Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis

How can hip hop be used as a tool to promote social justice and youth activism in the classroom? What is the relationship between hip hop culture and the development of critical consciousness amongst students?

Hip Hop pedagogy is a tool that can create “justice-oriented” students. Critical Hip Hop, according to Akom (2009), is an “alternative instructional strategy” which is a “tool for illuminating problems of poverty, police brutality, patriarchy, misogyny, incarceration, racial discrimination, as well as love, hope, [and] joy” (pg. 54). Hip Hip is a great tool for promoting social justice and youth activism because it encourages students to discuss social issues and come up with a solution or plan rather than teachers having the full authority. This pedagogy is student-centred because it is a “transformative education for the poor and disempowered” students. “Pedagogic spaces” are created for “marginalized youth” so they will “become aware of how their own experiences have been shaped by larger institutions” (pg. 55). This way of teaching pushes students to be responsible for their own learning and enhances their collaborative skills. Critical Hip Hop pedagogy (CHHP) highly relates to youth participatory action research (YPAR), which “breaks down the barrier between the researcher and the researched” (pg. 55). Furthermore, Akom (2009) listed the following “fundamental elements of CHHP” which emphasizes that CHHP focuses on youth collaboration, engagement, contribution, and analysis. For teachers, CHHP allows them to “focus on racialized, gendered, and other intersections of social difference, experiences within by communities of colour” (pg. 56). CHHP also enhances students’ problem-solving skills by challenging the “banking method.” This “creates opportunities” for students to engage in social problems as well as take action to solve these problems. CHHP engages students to be aware of “real world issues” and discuss them among their classmates to eventually create a “community case study” (pg. 57-60). A community case study offers students the opportunity to “use hip hop culture to hold a mirror to society; to name problems, to identify relations among problems, and to re-imagine them into new strategies utilizing transformational resistance” (pg. 62).

Overall, hip hip pedagogy encourages students to be in charge of their own learning by encouraging them to have meaningful discussions about social issues. This promotes youths’ ability to analyze problems and recognize potential solutions which makes them justice-oriented citizens. This pedagogy gives students an opportunity to be critical of the world, what they learn in school, what they see in the news, and what their worldview describes who they are.