Hip-Hop Development: Gifts From the Roots 4 Youth Engagement in Education and Health Prevention

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

Abstract

Youth of color living in urban settings are too often subjected to educational and health prevention tools which fail to recognize them, their experiences and culture. This has created a system of learning which places youth of color at a disadvantage from the beginning. Many educators and other youth serving professionals express difficulty in engaging young people; therefore, questioning the relevancy of traditional methodologies – often based in Eurocentric ideals. There is unequivocally a disconnection between youth living in urban settings and their learning environments. Research shows that disconnected youth are more likely to be low achievers in school (Klem, A. & Connell, J., 2004) and to participate in risky behaviors such as truancy (Henry, K. & Huizinga, D., 2007), drug use and/ or unprotected sex. (Henry, K., Knight, K. & Thornberry, T., 2012) There is also evidence to support higher increases in antisocial behavior, emotional distress and suicide ideation. (Archambault, I., Janosz, M., Morizot, J. & Pagani, L., 2009)
A call for new, innovative approaches to youth development and engagement is necessary and imperative as professionals seek to reverse these negative education and health outcomes. HHD provides a sociocultural cognitive theoretical framework with practical applications to facilitate changing the intolerable trajectory. The theory’s Hip-Hop Root Elements represent the practical tools found to be effective and influential with youth in education and health prevention spaces. (Boykin, A., 1983; Hicks Harper, PT, 1999) HHD’s nine indigenous African Hip-Hop Root Elements (spirituality, harmony, movement, verve, affect, communalism, expressive individualism, orality and social time perspective), or gifts when integrated in education and health curricula, continue to yield desired outcomes where traditional pedagogical, engagement methodologies and strategies have failed. (Hicks Harper, PT., Rhodes, W., Thomas, D., Leary, G., & Quinton, S., 2007; Ruglis, J. & Vallee, D., 2016)) These gifts provide youth stakeholders ((i.e. educators, parents, health professionals) with the tools necessary to facilitate learning and positive youth engagement. The Hip-Hop Root Elements represent indigenous and popular culture foundation compatibilities that are both familiar and highly regarded by youth of color. (Hicks Harper, PT, 2015) Recognizing and judiciously incorporating the elements will offer innate connections on social, emotional, cognitive and cultural levels.
The HHD theory with emphasis on its Root Elements will be presented. The relationship between HHD and the wholistic (mind, body and spirit) development of youth with be discussed, along with Hip-Hop Culture’s deeply rooted principles for education and health prevention. Examples of successful Hip-Hop based education and health programs (Hip-Hop 2 Prevent Substance Abuse & HIV; Bavubuka Hip-Hop Project; Science Genius; and Words, Beats & Life) that highlight the Roots in action will be presented, and a cultural and critical analysis will point to implications for HHD and its Roots for improving youth development and engagement in and out of classrooms. Participants will gain a great appreciation and understanding for the relevancy of Gifts From the Roots in traditional and nontraditional learning environments.

Author

• P. Thandi Hicks Harper, Youth Popular Culture Institute, Inc.