Akom analyses the teaching strategy known as CHP in his paper “Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Liberatory Praxis” (CHHP). Offering a space in teacher education courses for prospective teachers to re-examine their knowledge of hip hop as it intersects with racism, class, gender, and sexual orientation, the author states, “this technique tries to address deeply ingrained beliefs surrounding social inequality” (Akom, 2009, p. 52). I believe this kind of method can be a highly effective tool for social justice because the youngsters already have deep ties to the hip-hop culture. The fact that young people are drawn to hip hop suggests that there is a strong likelihood that it will develop further.
Hip-hop culture and the development of critical consciousness among the students, in my opinion, are essential for helping the students make connections to their own lives. Young people’s popular lexicon and the blending of theory and praxis can be found in hip-hop culture. For students to acquire critical consciousness, they must have a solid understanding of their reality, which means they must be exposed to societal issues and be able to take action to address them.
This was a very nice read, I enjoyed the added “youngsters”. I liked how you brought up the idea of a lexipedia, and how useful it can be to help with connecting students to important social justice ideas.
I really your response to this article. I agree that implementing hip-hop into education is important because it will teach students their reality and understand it. Recognizing that it will expose them to societal issues is really interesting, and important to understand in the world we live in today.