Hip Hop as an Educating Tool

Gissel Valdez                                                                                                    March 23, 2016

Hip Hop as an Educating Tool

Hip Hop emerged from an environment faced with adversity to become one of the biggest, and most influential forms of music in the world. Hip Hop does not just influence pop culture; the genre’s influence goes as far as into the classroom. However, it is important to understand the relationship between education and Hip Hop, and how this relationship affects students, in particular high school and elementary school students.

While there has been a surge of positive messages regarding schooling in Hip Hop music in recent years, the relationship between Hip Hop and education is a complicated one. While there are songs that promote staying in school, many others convey negative messages about schooling. Despite these conflicting views on education within Hip Hop, educators have come to recognize the influence the genre has on students and are aiming to use it as a tool to awaking urban student's interest in school. According to Christopher Edmin, who explores the interest in science education in urban students, explains that "in urban students’ perceptions, science education (as it is practice within their schools) is alien to their culture" (Edmin 2010: 3), meaning that urban students do not have any interest in this type of education because they cannot relate to it, or how it can apply to their lives and culture. Edmin goes to to explain that one major reason that urban students have trouble with learning or staying interesting in science is because that type of education focuses on words and terms, while Hip Hop moves beyond the mere definition of words and terms and include potential meanings and interpretations (Edmin 2010: 3).

Bettina Love shows that using Hip Hop as a tool for education has yielded positive results. Exploring the use of Hip Hop Based Education approach in classrooms, Love emphasizes the reluctance of educators outside of the margins of Hip Hop to incorporate the genre to educate students. They express incredulity about the effectiveness of Hip Hop as an educating tool. Love counters these reactions by stating that the students under the Hip Hop Based Education approach are indeed learning through "intent participation": "The youngsters at the early learning center intensely observed and listened to adults and peers with anticipation of engaging in endeavors of dance, debate, and language." (Love 2015: 123) Love explains that through intent participation, these young students are exposed to sophisticated linguistic patterns that focus on call and response, improvisation, memorization, and rhyming by their Hip Hop based educators.

In conclusion, it is important to recognize that the influence of Hip Hop reaches far beyond pop culture. Because Hip Hop touches the lives of so many people in the world, and touches on a diverse variety of issue that reflect the lives of many of its listeners, Hip Hop can be used as a tool for education in other ways beside only informing about the plight of minority groups. As explained by Edmin and Love, the intricacies that make up the genre can be used as a positive tool to promote education within young students, and can definitely change the outcome of the lives of the younger generation.

Works Cited

Emdin, C. (2010). Affiliation and alienation: Hip‐hop, rap, and urban science education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 42(1), 1-25. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from http://ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=49141633&site=ehost-live

Love, B. L. (2014). What Is Hip-Hop-Based Education Doing in Nice Fields Such as Early Childhood and Elementary Education? Urban Education, 50(1), 106-131. Retrieved March 21, 2016, from http://uex.sagepub.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/content/50/1/106.full.pdf html