The Trap: Using Hip Hop to Center and Critical Consciousness

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Pop Pedagogies: Rethinking Education Through Film, Music, and Math

Abstract

Black music—as an art form—has long transformed narratives of pain into joy, from slave songs to gospel, blues, and hip hop (Dunn & Love, 2020). However, black music's alchemic quality as a teaching tool to help educators foster critical civic–reasoning skills remains underexplored. This study explores how using hip hop for social studies education prioritizes honest historical understandings alongside students' emotional well–being and how hip hop pedagogy can be used as a vehicle for students to engage in civic practices, identity development, and explore issues of inequity. The following questions guided this study: 1) How did students develop critical consciousness through joy using Trap Civics? 2) What implications might Trap Civics have for education?

Author

• Jonathan Tunstall, Bowdoin College