Waiting on "My Song" in Early Childhood: Exploring Hip-Hop Play in Preschool and Kindergarten

• In Event: 18.044 - A #HipHopEd Compilation: Hip-Hop as Education and Knowledge of Self

Abstract

While there has been much emphasis on cultural continuity amid home and school in multicultural educational literature (Colombo, M. (2005), and literature regarding Hip Hop Pedagogy, little is known about early learning settings where Hip Hop manifested as a part of such cultural continuity. Although Hip Hop Pedagogy has focused primarily on children in elementary and upper grade levels, there is scant literature that examines how young children are engaging with Hip Hop in early learning settings.
Many early childhood teachers embrace the notion that cultural identities, knowledge, emotions, perspectives, special needs, developmental competencies and expressions of children (Hoorn, Nourot, Scales, & Alward, 2011) can be evaluated and fostered through play. Play is widely accepted in the field of Early Childhood Education as how children learn, develop, and make meaning of the world. ‘Play is an expression of the child’s developing personality, sense of self, intellect, social capacity, and physicality’ (Hoorn et al., 2011, p. 4). What happens when Hip Hop is manifested in early learning settings as a way in which children learn, develop, and make meaning of the world? Unfortunately, there is dismal research conceptualizing Hip Hop as ‘play’ in the contexts of early childhood education. Such a dearth calls for an investigation regarding if and how Hip Hop Play is occurring in early childhood classroom/learning settings; and if and how it is being documented.
This chapter will examine Hip Hop culture in the context of preschool and kindergarten classrooms as ‘play.” It explores the inquiry, what happens when the ‘expression’ of some children’s ‘personality, sense of self, intellect, social capacity, and physicality’ (Hoorn et al., 2011, p. 4), manifests as Hip Hop during play? In this chapter, that author will contextualize his experiences as a black male kindergarten student waiting for his song—his rap song to play during music time. He will then highlight how those experiences shape his current work in teacher education.

Author

• Anthony Broughton, Claflin University