Hip hop culture is based almost wholly on social justice, and freedom of speech. Using hip hop as a tool in the classroom can help students to express themselves in a creative media. Analysing hip hop in the classroom could help students to understand social issues like poverty, abuse, racism, prejudices, and even topics related to slavery or residential schools. It can help to open the eyes of students who may not have experienced social issues, it could help to inspire participatory or even justice-oriented citizens. It is an interesting and engaging way to involve a wide range of students with social justice and youth activism at any age.

 

Educational trends do change with global context, they follow with other trends like the use of technology in the rest of the world and even, I would argue, capitalism as an accepted practice. Students are given laptops and tablets to complete work in many schools and the expectation is that they have access to those technologies at home. It is completely ingrained into our lives including school. There are new trends in education including classroom management which I have seen a growth in the use of a classroom economy and “desk pets”. I find that a classroom economy turns people against each other (as money does in real life) and does not allow students to be children. I was once a part of a management strategy called “Les Franco-dollars” which you would win for speaking in French and other students would take them away from you if you spoke in English, this ruined friendships and made me resent my teachers. Certain students took home the paper money and printed off dozens of copies which ultimately made it no fun for students who were unable to do so or who played fair. Had the teachers seen this and used it as a way to teach us about injustice then it would have likely been fine, but they did not do that they let it play out until the students found no interest in it. This economy in the classroom is used to control students to follow rules which does make sense in a social science government unit lesson; however, I cannot see it having a positive effect on the stress levels of students beyond that.

 

Teaching students to fend for themselves and that their success means others must suffer or have less than them is entirely harmful. How can we as teachers show our students with actions that the only way to get ahead is to stomp on others and then expect them to become participatory citizens? Using these techniques in a classroom setting is not even allowing students a chance to succeed, those who start off one or two steps behind will suffer far more than their privileged counterparts.