Teacher Perceptions of the Use of Hip Hop Culture, Hip Hop Pedagogy and Identity Development in an Urban Elementary School

This study described the perceptions of Hip Hop teaching artists and traditional elementary school teachers toward the use of Hip Hop music and culture to nurture positive identity development in urban elementary students. The study sought to discover influences of Hip Hop culture on youth identity formation. Inquiry focused on the participant educators' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of implementing Hip Hop-based pedagogy in educational settings. The researcher aimed to achieve triangulation through interview data collected from people with different perspectives. Purposeful sampling and snowball sampling procedures were utilized to identify a diverse sample of fourteen participants representing three types of educators: (a) Hip Hop-based teaching artists, (b) traditional teachers who use Hip Hop in the classroom, and (c) traditional teachers who do not use Hip Hop in the classroom. Data for the study were collected using qualitative research methods, primarily, in-depth, semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and examination of resources used by the participants. Thick, rich description was provided regarding participant experiences and perceptions of Hip Hop culture, Hip Hop pedagogy, and identity development.;This study delineated the terms "hip-hop", "Hip Hop", and "rap" in a unique approach which had not yet been defined so thoroughly in a scholarly thesis on Hip Hop Pedagogy. Findings suggest that discrepancies and lack of clarity exists among educators about the definition of Hip Hop music and culture. The participants had multiple perspectives and ideas about the ways in which Hip Hop culture influence youth identity development and how Hip Hop can be used in educational settings. The content the lyrical content of mainstream rap music found in popular youth culture posed both benefits and challenges to educators. Educator background, school board mandates and preference influenced participant choice in incorporating Hip Hop-based instructional practices into their daily curriculum. Recommendations included expanding this research to include a broader scope of participants from varying regions of the country, comparing perceptions between educators in rural settings versus urban settings, and/or extending research to include quantitative inquiry.