Publication Date

2020

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Flynn, Joseph E.

Degree Name

Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)

Legacy Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction (CI)

Abstract

The purpose of this case study was to examine how participation in an after-school hip hop pedagogy program influenced the social and academic lives of four African American male adolescents. The researcher viewed this study through the conceptual framework of culturally relevant teaching that incorporated hip hop pedagogy. Hip-hop is currently one of the most popular forms of music and represents the dominant culture of today’s inner-city youth. This study centered on how hip hop pedagogy is being used to educate African American male students.

The study participants consisted of four African American male adolescents who attended an after-school hip hop pedagogy program. The study participants were engaged in the mastery of skills such as beat making, deejaying, photography, video production, social media promotion, and audio engineering in a studio environment that has state of the art recording equipment. The program allowed each participant to select and connect with his interest. The literature review focused on the history and practices of hip-hop in regard to education.

Data collection methods included interviews, observations with field notes taken and artifact analysis. Once data were collected and coded, it was analyzed and the following five themes emerged:

1) Engaging in Activities that Accommodate their Interests.

2) Importance of Teaching Strategies Being Anchored in the Reality of the Participants.

3) Importance of Student Engagement in Classroom Learning Experience.

4) Importance of Positive Peer-to-Peer Motivation and School Climate.

5) Need to Deconstruct Traditional Class Curriculum Through Hip Hop Pedagogy.

I have identified three implications for teaching based on the use of hip hop as a pedagogical tool. Ideally, the main principles explained through the research can be taught in urban teacher education programs. This would allow for future educators to learn about hip hop culture, as well as the critical roots of utilizing hip hop pedagogy to engage marginalized, African American male students. The second implication would be to teach hip hop pedagogy in educational leadership and administrative programs so that policy and decision makers could become aware of the multiple fields of study represented in hip hop scholarship. The third implication for teaching would be to increase resources for teachers who want to use hip hop, in the form of lesson plans, curriculum, professional development opportunities, and journal articles.

Extent

159 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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