ECS 203 Blog Post #7
[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 among students?
Hip-hop I’ve always known to be a form of expression and full of variety. I think that hip-hop is used in many ways to promote social justice for example there are many hip-hop songs/dances that stand up for different social justice topics like BLM (Black Lives Matter), LGBTQIA2S+, Racism, Police Brutality, etc. Different songs and dance moves reflect people and their identities and express the way people feel about their communities. I feel that hip-hop is such a way for certain communities to express their social injustices. Bring hip-hop into your classroom I feel is a great way for your students to learn about activism and different social justice topics around the world because it is bringing a different perspective to view and see. I know many songs that discuss social justice and activism like; White America by Eminem, Changes by 2Pac, Be Free by J. Cole and Keep Shining by Shad. All of these examples discuss social justice issues/topics and I feel they are songs that many people have looked up to throughout time. Adding a different perspective into your classroom allows your students to see the issues you’re discussing from another viewpoint which will help them educate themselves more, also hip-hop songs/dances are another way to keep students engaged. Within the Critical, Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis article by A. A. Akom says, “One of the goals of this article, then, is to introduce a Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy (CHHP) that can respond to issues of racism and another axis of social difference that Black people/people of color face in urban suburban schools and communities” (Akom, 54). Which I think resembles how hip-hop can be used as a teaching tool for social justice and youth activism within the classroom. Hip-hop helps the students open their eyes to new issues, and evaluate a critical consciousness. By giving your students a relationship to hip-hop culture, you are adjusting your student’s perspectives and asking them to examine the critical world around them and for this instance, it would be to do a deeper dive into social justice issues and youth activism. This also allows students to see different cultures’ perspectives and examine more difficult topics that are happening around their communities.
Resource:
- A. Akom (2009) Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy as a Form of Liberatory Praxis,
Equity & Excellence in Education, 42:1, 52-66, DOI: 10.1080/10665680802612519