I really enjoyed this read by Akom on Hip-Hop pedagogy and also the classroom discussion we had. I am late to making this post, but feel hip-hop has it’s importance and relevance in schools. It was funny to me, because as I was reading this article at my grandparents house (where I stay while up here for school) my grandma proudly brought up that she had just read about hip-hop being a means for education in schools in dealing with issues of racism. CHHP is student centred and helps to bring out the voices of those who experience racial discrimination. “CHHP insists that students are active agents and as such should analyze a diverse set of data: field notes, video footage, photo-voice7, web research, artifacts of popular culture, interviews, archival research, oral history, and surveys, to name a few.” (Akom) shows some of the tools students learn to utilise, and then find ways to connect it to themselves, their communities and their lives. Through the classroom discussion we had, I learned that it is important for this sort of pedagogy to represent the students you are teaching, and if it is out of your knowledge, or cultural repertoire then you need to be careful in how you connect and deliver your lesson. Katia used the example of how strange it would come across for a white teacher, to be teaching hip-hop dance moves to a group of white kids who have no understanding or connection to the culture, especially without trying to understand it or bring in the knowledge or experience of someone who does.  “time, CHHP identifies research as a significant site of struggle between traditional Western research and decolonizing frameworks that reflect the inherent ability of people of color to accurately assess our own strengths and needs, and our right to act upon them in this world (Smith, 1999).” (Akom).

I am really enjoying learning about different pedagogical approaches to teaching!