This section unashamedly has a TL;DR badge at its front door so if you don’t want to do a slightly deeper dive into exploring what is meant by poetry-pedagogy or hip-hop pedagogy then it probably isn’t for you. But otherwise jump right in.
The UK’s National Literacy Trust’s report Children, Young People and Poetry in 2024 makes for interesting reading but also flags some areas of serious concern about missed opportunities.
More than 1 in 2 (51.2%) children and young people [aged between 8-16 years] who responded to our survey [n=4,372] told us that they didn’t engage with poetry. When asked why they didn’t engage with poetry, most thought it was boring (41.2%) or that it wasn’t about topics they were interested in (31.8%).
That means, however, that 48.8% did engage with poetry in some form. 13.0% writing or performing it 11.7% of them writing and then performing their own compositions.
The reasons why children wrote or performed poetry should be noted.
Of the group of children and young people who told us they wrote or performed poetry, 3 in 4 (74.2%) wrote poetry and 2 in 5 (41.9%) performed it.
Of children and young people who told us they wrote or performed poetry, more than half wrote to feel creative, with nearly 1 in 2 (49.6%) doing so to express their ideas and imagination and nearly 1 in 2 writing to express their thoughts and feelings (49.2%) and to feel happier (47.3%).
But the older the young person the less likely they were to engage.
There is a significant decline in interest among older children, with only 1 in 6 (17.3%) young people aged 14 to 16 engaging in their free time compared with 1 in 2 (48.7%) of those aged 8 to 11.
But the hot button finding for Dada de Dada in this reports was:
Interestingly, more children and young people who receive free school meals say they engage with poetry in their free time than their peers who do not receive free school meals, both in terms of consuming (32.6% vs 20.9%) and creating (18.3% vs 11.3%) poetry.
The National Literacy Trust’s conclusion is that poetry is an important pedagogy meriting considerably more attention.
This report highlights the significant benefits poetry brings to children and young people’s lives. It offers a unique way to foster creativity, support mental wellbeing, and encourage self-expression. Notably, it can be a powerful tool in literacy education, particularly for disadvantaged students who consistently show higher engagement with poetry. The introspective nature of poetry helps children and young people process complex emotions, a critical need given the rising challenges of our technological and socioeconomically turbulent post-pandemic society. The National Literacy Trust advocates for increased intellectual and financial investment in poetry-based pedagogies to harness poetry’s potential at this time of profound change.
The economically disadvantaged engage more with poetry and derive benefit from exploring emotions and developing creativity? Yet older children don’t see the relevance?
Now let’s go back to our Jack Black type character:
As in the School for Rock film when our mainstream education pedagogies are set up for:
It is hard to see where a Jack Black type input would even be tolerated in many mainstream schools never mind be given a place in the curriculum. To make that sort of inroads we first have to overcome barriers to what is defined as poetry – or more accurately permissable forms of poetry.
T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land has no difficulty being on the approved list but it needs a few creative pioneers and a supportive head teacher to break down the barriers of the mind in both teachers and students. Again the National Literacy Trust highlights one such project.
Mehwash Kauser adopted Imran’s approach of making poetry more relevant to pupils’ interests by comparing Shakespeare and Chaucer to rap lyrics, including those from artist Tupac Amaru Shakur. Through creating opportunities to read a rich range of poetry from the past and present and encouraging recitals, Mehwash found she was able to increase her pupils’ comprehension of poetry by showing that the ideals behind the works of traditional poets continue to live on in the lyrics of some of the music they listen to. (in Appleton Academy pioneers innovative approach to teaching poetry, National Literacy Trust 27 Nov 2015)
In a similar vein consider the work of the UK’s music and theatre production company The HipHop Shakespeare Company (THSC). THSC explores the social, cultural and linguistic parallels between the works of William Shakespeare and that of modern day hip-hop artists. A good introduction to their analytical and creative work was the TEDx talk Hip-Hop & Shakespeare? by the company’s founder and BAFTA & MOBO award-winning hip-hop artist Akala in 2011. TED talks are meant to be relatively short (20m) and inspirational and this one certainly cast a high energy and interactive new light on Shakespeare’s skillful use of iambic pentameter to follow the ‘beat’ or natural rhythm that closely mimics the patterns of everyday English speech. An insight and skillset now being employed (either consciously or unconsciously) in performances of much hip-hop music and rap.
Over in the US, arguably, the culture of hip-hop appears to have permeated educational thinking to a greater degree than in the UK. In the 2024 National Poetry Month we find The poetry of hip-hop: A playlist for your classroom (Britannia Education, 10 March 2024) demonstrating the sort of imagination and articulate rhetoric that also applies outside of the US context.
Connections to literacy come in many forms, such as hip-hop culture, rap lyrics, spoken word, poetry, and other content that covers issues currently impacting students. These formats and themes are powerful pathways toward engaging with the written and spoken word, as well as self-exploration and expression. They can act as tools for the next generation to incite change in their own lives, communities, and the world … While rap music is complex in both content and context, some songs are not suitable for the classroom. However, there are many songs that are PG, poignant, poetic, and applicable to classroom lessons. We’ve put together a hip-hop playlist of songs that are lyrically clean with empowering, uplifting, and thoughtful messages.
The New York based Flocabulary is an educational platform widely used by schools in the US that uses hip-hop and rap music to teach academic concepts across various subjects, such as language, arts, math, social studies, and science.
Hip-hop also now has some academic momentum. For example, Harvard’s Hiphop Archive & Research Institute promotes the academic study of rap and hip-hop. The New York based Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) has a scholars programme supporting international research and projects. In the UK it is now possible to study and practice for a BA/BSc (Hons) or Masters degree in Rap & MC at the Academy of Contemporary Arts. Given that the performing arts are of major economic and cultural benefit to the UK this flagship course merits attention. The Department of Music at the University of Bristol in the UK offers a unit on Hip-hop Music and Culture.
The British children’s author, poet, broadcaster, and scriptwriter Michael Rosen hosts the long-running BBC Radio 4 show Word of Mouth. The episode titled The Poetry of Pop (26 January 2021) in which Rosen is joined by Adam Bradley Professor of English at UCLA and author of the books The Poetry of Pop and Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop is worth listening to all the way through. Near the end at circa 22 minutes in is a section on hip-hop in which Bradley says:
At the heart of hip-hop, at least as a linguistic practice, is wordplay. What can you do to have fun, and to extract from language a kind of pleasure, and a kind of puzzle. That’s what rap at its best does and lyrics.
Earlier in the episode (13m:40s) during a discussion about the controversy about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 for bridging the gap between music and poetic expression Bradley emphasized his views as poetry being something designed to be heard not just read.
I have a different view of poetry. I tend to think that poetry and I would wager to guess that you [Rosen] do as well, that it can be any number of things. It can be playful and direct. And live in sound as much as in sense. For all of that I think what the Swedish academy saw in Dylan is the capacity to something miraculous with this heritage that stretches back to Homer and Sappho … All of these poets were writing with the idea of being heard and Dylan has done just that.
Earlier in this post we spotlighted the following recommendation.
The National Literacy Trust advocates for increased intellectual and financial investment in poetry-based pedagogies to harness poetry’s potential at this time of profound change.
Whilst the UK has an incredibly fertile and vibrant music culture and hip-hop resonates very deeply with the young penetration of hip-hop pedagogies into the mainstream curriculum is going to require considerable effort and evidence gathering to persuade decision-makers, including many teachers.
Most penetration, therefore, is currently via extracurricular workshops or youth programs to encourage self-expression and critical thinking. Part of the challenge perhaps is that hip-hop and rap are seen as almost recreational activities at best consigned to the broad category of music. In the UK, however, its National Curriculum designates music as a mandatory curriculum subject in state schools only up to age 14 years (Key Stage 3) and even then the quality and depth of music education can vary significantly. Interestingly, despite hip-hop being the dominant musical genre the UK Department for Education Model Music Curriculum: Key Stage 3 (2021) appears to feel the Blues is the most worthy genre for the Year 9 (14 year olds) Culmination Projects. It should be noted, however, that the Department for Education model curriculums are guidelines not prescriptions.
Unpacking the Portmanteau
But poetry-based pedagogies, hip-hop pedagogies, rap-based pedagogies are confusing and potentially somewhat intimidating portmanteau terms that attempt to mashup whatever meanings are being perceived to be contained within, and conveyed by, each separate word.
That is a problem.
It’s a problem because there is risk in assuming that there is a common understanding and agreement about the meanings contained within, and conveyed by each separate word. What is hip-hop? What is its architecture? What is its knowledge and research base? What is its history? What are its influences? What are its goals? What is its ethos? What is its ideology?
So to progress a broader acceptance of a hip-hop as pedagogy the advocates need to be able to articulate, illustrate, and demonstrate a clear vision of both what hip-hop is, what form(s) the pedagogy or pedagogies take and why they should be employed.
The architecture of hip-hop is often expressed as having five elements.
- DJing (Turntablism): create innovative sounds and music by manipulating vinyl records on turntables and via mixers
- MCing (Rapping): rhythmic spoken or chanted lyrics to tell a story, make a social comment or for self-expression
- Breakdancing (B-Boying/B-Girling): a dynamic and acorbatic/athletic style of street dance performed to breakbeats
- Graffiti Art: a form of public art in murals or designs for marginalized voices to make their mark
- Knowledge: the intellectual and social consciousness of hip-hop culture emphasizing the understanding of social issues, history, and promoting the power of self-expression.
The first three elements have been pretty well absorbed by and positively received into mainstream western culture and have contributed marvellously to its cultural development. Elements 4 and 5, however, arguably, have more persuading to do.
Graffiti: Art or Anarchy?
Some graffiti are examples of outstandingly memorable ‘works of art’ but, arguably, much currently encapsulated within the graffiti category appear to be the equivalent of the chaotic scrawlings of a toddler without impulse control who has got their hands on a marker pen in a room with a newly painted wall when their parents are not paying attention. It is unfortunate that in the minds of many this ‘tagging’ and graffiti art are equivalents. That is perhaps unfortunate. For there is a chasm of perception between the apparent scrawls and the best of street art. The former is easily perceived as talentless defacement, vandalism or mutated protest, or as territorial markings by disaffected groups. Such perceptions in turn damage the development and broader acceptance of the art form. One of the great ironies of graffiti is that if it is perceived as being too successful or controversial in its message it too becomes a magnet for graffiti and protest (see below).
Banksy’s Well Hung Lover defaced street art (2018)
Mojo0306, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Also, if graffiti art is to be restricted to only marginalized voices then it is by implication an exclusive not inclusive art form? For then who defines marginalised and how is it manifested? What degree of marginalisation is acceptable? And if the art becomes applauded and recognised (and therefore accrues monetary value) is the artist still authentically marginalised? Or can the successful and recognised still function as successful producers of such public art? Or do they then make the transition to become public ambassadors for the maraginalised? Or are they destined for potential defacement or removal of their art to ‘safe’ spaces because they are considered no longer authentic? Ironically, success in hip-hop music appears immune from such a fate undoubtedly helped by the lack of visual artefacts to disfigure or erase.
There are further questions here. Are taggers just frustrated artists? Would the exponents of tag graffiti who lack the knowledge and skills to create meaningful graffiti art benefit from time and resources invested in developing their artistic abilities informed by a hip-hop pedagogy (however that manifests)? Would that actually lead to more outstanding and acceptable forms of this public art and less of the defacing scrawls? Perhaps the error here is to assume that all graffiti is intended to be a public art form at all, rather than imagery and messaging intended for interpretation and assessment by perceived peers in their locality or beyond.
Allen Watkin, London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
From that perspective, tagging is actually the nursery slopes of graffiti art with demonstrations of legibility and flow particularly on surfaces and sites with challenging access being subject to a tacit peer review regarding style, typography, layering etc. To that add peer respect for their demonstrations of physical prowess and courage in accessing hard to reach surfaces, e.g. under bridge spans or at considerable heights.
Graffiti Railway Bridge Footscray Melbourne Australia – 2020
Xyxyzyz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The hierarchical language of graffiti progression hints at this peer-reviewed process. From ‘tags’, to ‘slaps’, to ‘throw-ups’, to ‘fill-ins’ to ‘pieces’ with the last being the short-form for alleged ‘masterpieces’ of elaborate multi-coloured typography (see below). The latter being the province of recognised ‘kings’.
Graffiti on the bridge pier of the Europabrücke in Bamberg
Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
But what if taggers are not just frustrated artists? What if the purpose IS the ugly defacement and disfigurement? The destruction of the clever, structured, and organised even if they are outstanding examples of grafitti art? The proclaiming of territory and identity? The proclaiming of envy, anger and resentment? A never-ending protest against the status quo and what are perceived to be its symbols for it is that protest which has become the key element of their identity? So perhaps more effort is required in thinking through how this fourth element of hip-hop could successfully mesh with mainstream education. A useful start would have to be a clearer dilineation of what graffiti art is and what it is not in the minds of the cognoscenti and also a recognition that it is public space, not just their space. At the moment we appear to be in a Through the Looking Glass situation where Humpty Dumpty states:
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1871)
In summary, the world of graffiti artistry like hip-hop itself is not one homgenous community. There are the artists who are focused on producing works for display in public spaces that may well be controversial but are always impressive. There are others who care only for the views of their peers and are blind or indifferent to the impact of their transformations upon the public space. There are others who view any public artefacts and space as a canvas for personal or group protest (or recognition) upon which to proclaim their campaigns — or their existence. Conveying the values of artistic quality and respect for spaces to tyro graphic artists on the nursery slopes is probably best undertaken by respected exponents of the art. That, however, is only likely to be effective when the goal of the graffiti is artistic, rather than disruptive, in intent.
Whose Knowlege?
The assertion of a discrete and unique hip-hop ‘knowledge’ conveys a sense of almost religiosity. Hip hop certainly has a modern history – sometimes turbulent, violent, and misogynist. It also has a much older origin history of deracination, discrimination and exploitation. Yet it has undoubtedly also catalysed the creation of unique visual and musical artistic expressions. It has a still-developing philosophical base. It is the focus of at least some serious academic study (see above and below). This assertion of ‘knowledge’, however, perhaps inadvertently, risks conveying a sense of specialness and exceptionalism rather than open inclusivity. If only those with the recognised history and credentials can authentically acquire and own such ‘knowledge’ then the route to the educational mainstream is currently difficult to envisage. If hip-hop pedagogy wishes to gain significant traction within mainstream education it, arguably, needs to move beyond extra-curricular workshops or programmes for those classified as underprivileged. It will need to perceived as fully inclusive no matter the background or social history of the student or would-be practitioner.
For comparison there is a rich social history of the poor and marginalised using folk-music, poetry, and dance to record and express their thoughts, fears and sometimes anger with their situation and treatment. So ‘folk’ as a category could be said to have a specific knowledge base, cultural history, and multiple skill-sets but yet makes no claims for entry to the mainstream educational curriculum. A similar test could perhaps be applied to the ‘Blues’.
The risk is that what is initially categorised as a pedagogy is either already a cloaked ideology, or that it mutates to become one in the form of mission creep. Once all light is viewed through a single prescription lens then all that is seen is affected by that lens and that is not education but indoctrination. It is for that reason we should welcome high-quality academic research and investigation which seeks and provides the objective evidence of the actual influence, affordances and impacts of hip-hop culture and practice rather than risk confusing expressions of enthusiasm, opinion and social/political advocacy with actually being such evidence. For that gathering of objective evidence of the impact of learning activities and interventions is what at least part of pedagogy is meant to be about. Which leads nicely on to a consideration of what pedagogy actually is.
Pedagogy — whose pedagogy?
Pedagogy is many things. Firstly it is highly political.
Secondly, there is no absolute agreement about what it is because it is highly political (small and large P).
At a macro level it is the conceptual container for everything related to the art and science of teaching and learning. It encompasses: the overall design, delivery, assessment and evaluation of both lessons and programmes of study; the teaching methods employed; curriculum content and sequencing; adapting to diversity of social background, personality, abilities, and individual learning preferences or need. All informed by the application of theories of learning (note plural).
When we focus the lens to the micro level however, pedagogy can become extremely political with advocates, activists and champions for particular styles of pedagogy in abundance, e.g. behaviourists, constructivists, collaborationists, reflectivists, integrationists, inquirists, experientialists, liberationists, and criticalists, all potentially asserting pedagogical superiority. In this post we will bypass all this detail and just declare that pedagogy is on a spectrum from teacher-focused to learner/student-focused approaches to teaching and learning. Dada de Dada argues that the most effective teachers are those who can move along this spectrum in response to the realities of the educational environments and societies they are expected to function in.
Pedagogy can be teacher-centred and transmissive, i.e. Teacher-Centred Pedagogy (alias Traditional). Here the teacher is viewed as having both authority and knowledge, i.e. the ‘Sage on the Stage’. The student is viewed as the receiver and processor of said knowledge. The teaching methods then employed are therefore biased towards facilitating that transmission and then the testing for its reception and processing by the students. The traditional lecture format is perhaps the most common example of this style but, as the Akala example demonstrated earlier, in the hands of a skilled practitioner (the ‘Sage on the Stage’) the transmissive style can motivate and inspire and so contribute to student receptiveness for, and effective participation in, other styles of pedagogy. YouTube is full of transmissive videos created by so called ‘influencers’ so perhaps it is worth reflecting on why this pedagogical style still persists despite much criticism over the years. Put simply, an effective and inspirational teacher employing a transmissive style still has the capacity to be an ‘influencer’ who can influence a student for life.
Pedagogy can view the students as active participants in their own learning, i.e. Student/Learner-Centred Pedagogy (alias Progressive, Constructivist). The teacher’s role here is to design and implement the conditions, experiences, and opportunties for collaboration, cooperation, reflection, making connections, and problem solving through the design of learning activities, challenges, resources and assessments. In this way the student actively constructs their knowledge and understanding which enables them to progress to new challenges by applying what they have learned to new problems or curriculum topics (integration).
Pedagogy can explicitly encourage students to question and challenge existing power structures, social inequalities, and dominant ideologies, i.e. Critical Pedagogy. Here education is viewed as a liberating tool for questioning and transforming society. It is most commonly implemented in settings where social justice and equity are core educational goals. Originating from the work and writings of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, e.g. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which has since catalysed literacy programs for poor, rural communities in Brazil and other countries. Its focus is on empowering marginalized communities everywhere through critical pedagogy particularly in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia although there is also global influence upon both formal and informal education, e.g. United States and Canada where Critical pedagogy informs discussions on racial justice, indigenous studies, and anti-oppressive education. The aim is to empower students to become active and activist participants in their own education and society leading to greater social justice. The teacher’s role here is to facilitate a learning dialogue with students and guide their understanding of the systems they live within.
Pedagogy or Ideology?
Pedagogical controversies abound because they reflect the values and the tensions inherent in all societies. They also reflect the ideologies either already embedded within those societies or which are emerging as a result of, say, migration or internal and external political upheavals. Those tensions can have both positive and negative impacts upon all aspects of educational design, content and methods and therefore pedagogy. Some have a strong belief in the transmissive highly-controlled teacher-centred approach and the routine strict standardisation of testing is the only way to ensure rigorous pedagogical effectiveness and student learning. Others believe that is engenders ‘teaching to the test’ and so it is crushing the development of emotional intelligence and the ability to collaborate and develop creativity. They assert that it is also biased against the disadvantaged.
The student-centred approach is criticised for lacking intellectual rigour and for not preparing students for ‘real’ world challenges. The impact of technology adds to the pedagogy controversy mix with concerns about its capacity to distract, reduce teacher-student interaction and its potential to exacerbate inequalities through lack of access by the disadvantaged. The advent of AI could exacerbate this disavantage even more with the added risk of reduced student and teacher interaction.
When it comes to the assessment of learning the balance of summative (exams, and a focus on final outcomes) to formative assessment (continuous feedback and focus on the learning process) is a political tug-of-war with traditionalists claiming the final results are the only evidence of success whereas the student-centred assert that evidence of learning cannot just be condensed into a single event on a single day.
What content, issues, and teaching methods are included in the curriculum reflects the values and power of the dominant parties in the design teams, e.g. the role of race, gender, religion, cultural history. The relative economic position of the school also affects pedagogy in that large classes and poor resources may compromise the ability for innovative pedagogical methods and may push the school down more of a teacher-centred model than they would like.
A criticism of all pedagogies is that they all tend to reflect the dominant cultural values of those with authority and power leaving no entry or influence points for alternative or minority perspectives. In that regard Critical Pedagogy is the most politically charged, since it has activism and change as its raison d’etre and so can be construed as an explicit threat to an established order whose immune system may react in unwelcoming ways to what it sees as less a pedagogy and more of an ideology. For that reason the context and application of Critical Pedagogy is all important and some really skilled and articulate practitioners will be necessary to achieve what may well be necessary change without disrupting a system to the point of total collapse and failure. Or, alternatively, engender a reaction which raises the barriers to change even higher.
Repacking the Portmanteau
Earlier it was argued that poetry-based pedagogies, hip-hop pedagogies, rap-based pedagogies are confusing and potentially somewhat intimidating portmanteau terms that attempt to mashup whatever meanings are being perceived to be contained within, and conveyed by, each separate word. But the potential confusion and intimidation will probably only lie with those whose need a clear understanding of what is meant in order to decide on the relevance to and potential impacts on their educational institutions, projects, or programmes. To others, unconcerned by such matters, poetry-based pedaogy or hip-hop pedagogy may even sound enticing or even comforting.
What lies within these portmanteaus really matters. If they translate into poetry or elements of hip-hop history, rap and dance being integrated into and enriching music, drama, social studies, English, language, arts, and history classes for all students then that may very well enrich the education experience for all. But, as intimated earlier, pedagogy reflects ideology and it is unclear whether a hip-hop pedagogy is actually a discrete pedagogy in its own right or whether it is a rebadging or rebranding of existing pedagogies or, alternatively, in line with its philosophical underpinnings it has ‘sampled’ what already exists to build something new. In this scenario we can envisage the role of the teacher is a bit like the hip-hop DJ and MC sampling, mixing, and vocalising to motivate the audience and open their minds to the beat and the messages.
The nature of this ‘sampling’ matters. On the one hand if a hip-hop pedagogy has sampled the various subsets of the student-centred or progressive pedagogies using hip-hop history and practices as a vehicle for social inclusion and cultural enrichment for all, then it could make significant inroads into broader educational design and developments. If the sampling, however, majors in Critical Pedagogy with its Paulo Freire ethos of education as a tool for liberating the marginalised and oppressed via activism then that becomes political with a capital P. For, at that point, this variant of hip-hop pedagogy could manifest as a tool only for those who perceive of themselves as marginalised and oppressed and who wish to radically change the mainstream, not necessarily become part of it or evolve it.
Western representative democracies with free elections and a free-press are, arguably, far from the original contexts in which Freire’s work applied but yet they should be the most amenable to influence and change in the long-term as long as evidence-based and inclusive activism is the methodology rather than disruption, for that precipitates reaction and closure of the gates (and minds). The mistake often made by politicians in western democracies, however, is that they pay a lot of attention to the lobbyists, polsters and activists and confuse those articulate and sometimes noisy perspectives with what the shy or silent voters prioritise in their decision-making. As recent events in the US and UK demonstrate getting it wrong has significant consequences and can result in unpredictable outcomes.
We also tend to think of evolution in positive terms. But societies can also evolve in ways that actually raise the barriers to the participation and progress of some citizens and so the ranks of those perceiving (note emphasis) themselves as marginalised and — or — oppressed grows, e.g. as the result of deindustrialisation or globalisation. The political turbulences in the US, Europe and the UK perhaps reflect these evolutions. Technological progress in the form of AI and further automation may soon be adding to these numbers and so the list of custom or rebadged pedagogies reflecting the communities so affected may have reason to grow in the decades ahead.
Conclusion
Dada de Dada started this post with the intention of uploading a light-hearted piece of audio pedagogy in the form of a rap about rap. But he fell down a rabbit-hole as he tripped over poetry-based pedagogy, grazed his knuckles on rap-based pedagogy and hit his head on hip-hop pedagogy. The meanderings above are the outcome of his futile attempts to crawl out of said rabbit-hole. Hopefully others will be more successful in doing so.
But the question is whether hip-hop only thrives because despite its 50 plus years of existence its origins as a counter-culture developing outside of — but reacting to — the mainstream are what fuelled it. But yet its ideas and its art permeates and influences much of modern cultural life, whether one likes it or not. Its music is big business and certainly mainstream. And now we have university level studies and assertions of a specific pedagogy related to it. We have exponents like Akala whose linquistic fluency is astounding and who have moved hip-hop and rap far beyond the mean streets of The Bronx and into those around London’s Globe Theatre. But yet this bottom-up gritty noisy and colourful mixture with an ethos that crosses the disciplinary boundaries of history, literacy, music, dance, image and performance art is perhaps at a crossroads. Turn left for a more radical activism. Turn right for more business. Straight-ahead to evolve as is. Turn-around to go back. It will be those decisions that will decide the part hip-hop (pedagogies or not) plays in mainstream education.
Want to explore more?
One of the projects in Harvard Graduate Schools 55 year old Project Zero is HipHopEx (HHEX) which explores hip-hop pedagogy describes itself as:
A classroom-lab that creates intergenerational programming that invites students, educators, artists, scholars, and enthusiasts to EXperience, EXplore, and EXperiment with the power and genius of Hip Hop in diverse educational settings.
In the related Harvard podcast Humanizing Education Through Hip-Hop in the director of HHEX Aysha Upchurch talks about the transformative power of hip-hop in education.
For those wishing to explore hip-hop pedagogy in more depth the Frontiers in Psychology publication Pitfalls of hip hop pedagogy: Re-examining and questioning the definition goes into far more depth than has been offered here. While on the Frontiers in Psychology site it is also worth viewing Rethinking the MBA through Hip Hop innovation and Hip Hop innovators: Fat Joe and DJ Khaled pair with two sport × entertainment faculty. The latter article appears obscure but yet when looked at closely it showed how hip-hop culture and practice could influence even an MBA curriculum.
There is the anthology book The Bloomsbury Handbook of Hip Hop Pedagogy (Lauren Leigh Kelly & Daren Graves (eds), 2024) but for the moment its current cost for even the Kindle edition makes it the province of university libraries. Online access to the digital edition is also via libraries which subscribe but a useful set of extracts is provided by this route so scholars can form a view on its potential value to their studies.
Something a little more affordable — and certainly a challenge to mainstream education systems is — For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education (Christopher Emdin, Beacon Press, 2017). This book adds yet more branches to the burgeoning genealogy of pedagogy, i.e. ‘reality pedagogy’, and ‘pentecostal pedagogy’. Despite the title, the book is for more than white teachers engaging with ethnic minority students. Although focused on US urban education and its history, the experiences and arguments put forward certainly add grit to the oyster, e.g. ‘… there are both black and white people who can be classified as “white folks”’. The book is informed by the author’s experience and wider research of the reasons for the disconnect of some ethnic minority students — which Emdin calls ‘the youth in the hood’ — from mainstream education and what can be done about it.
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