For my critical summary, I have chosen to focus on the topic of hip-hop in the curriculum. While hip-hop is not one of my favorite genres, I still appreciate it from time to time and I can see the effect that it has had on music itself and how people view music. Integrating hip-hop into the curriculum is a great way to connect to something that a lot of people, especially students, enjoy. Through my entry-level research, a lot of the research articles out there that I could find focus on incorporating hip-hop into the curriculum in urban schooling settings. The research suggests that this would be the most effective area to use this type of curriculum in, and while I do agree, I do also think it could also be useful in any school setting. Hip-hop has made a big impact on the entire music scene – so much so that pretty much any student would be able to connect with it.
One of the first articles I found was written by Christopher Emdin in 2010, titled “Affiliation and alienation: hip-hop, rap, and urban science education.” In this article, Emdin argues that to bring about the change in access and exposure to science in urban settings, we should embrace hip-hop, as the close connection that students have to it, “provides the tools necessary for a connection to science” (Emdin, 2010). He suggests that to achieve this, a retooling of urban science education and a reframing of goals is required. Emdin states that the reason hip-hop connects so well with urban students is that the students often see themselves or their situations behind the lyrics and messages in hip-hop. A lot of the backbone of hip-hop relies on the alienation of the rapper – how they don’t fit into a certain group, or into society as a whole. Urban students connect with this, and as Edmin puts it, “…spend endless hours studying hip-hop lyrics, the lifestyles of artists, and the intricacies of the lives of rap artists and their media-created personas” (Edmin, 2010).
Edmin explains how he believes how to focus hip-hop in the science curriculum by saying it requires acceptance that hip-hop can be used to connect students to school. He suggests that the way to do this is to expand on the similarities between science and hip-hop, such as the way they both attempt to generate consensus, develop theories for making sense of the world, and validate or dispute those theories. On a more elementary level, Edmin thinks hip-hop would be best serves as a tool to quickly spark students interest – or as he puts it, a ‘hook’. When looking to further the integration of hip-hop, Edmin states that, “…educators should become immersed in student culture to the point that creating or enacting a curriculum reflects insider perspectives on students’ hip-hop lifeworlds” (Edmin, 2010).
My next steps with the assignment will be to find a couple more articles that are similar enough to make connections but dissimilar enough to provide more arguments or points toward this topic. While I have not yet found any more articles that have caught my eye, there are certainly many articles that cover the topic that I would be able to use to research this topic further, and I am excited to read more into using hip-hop in the curriculum to form a connection with students.
Emdin, Christopher. “Affiliation and Alienation: Hip‐Hop, Rap, and Urban Science Education.” Journal of Curriculum Studies, vol. 42, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1–25., https://www-tandfonline-com.libproxy.uregina.ca/doi/full/10.1080/00220270903161118
Jesse Simpson 