strength in numbers: B-girls, gender identities and hip-hop education

Abstract This article examines the experiences of females in local, community breaking (dance) programmes. The Toronto B-Girl Movement is a series of programmes offering lessons in breaking led by KeepRockinYou, an arts collective of women. Through ethnographic methods, researchers considered what motivates novice b-girls to take up breaking and what their experience of the scene and programme are. Building on the seminal work about gender performativity (Butler 1990), popular music education and gender (Green 1997), and female-led spaces (Björck 2011), we argue that novice b-girls do not necessarily identify their dance practice as resistant, empowering or ‘badass’ (Johnson 2014), instead these discourses are learned, performed and/or rejected. We suggest that intergenerational exchanges between women are productive in facilitating social rewards for new dancers (friendships, access to codes and conventions of hip-hop culture, mentorship and moral support). A growing number of females participating in the hip-hop scene locally is one result.

Hip-Hop authenticity and music education: Confronting the concept of keeping it real

Abstract The growing area of Hip-Hop pedagogy scholarship contains many meaningful implications and possibilities for music education. However, Hip-Hop’s fervent emphasis on authenticity (i.e. keeping it real) may cause music educators and students alike to view inclusions of Hip-Hop in school settings with a healthy dose of scepticism. Is a music classroom capable of keeping it real? Conceptualizing authenticity as a static condition or set of characteristics may impede the intentions of educators and does not reflect the complicated and contested nature of Hip-Hop authenticity. Viewing authenticity as an action offers more nuanced and meaningful examinations of Hip-Hop cultures and provides discursive and performative spaces for students and teachers to experience the possibilities of Hip-Hop pedagogies. In this article, the author demonstrates the complexity of Hip-Hop authenticity and offers ways forward for music educators interested in including Hip-Hop in school music settings.

Concept Raps versus Concept Maps: A Culturally Responsive Approach to STEM Vocabulary Development

This article argues that the development of rap song lyrics or lyrical concept mapping can be a viable pedagogical alternative to the development of concept maps as a means to reinforce STEM vocabulary. Hip-hop pedagogy is a culturally responsive pedagogy that leverages the funds of knowledge acquired from hip-hop culture. Unfortunately, many students with strong hip-hop cultural identities may lack equally strong mathematics identities. Given the success of hip-hop pedagogies within the science content area, we posit that hip-hop pedagogies are appropriate in other STEM content areas such as mathematics. Concept mapping is an instructional tool that has been empirically validated as an effective means to develop strong conceptualizations of mathematics content. While hip-hop pedagogy is well established in the science content area, it remains underdeveloped within mathematics education. We argue that the lyrical structure of a rap song is fundamentally similar to the structure of a concept map. This article provides a framework to support lyrical concept mapping as a culturally responsive instructional tool that can be used as an alternative to traditional concept mapping. Special attention is placed on the use of hip-hop pedagogy to affirm and empower dually marginalized students.

Towards a Hip Hop Pedagogy of Discomfort

In this article, we offer philosophical reflections on our participation in a hip hop network and seminar series, UK HipHopEd, where British hip hop artists, activists and educators meet to deliberate over the politics of their work. We analyse this dialogic cultural space with reference to Megan Boler’s notion of a “pedagogy of discomfort”. We argue that the productive tension of the seminars owes much to the diversity of the participants. We discuss how these participants, despite a common interest in hip hop, may have to bridge epistemological and ontological divides in order to understand and accept each other. We examine how dialogue can founder on intransigence and dogmatism when discomfort becomes too difficult to tolerate. We conclude that these reflexive encounters can, however, cultivate a willingness to “stay with” discomfort. This, we insist, opens up new educational and activist horizons within and beyond UK HipHopEd, which are alive to transformative encounters.