Exploring the Neuroscientific Dimensions of a Social Justice– and Hip-Hop-Rooted Pedagogy

• In Event: Critical Perspectives in Hip-Hop Theories, Praxis, and Pedagogies

Abstract

A school counselor who employed a hip-hop rooted approach to pedagogy (Reality Pedagogy) in a high school social justice class, and a neuroscientist who serves as a professional development consultant and school board member present a rationale and methodology for using a neuroscience grounded and social justice-oriented, hip-hop and spoken word framework as a means to instructional engagement. The neuroscientist will present the biological underpinnings of why a reality pedagogy steeped in, and reflective of the student-body and their hip-hop rooted identities arouses and motivates learners. The counselor will present the application of this educational approach, as well as qualitative outcomes from her experience teaching a Hip-Hop Education driven social justice class at a high school in Brooklyn, New York.

Authors

• Qiana Spellman, Brooklyn Preparatory High School

• Kelly Kent, Antioch University - Los Angeles