Hip Hop Pedagogy and Connecting in the Classroom

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By Amrita Kauldher, Coquitlam teacher, Coquitlam Teachers’ Association CASJ Committee Member

In bell hooks’ book Teaching to Transgress, she explores ways that the classroom can be a space where we are all in power in different ways. I hold that notion true to my teaching practice, but I also believe that a diversity of texts should be in power in different ways. This ideology is central to my approach to hip hop pedagogy in the classroom.

Hip hop is a product of racial oppression. Its roots emerged from the African American experience in the boroughs of New York within the context of financial cuts to social and educational programs. Hip hop music and the culture that followed were first perceived as a short-lived fad, but they instantly travelled the globe and became a platform for minority groups to give a voice to victims of systemic oppression.

My connection to hip hop comes from my graduate school research and my passion for both music and social justice. Being of South Asian heritage, I acknowledge prevalent anti-black racism within my community. For this article, however, I want to focus on hip hop as a form of youth culture and, more importantly, as a medium that reflects people of colour in positions of power.

Coming out of the teacher education program, I was eager to begin teaching in an alternative environment. As a senior English teacher, I was given the opportunity to order new resources and diversify the reading material. That summer, I read Angie Thomas’ powerful debut novel, The Hate U Give, and knew it was one of my first selections. This was an important choice for me not only as a teacher of colour engrossed in police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, but because this novel brought forward the lyrics and poetry of Tupac Shakur. Growing up, we listened to Tupac in our cars and our bedrooms. He was not a source deemed legitimate enough to analyze and interpret in the classroom. At that time, no one was making comparisons between Shakespeare’s creative language and that of rap lyricists.

Hip hop pedagogy should not be solely categorized as an urban education strategy, but as a way to align culturally relevant practices. Many of our youth are exposed to or actively participating in hip hop culture, from dance to attire and (most obviously) music. Most recently in my current position teaching middle school, I found myself addressing hip hop in a community circle with my students. Many of them had a topic on their minds since the beginning of the week that they wanted to share: the recent death of a rap artist. I needed to acknowledge their loss. As educators, we do not need to approve of our students’ idols, but because those idols impact their minds, we can help them understand the individuals they idolize.

I did not know much about the artists my students listened to, and I think it’s okay that there is a bit of a divide between the music from my hip hop generation and theirs. Although students may be familiar with Tupac and wear shirts with his face on it to school, the beauty of hip hop is that it is a culture that is constantly reinventing, remixing, and reusing itself. Nonetheless I played a song by the artist who had passed away and instantly our community circle came alive. It was extremely powerful to see and hear all my students singing along to his song in unison. I joined them in the circle afterwards, and they could see how baffled I was. I wanted to deconstruct many things with them—such as some troublesome lyrics—especially with regards to mental health. It was the strategy within hip hop pedagogy of “each one, teach one” that allowed my students to socially, emotionally, and intellectually explain the song, the artist, and ultimately their loss.

After teaching for a term at the alternative school, I walked away from that experience knowing I had connected with a group of students because of a culturally relevant approach. Soon afterwards, I found myself working for the Coquitlam School District and coincidently had the opportunity to teach The Hate U Give again. This time I knew I had to connect with a different demographic and was aware the department was taking a risk with a new resource. The beauty of this text in a traditional English department was the in-depth connections that could be made to foundational texts, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, West Side Story, and Romeo and Juliet.

My approach to teaching the novel in a tenth-grade classroom was based on analyzing popular culture through