Hip-Hop Pedagogy

“…It's almost methodical, education is false assimilation
Building prisons is economical,” - Ras Kass “Ordo Abchao” (1996)

             Most of my desire to become an educator came from well outside the confines of my own education. Throughout my educational career, while my well-intentioned teachers were stressing the importance of the writings of a bunch of (admittedly excellent) dead white men, I was drawing the Wu-Tang logo in my notebook. When William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound were spinning their webs of wordy abandon in my English classes, I was dissecting Canibus lyrics for my own personal “extra credit” (that only I was grading). Sure, William Faulkner is great, but so is Kendrick Lamar…and El-P taught me just as much about industrialization as Upton Sinclair. In fact, it was through hip-hop’s socially subversive nature that I first started to think that maybe being a teacher could be for me. When I listened to groups like Public Enemy or U.G.K., I understood a counterbalance between overt and subtle social commentary, the complexity of lyricism and many more poignant topics. The point is, beyond just my own personal experience, hip-hop is a relevant tool for educators to use, especially at the middle grade level. That this is becoming more and more prevalent in education is exciting, yet I feel it still has yet to reach its full educational potential. As Ross M. Burkhardt and J. Thomas Kane state in “An Adult Advocate for Every Student” from the text This We Believe in Action, “’Young adolescents want desperately…to engage in informal conversations about things that interest them…’” (Burkhardt & Kane 65). Clearly, if engaged in a lesson where the art analyzed is relevant and feels informal enough to be engaging (after all, hip-hop was born out of the desire to have fun), middle grade students will be drawn into learning and, with vital scaffolding and appropriate, standards-based curricular parameters, be held to high standards that foster enthusiasm, not dread.

            Of course, the most obvious use of hip-hop in education is in English classes. This makes sense, as hip-hop is essentially poetry set to music. With the depth of many hip-hop artists lyrically, it’s no wonder why a case could and should be made for its inclusion in syntax-centered ELA environments. However, the significance of Hip-Hop is beyond textual analysis. H. Bernard Hall, a former middle school teacher now spearheading Hip-Hop Pedagogical research at West Chester University, describes hip-hop as a “cultural form that produces organic ideas, epistemologies, and dilemmas that can inform teaching and learning. (Hall 345)” Of the myriad of ways in which the practice of Hip-Hop itself can influence the teaching of English Language Arts, perhaps principal among them is in the re-tooling of certain practices of Hip-Hop culture for classroom use. In fact, this is a sentiment also echoed by Marc Lamont Hill in the video above.

Given the sociopolitical nature of Hip-Hop since its inception, it makes sense that Hall also suggests that Hip-Hop based education “…begins with intense, penetrative reflection on the ‘big ideas’ driving our politics and practice" (Hall 343). This can be utilized expertly in more abstract, less-linear subjects where socioeconomic and political leanings are crucial to understanding and expounding on the lessons, such as Social Studies and English. However, Hall extends HHBE “beyond the level of textual analysis" (Hall 344) by suggesting practical workshop tools to utilize the many aspects of Hip-Hop culture in a reformatted educational setting. This is primarily suggested through “freestyling” and “ciphering”. Hall writes of “freestyling” in particular, “This ‘improvisational intentionality’ is not only a central trope of…hip-hop culture, but also of teaching and learning in the ELA classroom" (Hall 345). By expanding Hip-Hop beyond the analysis of linguistics and broadening it to a set of literacies including kinesthetics, aesthetics and more, Hall showcases the literacy of Hip-Hop is complex and malleable in ways underutilized and, at times, even ignored by mainstream English Language Arts policy makers.

One question remains, however…how would middle schoolers benefit from the re-tooling of classroom structures? One way is through the kinesthetics tapped into in the rituals of hip-hop such as ciphering and freestyling. Studies have shown that kinesthetics are crucial to young adolescent education, a sentiment explained excellently in this video by an adolescent student in her TED Talk titled “Kinesthetic Learners” in the video above. Therefore, wouldn’t the inclusion of the freestyle, which celebrates improvisation and on-the-spot creativity, and its overarching parameter of the cipher help immensely? Freestyle ciphering in particular is a very kinesthetic. Just look at this classic video of the Wu-Tang Clan in a freestyle cipher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E_IkEb7pBE. Now, imagine this retooled to be a post reading exercise in which students gather in a group at the front of the room and just move and free-talk about what they have read. This low-stakes formative assessment would be perfect for middle schoolers, giving them a chance to move, laugh and be creative all while helping their educator assess where the class is individually and as a group.

            There is a substantial use for Hip-Hop outside of the humanities as well. One particular advantage that hip-hop has is in its application to the sciences. Science has played an integral role in hip-hop culture since the days of Main Source’s Breakin’ Atoms. From KRS-ONE to Ab-Soul, science has been used in situations ranging from the bolstering of braggadocio to shedding light on disadvantaged urban communities and the sinister industries who environmentally pollute their neighborhoods. Michael Cermak defines Hip-Hop with a socioecological bent as “green hip-hop"(Cermak 192) and places particular emphasis on Critical Ecological Literacy, defined by Cermak as “…the process of using reading and writing…to create messages that question, confront and reconfigure how environmental problems are constructed by…overlapping racial, cultural and economic power relations" (Cermak 197). Unlike in English Language Arts, the emphasis on social justice in congruency with issues directly connected to science has less obvious application properties, especially in the middle grades. However, we must provoke pedagogues to look at the “Green Hip-Hop” movement as going “beyond just reading rap lyrics about nature" (Cermak 194). Instead, we should seek to inspire educators to encourage middle grade students to act from a green hip-hop perspective by utilizing a myriad of methods, such as personification, role changing, personal empowerment and the freedom to use “native language” in students’ own expressive ecological hip-hop pieces. By connecting science to students’ lives through Hip-Hop, relevance is given to the topic in the eyes of the students. This is crucial, as relevance is often the first step toward engagement. As is stated in “Bringing Science to Life”, a study of middle grade science engagement, “…social learning not only engages students, but it also helps them to ‘learn how to learn’” (Bower et al. 70).

            Cermak quotes rapper KRS-One as saying, “’…you can’t just observe a hop, you gotta hop up and do it!’" (Cermak 194). Giving voice to marginalized and disadvantaged people requires action, and if Hip-Hop is about action, then “green hip-hop” is about infusing environmental concerns into the tasks Hip-Hop undertakes. By communicating with students using a medium native to them, though often disregarded by mainstream educational policy makers, students are given the freedom to construct and depict their comprehension of the subject using language familiar to them. By doing this, the educator empowers minority students and their cultures, something that the mainstream education system in America has often failed to do. Yes, proper grammar, adept writing and understanding of general scientific concepts are crucial and should be focused on in the classroom. However, by hooking students in with expressive activities that celebrate their diversity in a casual way, students feel agency in their own education and can better connect the lesson’s content to their immediate environment and concerns. This spark of engagement will enable students to want to participate more in lessons of a more formal, “standards-based” nature, as they will feel more comfortable knowing it is part of a program that celebrates their culture as well.

            Simply put, Hip-Hop has always been a tool of communication for groups whose voices are typically, and often intentionally, under represented. Indeed, a large part of the reason Hip-Hop based educational practices aren’t used more in educational environments is due to the systemic bias against the voices of African-Americans, Latinos, the Poor and many more communities whose struggles profit the maestros of upper-crust capitalism. Professor Hall writes, “Audre Lorde teaches us that ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.’" (Hall 347). It is often said that education is a tool of the elite. Indeed, Paulo Freire once wrote “…the implementation of a liberating education requires political power and the oppressed have none…" (Freire 8). Therefore, wouldn’t a new set of tools be required to level the playing field, or at least be acknowledged as equally valid and used as such? In the words of Professor Cermak, “…CEL is about adding more than one rhythm to the classroom…and…remixing our voice and perspective with that of our students…" (Cermak 202).

            How, then, can these implementations apply to broader issues culturally in middle level classrooms through action? This is a valid and important question. The foremost and easiest to say/ most difficult to actually do answer: tackling the issue of race. The wonderful thing about Hip-Hop based education in the middle grades is, depending on the racial make-up of the class, two possible benefits and challenges await. For Caucasian students, the benefits of Hip-Hop based pedagogy lie in the destabilization of stereotype and oscillation (and hopeful eradication) of oft-unidentified and occasionally apathetic cultural bias. Steven Netcoh writes in “Droppin’ Knowledge on Race: Hip-Hop, White Adolescents, and Anti-Racism Education”, “With direct and critical inquiry…Hip Hop has the capacity to expose white adolescents to diverse racial representations and discourses that undermine dominant paradigms of race and invite youth to reflect on how race operates in their own lives and society at large” (Netcoh 18). Now more than ever, young white adolescents are entering a culture in which they need to understand the history of race relations in the United States. White adolescent students also need to be sensitive to other cultural perspectives, experiences and struggles. Hip-Hop is an inviting, yet challenging, door into the world view of the “other” American for young white adolescents with less experiences interacting with students of color.

            Furthermore, young African-Americans, especially males, can find their voices honored in a system that often sadly fails to do so through the utilization of Hip-Hop based education. Thurman Bridges surmises in “Towards A Pedagogy of Hip Hop in Urban Teacher Education”, “…Hip Hop [is] grounded in principles of service, self-awareness, and sociopolitical resistance [and has a goal seeking to] demystify, humanize, and elevate the experiences and cultural expressions of Black men and American boys and throughout the world” (Bridges 335). By supporting cultural consciousness within students of color and by ensuring their experiences are honored and their voices are heard, educators would be doing more than just a service to their students. They’d be doing their job. After all, with the benefits for students of color so apparent from Hip-Hop’s use in the classroom, to not use it would be disrespectful to their very experiences. Given that much of schooling is a celebration of experiences, especially at the middle level, that option is simply unacceptable as we inch our way towards the new decade. Jill Ewing Flynn writes in “Critical Pedagogy with the Oppressed and the Oppressors: Middle School Students Discuss Racism and White Privilege”, “…skills and attitudes fostered by effective multicultural education are essential for all students, White and non-White…” (Flynn 109). I have to agree wholeheartedly. It’s time we move forward and incorporate more voices earlier. It’s time we support all students. It’s time we facilitate the dialogue of understanding. It’s time to move. Join the cipher.

Annotated Bibliography for Primary Resources

Bridges, T. (2011). “Towards a Pedagogy of Hip Hop in Urban Teacher Education”. The Journal of Negro Education, 80(3), 325-338. Retrieved from EBSCO.

            This article draws from a study of ten black male teachers from the “Hip-Hop Generation” and how their experiences as both African-American males and participants in Hip-Hop culture has affected their pedagogical leanings. It primarily focuses on “three organizing principles drawn from Hip-Hop Culture---(a) Call to Service, (b) Commitment to Self-Awareness, and (c) Resistance to Social Injustice” (Bridges 325). The article begins by describing the challenges young black teachers and students face teaching in urban environments. The article then defines “Hip-Hop” and “Hip-Hop Generation” in detail before closely examining the three organizing principles and their intersection with and effect on and in urban classrooms on young black male students. Perhaps much of the article’s many complex arguments can be summarized by Bridges’ assessment that the “…goal is to shed light on the spirit of service, found within Hip-Hop…that centers individual and community empowerment. Seamlessly connected to…hip-hop…[this empowerment] promotes self-awareness, social justice and activism” (Bridges 330). The article concludes with multiple recommendations and purposes both pre-service and in-service teachers can utilize in their application of Hip-Hop based education (or HHBE) in urban classrooms.

Cermak, M.J. (2012). “Hip-Hop, Social Justice, and Environmental Education: Toward a Critical Ecological Literacy”. The Journal of Environmental Education, 43(3), 192-203. Retrieved from EBSCO.

This article discusses Hip-Hop based education’s relevance in environmental science classrooms. Cermak defines Hip-Hop with a socioecological bent as “green hip-hop” (Cermak 192) and places particular emphasis on Critical Ecological Literacy, defined by Cermak as “…the process of using reading and writing…to create messages that question, confront and reconfigure how environmental problems are constructed by…overlapping racial, cultural and economic power relations” (Cermak 197). Throughout the article, Cermak uses examples from over four years of instructional implementation to convey how his use of Hip-Hop has translated a topic typically difficult to grasp to learners from disenfranchised socioeconomic, cultural and racial conditions. Examples of the myriad of ways that expressive Hip-Hop is infused into scientific curricula are peppered throughout the article. This emboldens Cermak’s claims and offers credence to his conviction that combining Hip-Hop and Critical Ecological Literacy can help students find the complex, and sometimes sterile, subject of environmental science relevant to them.

Hall, H.B. (2017). “Deeper than Rap: Expanding Conceptions of Hip-Hop Culture and Pedagogy in the English Language Arts Classroom.” Research in the Teaching of English, 51(3), 341-350. Retrieved from EBSCO.

This article focuses on the place that Hip-Hop based educational practices have in the English Language Arts classroom. It also discusses what needs to be done to maximize the potential of Hip-Hop Based Education in pedagogical settings. In particular, this article seeks to help educators put models of HHBE into active use in what Hall describes as “intersectional situations” (Hall 342). In other words, across multiple content areas. It then expands on the significance of Hip-Hop as being beyond textual analysis, instead describing it as a “cultural form that produces organic ideas, epistemologies, and dilemmas that can inform teaching and learning” (Hall 345). The article then offers a myriad of ways in which the practice of Hip-Hop itself can influence the teaching of English Language Arts. Hall ends the article by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of Hip-Hop pedagogical research and theory, concluding that until more research and experimentation is done, we may not know for sure how effective it is in the age of Common Core State Standards. Hall then proposes that the dismissal and neglect the policy-makers of English education have shown towards Hip-Hop has suggested this is an issue that is only beginning to move to the forefront of English Language Arts literacy studies and is likely based upon systemic racism and classism.

Munn-Joseph, M.S. (2010). “The Hip Hop Generation and Parent/School Relations”. Race, Gender & Class, 17(1-2), 217-223. Retrieved from EBSCO.

            This article explores the relationships between African-Americans of the Hip-Hop generation and their desires to see their children given quality education, largely utilizing their sense of agency and the tools thereof acquired through their exposure to Hip-Hop culture. As is stated in the article, “A major aim of this study was to examine the strategies by which Black parents born between 1963 and 1973, who identified with hip hop culture, negotiated and understood racism and race relations as they struggled to support their school age children” (Munn-Joseph 219). The article goes into explicit detail about how these individuals’ perspectives on self and society have been shaped by their exposure to Hip-Hop. The article then explores how these nuances are present in their interactions with the school systems and educational environments their children are learning in. Throughout the article, multiple questions arise, yet one remains the most prominent: “What can we do to ensure African-American youth are given an equal chance at a quality education?” I believe, and I feel Marlene S. Munn-Joseph believes, as well, that the answer lies in making these lessons empowering and relevant, largely through Hip-Hop.

Netcoh, S. (2013). “Droppin’ Knowledge on Race: Hip-Hop, White Adolescents, and Anti-Racism Education”. Radical Teacher: A Socialist, Feminist, and Anti-Racist Journal on the Theory and Practice of Teaching, 97, 10-19. Retrieved from EBSCO.

This article explores the ways in which white culture interacts and intersects with the predominately African-American culture of Hip-Hop, particularly in the context of Hip-Hop’s use in education. Of particular significance is the issue of how Hip-Hop based pedagogy could serve to better engage white students in the analysis of race in America. Of key focus is also how critical action towards racial inequality can be inspired in the process. It examines the potential problems inherent in white culture’s engagement with Hip-Hop without the structure of a specifically identified racial justice perspective, as many “…fail to comprehend or ignore its capacity as an agent for critical discourse on race” (Netcoh 11). Netcoh begins by examining the role race has played historically in America and in particular breaks down the idea of color blindness in white culture which “…presumes race inconsequential in individuals’ social experiences” (Netcoh 12). Netcoh then posits that through mindful hip-hop education, this “color blindness” can be eroded in favor of a racially conscious white student body. The article then explores Hip-Hop’s connections to racial stereotyping, suggesting that HHBE has a predominate goal of deliberately breaking down racial stereotypes and deactivating color blindness for the causes of social justice, something that can only be done through carefully selected representations of hip-hop. The article then ends with a myriad of ways in which Hip-Hop can be used effectively to address a multitude of diverse issues concerning racial justice.

Other Resources

Flynn, J. E. (2012). “Critical Pedagogy with the Oppressed and the Oppressors: Middle School Students Discuss Racism and White Privilege.” Middle Grades Research Journal, 7(2), 95-110.

Kinesthetic Learners [Video file]. (2015, April 2). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diMJhM8Y1N4&t=43s

Maine, L., Freiderich, A., Hames, J., Bredlow, B., Bower, K., & Pollack, J. (2018). “Bringing Science to Life: Using Social Learning to Make Real World Connections in Science.” Science Scope, 41(5), 64-71.

Marc Lamont Hill on Using Hip-Hop in the Classroom [Video file]. (2015, April 10). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKf0EnhWL-I

This We Believe in Action: Implementing Successful Middle Level Schools. (2012). Westerville, OH: Association for Middle Level Education.

Wu-Tang Clan - Freestyle (RARE)[Video file]. (2012, September 7). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E_IkEb7pBE