“I don’t want to create a bunch of Michelle Pfeiffers”: White Social Studies Teacher Educators’ Racialized Understandings of Hip-Hop Education

• In Event: Hip Hop, Identity, and Black Educational Futures

Abstract

This qualitative study examines seven white social studies teacher educators' dispositions toward implementing hip-hop education in their practice. Through the collection of semi-structured interviews, the research reveals a paradox where educators acknowledge hip-hop education's potential benefits yet fail to implement it due to concerns about cultural appropriation and white saviorism. The study employs critical whiteness studies as a theoretical framework to examine how well-intentioned efforts to avoid appropriation actually perpetuate racial boundaries and exclude valuable pedagogical approaches.

Author

• Kelly R. Allen, Augusta University