"Is It My Place to Teach About This?" Considering Hip-Hop Pedagogy in Social Studies Education

• In Event: Contemporary Issues in Social Studies Teacher Education

Abstract

Through a critical understanding of hip-hop pedagogy as a liberatory educational practice, this research examines the potential of hip-hop pedagogy in social studies education. Critical discourse analysis is used to explore the dispositions of eight social studies teacher educators towards the implementation of hip-hop pedagogy in social studies education. Findings reveal that the teacher educators held a racialized understanding of hip-hop culture that created tension with their understanding of their white preservice educators’ positionalities. This, paired with the fact that the teacher educators positioned themselves as outsiders of hip-hop culture, led to hesitancy in implementing hip-hop pedagogy in their practice.

Authors

• Kelly R. Allen, Augusta University

• Jeffrey M. Hawkins, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee