| Contemporary Hip-Hop scholarship has demonstrated that hip-hop culture is a racially diverse, youth-driven culture, intimately connected to prior and on-going social justice movements (Chang, 2004; Kitwana, 2002). This study explores the theoretical and practical impact of Hip-hop culture on the identity and pedagogy of students and educators belonging to the Hip-Hop generation. This qualitative study also examines how Hip-hop culture impacts participant (student and educator) identity, politics, and personal pedagogy, while seeking to create a new approach to Hip-Hop Pedagogy. This study was produced through long-term classroom observations and multiple in-depth interviews with students, and self-described Hip-Hop Educators from diverse backgrounds and geographic locations.;There are currently limited theoretical and conceptual frameworks in the literature supporting the use of Hip-hop culture as a sustainable model for critical consciousness creation, and democratic community formation, yet hip-hop as an academic intervention is currently being used in K-12 educational contexts throughout the United States and abroad (Akom, 2009; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008). The results of this study explore the foundational basis, consisting of three primary core Hip-Hop Centered Education "pillars": Community, Democracy, and Social-Consciousness, and consider practical steps necessary to negotiate and implement a sustainable model for Hip-Hop Centered Education (HHCE) in the classroom. |
