Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy

Before reading the article, “Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis” by A. Akom, I had no idea how I was going to answer this question.  To be honest, I was quite critical about the subject before I read the article.  It’s just a genre of music, how could it possibly promote social justice and critical pedagogy?  After reading, I can conclude that hip hop is more than just a genre of music, and it can be promoted to bring about social justice and youth activism in the classroom.  One quote that really stuck out to me was this.  “Through engagement in real-world issues that shape their daily lives such as environmental racism, police brutality, school safety, school closure, tracking, and racial profiling, youth learn to move past victimization and confront unjust social and economic conditions” (Akom, 2009, p. 57).  A more inclusive education system that incorporates more than just Eurocentric ideas and culture can do this.  This article was written in 2009, but unfortunately, many of these issues remain. The issue of police brutality, for example, was front and centre this past summer when George Floyd was killed during an arrest. Hip hop being incorporated into the curriculum will not magically solve all these problems, but it will inspire the right people who will begin to address these issues. 

“Schools use ‘hidden’ and ‘official’ curricula that promote the hegemony of the dominant class” (Akom, 2009, p. 63).  Hip hop culture can create critical consciousness amongst students so they can challenge this notion.  “By implementing CHHP it is possible to increase the space in the curriculum for students to unlearn their stereotypical knowledge of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other axes of social difference while analyzing, problem-solving, and theorizing what it means to be part of a diverse population” (Akom, 2009, p. 63).  As previously mentioned, marginalized groups are constantly taught the perspectives of the dominant class in school.  It is easy for these marginalized groups to “check out” and dismiss what they are being taught because of this.  But when you incorporate things into the curriculum that students can connect and relate to, like hip hop and hip hop culture, they can actually become engaged in their learning while learning how to look at the world through a critical lens. 

Resources:

A. A. Akom (2009) Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis, Equity & Excellence in Education, 42:1, 52-66,