Toward a Pedagogy of Hip-Hop in Urban Teacher Education

• In Event: Teacher Education and the Black Community: Preparing Teachers to Teach Black Students, Preparing Black Students to Become Teachers

Abstract

Hip Hop has become a buzzword in teacher education, particularly as it relates to training teachers for service in urban schools. The idea of borrowing from popular culture to support instruction is not new to teacher education. However, the academic challenges facing urban, and particularly Black male students, has heightened imperatives to find innovative models for drawing more Black men into teaching and for effectively training teachers of all backgrounds to educate diverse student populations. One response to these imperatives has been an increasing focus on Hip Hop and its potential for teaching and learning.

This presentation draws from a qualitative study of ten Black male K-12 teachers from the Hip Hop Generation who are closely connected to Hip Hop culture and have been effective in addressing the academic and social needs of, particularly, Black boys. Through an analysis of their social, educational and cultural experiences, this paper highlights three organizing principles drawn from Hip Hop Culture—(1) Call to Service, (2) Commitment to Self-Awareness, and (3) Resistance to Social Injustice—which profoundly shaped the teaching identities of these Black men. I discuss the implications of these principles for conceptualizing and creating teaching and learning environments that are supportive for Black male teachers and that increase the capacity of all teachers to effectively teach diverse student populations, particularly in urban schools.

The presenter examines three organizing principles drawn from Hip Hop Culture, - (1) Call to Service, (2) Commitment to Self-Awareness, and (3) Resistance to Social Injustice, that emerged from an investigation of the intersections between Hip Hop music, critical pedagogy and the teaching orientations of the Black male educators in this study. The goal here is not to be essentialist or to over-generalize, but rather to shed light on and theorize about the humanizing, critical and, in most cases, transformative pedagogical orientations, shaped by Hip Hop culture, that these Black male teachers bring to their urban classrooms. I have decided to initiate a discussion of each principle through an analysis of relevant Hip Hop lyrics, concepts of critical theory and the voices of Black male teachers from this study.

Author

• Thurman L. Bridges, Morgan State University