EQUITY & EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION, 42(1), 2035, 2009

C University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Education

Copyright

ISSN: 1066-5684 print / 1547-3457 online
DOI: 10.1080/10665680802584023

Dialoguing, Cultural Capital, and Student Engagement:

Toward a Hip Hop Pedagogy in the High School
and University Classroom
Louie F. Rodrguez
Florida International University

Hip hop culture is typically excluded from conventional educational spaces within the U.S. Drawing
on the experiences of an educator who works with urban high school students and university level
pre- and in-service educators, this article examines the role of hip hop culture for student engagement in two settingsan alternative high school setting and the university classroom. The article
explores how dialogue, as a core element of hip hop culture, is used in disrupting traditional vehicles of engagement, particularly between youth connected to hip hop culture and educators who
are traditionally disconnected from the culture. Drawing upon dialogical pedagogy and analyzing an
actual dialogue between urban youth and preservice teachers, the author examines the ways in which
the student-researchers were dissed (disrespected) during and after the dialogue. Implications for
practice and policy are explored.

During the early- to mid-1980s, the power of hip hop culture had not quite invaded the
predominantly Chicano neighborhoods where I grew up in Southern California. While breaking
and popping kept my friends and me occupied within our lower-working class community, the
need to identify with the hip hop movement was marginal. Break-dancing was a normal part of
our daily practices as was street football and riding bikes. However, as the crack epidemic flooded
the streets of many large urban cities, particularly in Southern California in the late 1980s, and
gang violence began to dictate whether we could play outside or not, hip hop soon played a more
profound role in my life.
At the age of 13, I frequented a local elementary school during after school hours, where I,
along with a group of friends from the neighborhood would play basketball regularly. As the
sun faded one day, my friends and I pervasively argued who would be Magic and who would
be Kareem (two 1980s superstars from the Los Angeles Lakers) on the court. As we played, I
subconsciously noticed a group of cholos (gangsters from the local neighborhood) around some
lunch tables smoking weed and listening to their oversized ghetto blaster. As our game came to
an end, an unrelenting beat emanated from the speakers and for the first time I was captivated by
the sound of Boyz-n-the-Hood by Eazy-E (1988) and NWA. As their lyrics, Cruisin down the
Address correspondence to Louie F. Rodrguez, Florida International University, College of Education, Educational
Leadership & Policy Studies, 11200 SW 8th Street, ZEB-361A, Miami, FL 33199. E-mail: rodriglo@fiu.edu

TOWARD A HIP HOP PEDAGOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

21

street in my 64 sounded off, I was engrossed by the rhyme, the beat, and the swagger of my head
as I felt the power of this music. At the time, I viewed rap, one dimension of hip hop, as merely
a group of urban youth ranting about various topicssome that resonated with my experiences
and others that were completely foreign to my reality. Nonetheless, this initial entry point into
the hip hop movement would eventually shape my intellectual and political base, particularly in
my work as an educator (Irizarry, 2005; Kitwana, 2002).
This article examines how hip hop culture, as a form of cultural capital, has penetrated my
work over the last decade as an urban high school teacher, a university professor, and an advocate
for historically marginalized low-income communities of color in this country. First I provide
a theoretical context related to the significance of dialogue, particularly as it is related to hip
hop culture. Then I provide two examples that illuminate how hip hop and dialogical pedagogy
emanate in two real-life contexts: (1) using hip hop knowledge as capital when engaging lowincome youth of color in an alternative education setting, and (2) using hip hop culture in a
university classroom that serves primarily white, middle-class teachers who will one day serve
low-income children of color in the public school system. The article concludes by discussing
how hip hop culture can be used to engage urban youth and preservice educators, who have been
historically disconnected from hip hop culture. Implications for practice, primarily for preservice
and in-service educators are explored.

TOWARD A HIP HOP PEDAGOGY

Hip hop culture has historically served as a vehicle for Latina/o and black youth to share their
stories using their own voices, to be able to create and identify with a particular cultural group,
and has operated as a means to communicate their existence to the world. In many ways, hip
hop culture is a dialogue with the worlda dialogue between youth and the world in which they
operate daily. This dialogue emerges through music, art, dancing, writing, and political activism.
One way to capitalize upon the possibilities associated with dialoguing is to deliberately use the
high school and university classroom as space for young people to dialogue with one another.
While it would seem that dialogue is a normal aspect of schooling, todays teaching-to-the-test
climate makes dialogical pedagogy a revolutionary practice, especially in the most marginalized
urban schools (Noguera, 2007). My own teaching and research experiences with urban young
people overwhelmingly suggest that they have much to say about their schools, their communities,
and the world. However historically marginalized youth are afforded few opportunities in school
to engage in such dialogue. While beyond the school walls many youth are involved in some form
of expression through hip hop culture (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002), I argue that school, as
one space where intellectual maturation should be performed, fails to capitalize on a vital cultural
practice that is central to hip hop culturedialogue.
In my work with urban youth, I have found that dialoguing, as a natural extension of hip
hop culture, provides educators with a more politically and culturally relevant response to the
needs of historically marginalized youth in the U.S. For instance, there is a dearth of research on
the significance of using culturally relevant pedagogy to engage K-12 students from historically
marginalized groups as an anchor to engage preservice teachers who are typically racially,
culturally, and linguistically disconnected from the former (Howard, 2003). Scholars in the field
have asserted that culturally relevant pedagogy is driven by the desire to capitalize on cultural

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expertise and knowledge of historically marginalized groups. It is through a culturally relevant

pedagogy that preservice educators can create a pathway into the worlds of these groups (Gay
& Kirkland, 2003). In part, this article serves as an extension of culturally relevant pedagogy by
looking at the significance of dialogue and cultural capital when understanding the salience of
hip hop culture in the high school and university classroom. Cultural capital, here, is defined as a
set of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are typically passed from one generation to the next
(MacLeod, 1995). However, unlike previous theorizing that typically privileges certain forms of
white, middle-class, cultural capital as dominant, I also draw upon and legitimize the cultural
capital that historically marginalized groups such as people of color, immigrants, and English
Language Learners provide (Yosso, 2005). Fortunately, my position as a university professor
has provided unique opportunities to create spaces where dialogue and cultural capital are in a
constant exchange between urban high school students and preservice teacherstwo groups who
typically do not interact until they meet in the K-12 classroom. Below is a theoretical foundation
of dialogical pedagogy followed by a discussion of the promise that dialogue, as a form of hip
hop culture, holds for not just educators but also education for social justice.

THEORETICAL BASIS FOR DIALOGICAL PEDAGOGY

According to Freire (1970) dialogue is vital to understanding the world and ones place in the
world. Driven by the motivation to build literacies so that rural Brazilian farm workers could
read the word and the world, Freire (1973) believed in creating educational conditions not for
educators to liberate the oppressed, but for the oppressed to liberate themselves. This pedagogy is
driven by principles of love, hope, and justice (Freire, 1970) which are, in many ways, the same
principles that drive hip hop culture.
The problem-posing method has been used as a process to engage historically marginalized
peoples in dialogue (Rodrguez, 2004; Solorzano, 1989). Discussed later, problem-posing pedagogy emerged in this study through a confrontation of knowledge between Kevin, one of my
former high school students and a representative of hip hop culture, and me, a teacher whose
job it was to validate and legitimize certain forms of knowledge as an agent of the educational
system. As such, the problem-posing approach relies on the experiences and realities of the
people involved in the educational endeavor (Freire, 1970) by privileging and legitimizing the
knowledge bases of historically marginalized people (Solorzano & Yosso, 2001; Yosso, 2005).
To the extent that dialogical pedagogy is an encounter in which the united reflection and
action of the dialoguers are addressed to the world which is to be transformed (Freire, 1970,
p. 8889), hip hop culture also encourages its constituents to reflect and act upon their realities
through rap music, spoken word, dancing, turntablism (dj-ing), and muralism. Like the oppressed
who reflect and act upon their world to transform it, hip hop culture is a manifestation of the ways
that young people reflect and act upon their world in order to find their place in it and, ultimately,
to transform it.
However, the extent to which youth from the hip hop culture actually dialogue with educators, particularly preservice educators, is relatively minimal. While research has increasingly
pointed our attention to the gap between students of color and the presence of teachers of color
(Cochran-Smith, Ferman-Wemser, McIntyre, & Demers, 2008), the teaching profession remains
predominantly white, middle-class, and culturally and linguistically different from urban youth

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and distant from hip hop culture. Thus, the significance of joining these two groupsurban
youth representing hip hop culture (Collins, 2006) and primarily white, middle-class preservice
teachershas multiple purposes. The dialogues attempt to destroy conventional borders between
the K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. In addition, the interactions help redefine
the ways youth and educators understand knowledge, power, and authority in the classroom. Below are two examples that demonstrate the power of dialogical pedagogy in contexts that intersect
hip hop culture, urban high schools, and teacher development in colleges and universities.

HIP HOP CULTURE WITH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTSHOPE

ACADEMY1
Hope Academy (HA) is a small alternative high school in the heart of an industrial sector in a
large urban city in the Northeast. Located about two minutes from the local county jail, HA was
housed in a building never intended to be a school. The school district rented the space from a
retired businessman who used the building to run an auto parts distribution center. Many of the
classrooms had no windows, and those that did were covered with a kind of metal sheath to prevent
break-ins. The visual inaccessibility to the outside world exacerbated the already downtrodden
physical conditions of the school.
Over a one-year period, the school was shut down because of the substandard plumbing system
and, on more than one occasion, students were sent home early because the heating system was
broken. On one of these days, it was so cold in the building that you could literally see your breath
exiting your mouth. Outside of the building, a dynamic mural decorated the school and the flag
pole was bent almost to the ground.
Nevertheless, everyday about 60 students entered the building. Most of the youth were courtinvolved and had been pushed out of the regular school system for varying reasons (Brown, 2007).
Nearly all of the students were black and Latina/o. Reflecting the realities of high-poverty urban
schools across the country, the teacher turnover rate was disproportionately high as was student
absenteeism. At least two of the eight full-time teachers on staff did not complete the school year.
When I walked into the building, part of my role was to substitute for one of these teachers.
During a tour of the school, I came across my soon-to-be classroom. Most of the students
were wearing bubble down jackets and most males either sported a hooded-sweatshirt or wave
cap. Upon entering the classroom, the principal, introduced me to the class saying, Let me
introduce your new teacher. His name is Mr. Rodrguez. He is a graduate student at Harvard
and is from Southern California, right outside L.A. Does anyone have any questions for him?
Without reservation, an arm shot up in the back of the room. There sat Kevin, a six-foot-five,
black male slouched down in his chair with one arm in the air and the other with a firm grasp on
the desk. Kevin asked, Is Game Eazy Es son? I retorted, I know what youre talking about, but
Im not sure about that. Some of the most sophisticated theories evolved out of that conversation,
but there still was no sure answer to Kevins question.
Because I was from Southern California, as were the two rappers Eazy-E and The Game,
Kevin tapped my cultural capital. On one level, Kevins question was driven by his real interest in
knowing the connection between these two rappers. On another level, Kevins question may have
really been a test to see how connected I was to young people and hip hop culture. While neither
Eazy E nor The Game solely represent hip hop culture in my view, they do sit somewhere on the

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spectrum of rap music and hip hop culture. As someone who considers himself a veteran listener
of the music and participant-observer of the larger culture, I am more partial to conscious artists
who capture some of the central principles of hip hop including voice, resistance, and identity
(Dyson, 2007). Nonetheless, Kevin allowed me into his world using hip hop and, as I soon found
out, this moment would shape the nature of my relationship with him. In fact, this situation was
a pedagogical moment that both challenged conventional conceptualizations of legitimate school
knowledge and transformed the role that teachers traditionally play in relation to youth and hip
hop culture.
Within the context of schools such as Hope Academy, schooling itself has different purposes for
different students. For many of these youth of color, going to school means meeting the conditions
of their probation. For others, schooling in the alternative setting means meeting the terms of a
punishment, such as suspension or expulsion from their previous school. For many years, most
of these youth have been misserved by the educational system (Weis & Fine, 2004). These youth
typically harbor years of dissatisfaction with and disengagement from school, particularly in
relation to the people most associated with schoolteachers (Rumberger & Rodriguez, 2002).
Thus, a teachers recognition of the history and associated challenges that young people face
in schools like HA must be disseminated strategically and more importantly, politically. As
someone who studies the significance of student-teacher relationships with an intimate awareness
of my power within the school context, particularly for low-income youth of color (Nieto, 1999;
Stanton-Salazar, 2001; Valenzuela, 1999), my approach to engage young people, such as Kevin,
was firstly relational and then academic (Rodrguez, 2005).
After the day I met Kevin, a week passed before I saw him again. I ran into him in the hallway.
Upon making eye contact, I reached out to shake his hand. I immediately said, You remember
that question about The Game and Eazy E? Well, no, The Game is not Eazy Es son. Looking
quite flabbergasted and with seemingly no concern with the actual answer, Kevin stated, You
remember that question? I said, Yeah, I just wanted to get back to you since you asked me that
question. He said, I still cant believe you remembered the question. This moment captured the
beginning of a meaningful relationship between Kevin and me, and he soon became my cultural
broker (Vigil, 1988) within the school. Given his physical size and perceived clout at HA, Kevin
served as my entry point into the confidence of students, particularly in my attempts to engage
other youth in the school. I remember another student feeling a little disappointed after seeing
me because that meant work. Kevin responded, Naw, but hes cool as shit.
As Kevin came to my defense, the nature of his question about the possible lineage between
the two rappers took on an entirely different significance. First, it was up to me, the teacher, to
use this opportunity to build a relationship with Kevin for the purposes of forging a possible
path to success in and beyond HA. From this perspective, Kevins intellectual curiosity about the
relationship between these two rappers was used as capital in exchange for access to a genuine
relationship with a transformative mentorme (Solorzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001) that I used
to access the confidence of other students at HA. Whether this was Kevins intention or not,
it was my responsibility as an educator with political and ideological clarity to welcome hip
hop culture into the classroom as a form of experiential knowledge (Solorzano & Yosso, 2001)
and use this form of capital to build a relationship with Kevin (Bartolome, 2002; Bartolome &
Balderrama, 2001). After all, hip hop culture is a non-dominant form of cultural capital that exists
within our school environment (Carter, 2005). The inclusion of hip hop culture in the classroom
also provided me with the opportunity to recognize the veracity of this culture and the capital

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25

it brings when trying to engage historically marginalized youth in urban schools, particularly in
an alternative school setting. For example, as youth from the hip hop generation are typically
chastised or punished for sagging (wearing pants low), I welcomed this discussion in class
both legitimizing this aspect of hip hop culture and recognizing the science behind sagging,
meaning that there seemed to be an actual way of doing it. Unfortunately, most urban educators
do not recognize the significance of this cultures impact on the lives of young people and are far
less likely to recognize this culture as a vehicle to engage students; however, there are notable
exceptions (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade, 2002; Stovall, 2006).
Kevins question also illuminates the additive effects of hip hop culture on the schooling
experiences of marginalized youth of color in urban schools. At the time I did not realize
the power of Kevins question. However, as my own thinking developed and my research and
teaching evolved, particularly in my work with educators, I discovered that Kevins question
had far reaching implications as this pedagogical moment traversed boundaries of legitimized
knowledge and culture as a means for forging social change for marginalized communities of
color (Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000). The next section describes how the implications of
Kevins questioning are applied to educator development.

HIP HOP CULTURE WITH IN-SERVICE EDUCATORSKEVINS

QUESTION TRUMPS MOST
Miami is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the U.S. According to the Census Bureau
(2000), racial minorities (non-whites) make up about 81% of Miami-Dade County; Hispanics/Latinos comprise over 55% of the entire population and make up over 70% of all racial
minorities. Half of the population was born in another country and two-thirds of the population
speaks a language other than English at home (Sassen, 2006). While rich in its racial, ethnic,
and linguistic diversity, Miami is hyper-segregated by race and class. The public schools directly
reflect this context in which they are situated (Noguera, 2003), which largely dictates how educational opportunities are distributed. The Miami-Dade County Public School system is the fourth
largest school district in the nation serving approximately 350,000 students, 90% of whom are
black and Latina/o (Advancement Project, 2006).
In a local public university, I teach an undergraduate social and cultural foundations course.
The goal of the course is to give preservice teachers the opportunity to examine critical issues
facing low-income schools and communities, particularly in the urban context. This is particularly
necessary because a majority of the teacher education students are middle-class and most consider
themselves white, even though 80% of them are Hispanic/Latina/o. (This is due in part to the
significant Cuban presence in Miami; a deeper analysis of this social reality is beyond the scope
of this paper.) The majority attended middle-class public schools or private/parochial schools and
are typically unfamiliar with pedagogical and curricular content I use in the course, particularly
pertaining to hip hop culture. As a fourth generation Chicano, my Chicanismo is rooted in a
political struggle for self-determination (Urrieta, 2004) and is partly informed by hip hop culture,
which emerges through my teaching. Through the use of youth-created media, hip hop music and
art, and critical dialoguing (Rodrguez, 2005; Solorzano, 1989), this group of preservice teachers
is challenged in countless ways.

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I typically begin each class with music from the hip hop movement, or expose them to artists
who have inspired the birth of the movement. I have played everything from The Stylistics (1971)
People Make the World Go Around, Marvin Gayes (1971) Make Me Wanna Holla, and Curtis
Mayfields (1971) We Got to Have Peace to Grandmaster Flashs (1982) The Message, KRS-Ones
(2001) Why, and 2Pacs (Shakur, 1995) Me Against the World. While a handful of preservice
teachers are familiar with these songs, they are far less familiar with some underground hip hop
artists, such as dead prez (2004) Walk Like a Warrior or Asherus (2006) Revolution. Because
the preservice teachers are overwhelmingly disconnected from hip hop culture, I encourage them
to analyze the lyrics and the context in which the artists lived when they relayed their messages
through music. Students are encouraged to draw out themes from the lyrics and connect them
to teachers and teaching, particularly in urban communities serving youth of color. The goals of
these exercises are to both expose these preservice teachers to some of the cornerstones of hip
hop culture and model creative pedagogies in the classroom.
A majority of the preservice teachers have no problem complaining about the way they have
been socialized to embrace scripted curriculum for the purposes of teaching to the test (Kozol,
2005). However, they often lack a sociopolitical analysis that illustrates how these pedagogical
realities for educators have been created (Trueba, 1999). Thus, a major intention in sharing aspects
of hip hop culture in the university classroom is to redefine what knowledge is and who has the
power to create, own, and exchange it for self-determination and social change, particularly for
preservice teachers who will one day serve young people from marginalized communities of
color (Solorzano & Yosso, 2001).

Kevin as Intellectual
One of the most moving exercises I use in this course involves the introduction of various forms
of capitalhuman, social, and cultural capitaland their intersections with education. Most
relevant to this discussion is cultural capital, particularly in the context of Kevins question. After
introducing Bourdieus notion of cultural capital (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990), I provide a more
critical analysis of cultural capital, particularly from the perspectives of scholars of color. For
instance, Yosso (2005) examines the ways in which historically marginalized people of color are
excluded from theory building and identifies various forms of cultural capital (e.g., aspirational
and navigational capital). Yosso argues that traditionally sanctioned forms of cultural capital
typically subtract the knowledge and experiences of people of color in the U.S. Along the same
vein, Carter (2005) examines the non-dominant forms of cultural capital that black and Latina/o
youth use to navigate various contexts in a large urban U.S. city. Similar to Yosso, Carter privileges
youth knowledge and experiences as legitimate forms of capital, which are typically excluded by
traditional conceptualizations of cultural capital.
In an attempt to connect theory with practice, I seek out alternative pedagogies to connect
dense theoretical concepts with real-life examples, particularly as an effort to encourage preservice
educators to think about their own forms of cultural capital and how these may intersect with their
roles as teachers in urban schools. During one exercise, the preservice teachers are asked two
open-ended questions related to cultural capital. The first is, When you enter a relatively nice
restaurant and you sit down at the table, what is the first thing you are supposed to do, according
to etiquette? The second question is Kevins question: Is the Game Eazy Es son?

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27

The first question is related to white middle class table etiquette influenced by European culture,
and serves as capital. Those associated with that culture know the currency that this etiquette
has in terms of knowing what to do when sitting down at a table. This capital is associated with
a disposition that communicates to others: I know the rules of the game and I am part of the
inner-circle. This type of cultural capital is most associated with white, middle-class culture
that informs the ways in which schools function. In other words, those who are familiar with
table etiquette also are likely to be familiar with and believe in the white, middle-class norms of
behavior and communication that are expected in schools (Delpit, 1996). As it is well documented
in the education literature, these ways of being typically exclude racial and linguistic minorities
in U.S. schools (Bartolome, 2002; Flores, Cousin, & Diaz, 1991; Trueba, 1999).
The second question is clearly a form of non-dominant cultural capital that carries currency
in circles associated with hip hop and youth culture. Knowing about the roots or connections
between and among various hip hop artists communicates to others that you are part of the culture
and these knowledge bases can serve as a vehicle to facilitate solidarity among different groups
of people. Unlike the first question about table etiquette, whether The Game and Eazy E are
related has no real currency in the conventional classroom, particularly when 90% of the teaching
force is white and 40% of the students are racial minorities (Banks et al., 2005; Cochran-Smith
& Fries, 2005). However, the real currency lies in the fact that I knew who the rappers were and
capitalized on the opportunity to recognize Kevins question as a legitimate form of inquiry to
both engage students in school and to validate the power of hip hop in education.
This exercise produces very telling results. Out of a class of 46 students, 39 (85%) of the
preservice teachers in the course had never heard of Eazy E nor The Game. While the generation
divide might explain why they were not aware of Eazy E, since most of the students were entering
kindergarten when Eazy emerged, The Game is a current figure in hip hop culture. These mostly
white, middle-class teachers demonstrate their disconnection with hip hop culture, a possibly
vital form of knowledge that they could use in the classroom. Equally telling is the response to
the first question about table etiquette. A majority (75%) knew that placing your napkin on your
lap was the right thing to do at the table. This demonstrates that these middle-class teachers
have a form of cultural capital that is most reflective of middle-class institutions, but they are
deficient in the capital that reflects the realities of urban students who may be connected with
hip hop culture. If these teachers come across students like Kevin, it is unlikely that they will
have the skills or dispositions to recognize the opportunity that Kevin presented to me in the
alternative high school. In fact, many issues that young people raise in schools are often deemed
inappropriate or not related to the academic agenda. Therefore, students are often silenced
(Fine, 1991) and in far worse cases, when youth do voice their concerns, they are exported from
school (Advancement Project, 2006; Rodrguez & Brown, 2007).
Nonetheless, there was a small group of preservice teachers (seven; 15%) who actually knew
the answer to Kevins question. These students actually fit a particular profile. All but one attended
public schools, and they either grew up in low-income sectors of the county or did not identify
as white. Bartolome (2002) makes similar claims in her study of effective teachers serving
linguistically diverse students in an urban school setting. Specifically, she found that teachers
who experienced some degree of struggle, despite their racial background, were more likely to
serve their students with the goals of boosting academic achievement and recognizing the political
implications of pervasive student failure, particularly among historically marginalized students in
the U.S. This finding demonstrates the significant role that educators race, class, and experiences

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play in determining the ways they recognize opportunities to engage with urban youth connected
to hip hop culture. This pattern among the preservice teachers also demonstrated how hip hop
culture must be included into the essential experiences of preservice teacher development.

Kevin Teaches Leaders, Too

The significance of Kevins question has implications for leadership development. During a recent
professional development session for in-service educators, a friend of mine led a discussion about
the role of leadership in addressing the challenges faced by pervasively failing schools. After
talking about the role of relationships, I was asked to say a few words since much of my work
revolves around issues of school culture (Conchas & Rodrguez, 2007). Instead of offering
advice, I asked Kevins question to the group, Is the Game Eazy Es son? They were even more
perplexed than the preservice educators in the university classroom as I received nothing but blank
stares. After a few seconds I asked, Who knows what I am talking about? Only one educator
(a relatively young black male) out of a group of about 60 educators raised his hand. While this
group of educators was much more racially diverse than the preservice teachers in the university,
the generational divide and class differences between the future school leaders and K-12 students
currently engaged in hip hop culture seemed to be far more significant. This suggests that as
educators climb the professional ladder, they become increasingly detached from the cultural
realities that impact students lives, such as the influence of hip hop culture. That cultural divide
has implications for much of what happens in schools, like what constitutes legitimate curriculum,
what types of pedagogies are acceptable, and who and what define the purpose of education. This
example highlights the amount of work that needs to be done to demonstrate the significance of
hip hop culture and the opportunities it can facilitate in urban schools and classrooms. One of my
goals as a university professor is to model these opportunities for educators. The example below
demonstrates how Kevins knowledge has far reaching implications for teacher development
while illuminating some important sociological realities that occur between youth from hip hop
culture and preservice teachers who have been historically disconnected from this culture.

CASE STUDY
Creating the Space for Dialogue
During the summer of 2007, I taught a Social Action Research Seminar to a group of high school
students as part of a six-week summer institute at a public university in the Southeastern U.S. The
institute sought to provide the students with a college experience through on-campus housing,
academic enrichment, and extracurricular and cultural activities. The students attended one of
the high schools in the city that was notorious for its pervasive failure rates, school violence, and
high dropout rates. All the students were either black or Latina/o and qualified for free/reduced
fee lunch.
During the same summer, I also taught an undergraduate social foundations course to preservice
teachers at the university. This required upper-division course aims to engage preservice teachers
in discussions about critical issues facing urban education. Forty-five students were enrolled in

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29

the course and a majority of the students were born and raised in Miami. Only four students
were male and most were middle-class and of Hispanic/Latina/o background (i.e., Caribbean or
South American). While nearly 90% of the students would be considered students of color (i.e.,
Hispanic, Latina/o, Black, Asian), a majority of the students considered themselves to be racially
white, reflecting my earlier description of the way race and racialization emanates in this context.

Data Collection and Analysis

The following dialogue occurred in two parts during the summer of 2007. During the first
encounter the high school student-researchers presented their key findings in a two-hour session
to the preservice teachers. The second encounter was also two hours and was structured as
a continuation of the first encounter. Both encounters were video/audio recorded, reviewed,
and transcribed verbatim. In addition to the video footage and transcriptions of the dialogue,
student reflections were collected after each dialogue to capture preservice teachers reflections,
questions, and comments. These reflections were particularly meaningful in the context of the
video footage and transcripts. For example, among the preservice teachers who participated
verbally during the dialogues, their participation was compared and contrasted to their written
reflections. Congruities and incongruities were sought in order to assess the consistency of their
responses to the student-researchers. Finally, fieldnotes were collected by the author to capture
observations made during and after the dialogues (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995). All three data
sources served as the primary data set for this study. The data were coded and analyzed through
an examination of preservice teachers responses to the youth researchers with an eye also on
the student-researchers responses to the preservice teachers (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Because
we were focused on how preservice teachers responded to youth of color from the hip hop culture
that also happened to share their expertise and experiences about teachers, the dialogues were
analyzed with this interest in mind.

The Dialogue
As part of their summer experience, the high school students conducted research on critical
issues they faced in school. One group of student-researchers identified teacher discrimination
as a significant factor affecting their experiences and dispositions in school. After strategizing a
research plan and conducting interviews with at least five of their peers, the student-researchers
created a multimedia presentation on their findings. While the co-researchers admitted that there
were a handful of teachers who went out of their way to help students in school, they had
all experienced some degree of discrimination by teachers and discussed how these experiences
affected their attitudes and motivation. The presentation was delivered to the preservice educators
in the social foundations course and concluded with recommendations for policy and practice.
Following the presentation, a dialogue ensued.
Before opening the floor to questions from the preservice teachers, I was transparent about
the purpose of the dialogue. I wanted both groups to recognize that these kinds of dialogues
are relatively non-existent in K-12 schools or universities (Lynn & Smith-Maddox, 2007). I also
recognized the classroom space as a laboratory for learning and knowledge production. However,

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RODRIGUEZ

because I felt responsible to protect the high school student-researchers, I also relayed to the
preservice educators that traditional pedagogical approaches with youth, especially historically
marginalized youth of color, are typically one-way processes that either ignore or silence youths
experiences and perspectives (Valenzuela, 1999). Therefore this dialogical space was meant
to position the young people as qualified experts to research, discuss, and provide informed
recommendations to educators.
That being said, the actual dialogues proved to be quite moving to all involved. Although
the preservice educators were overwhelmingly praiseful of the student-researchers, there were
clear instances in which they disrespected the student-researchers. Below are three examples
that capture how the preservice educators dissed the student-researchers during and after
their research presentation. I purposely use dissed as a connotation for disrespect or to be
disrespected as the term was born directly out of the hip hop movement and is typically used
to describe disrespectful acts between two parties (i.e., rappers). However, here, I demonstrate
how educators dis youth and argue that even though the student-researchers clearly demonstrated
their talent by producing university level research, they still got dissed as representatives of hip
hop culture.
For instance, the student-researchers presented a compelling finding about the relationship
between student engagement and a frequently used motivational comment that teachers make
in the classroom. According to the student-researchers, teachers usually use theI got mine
[education], so get yoursstatement to get students attention. Unbeknownst to educators,
such comments proved to be quite counterproductive for students. When the entire group of
student-researchers (20) was asked if they had heard this specific phrase from teachers, all
20 of the student-researchers raised their hands. Soon after, a preservice teacher asked, How
does this make you feel? One student-researcher said, That frustrates me. That makes me
mad. Another student-researcher said, It makes you not want to learn. Another studentresearcher responded, It makes you want to throw . . . a desk at the teacher. In a low voice,
a white, preservice teacher said something to the effect of that being the reason why she
would not teach at a high school like the young people attended. One student-researcher
responded, Do you really think that we would do that [throw a desk]? Then the studentresearchers quickly found themselves explaining that throwing a desk was actually a metaphor
for their anger, triggered by teachers counterproductive comments. However, the preservice
teachers comment was equally counterproductive and seemed to emanate from her preconceived
stereotypical notions about the youth and the type of school (low-income, urban school) they
attended.
Within hip hop culture, the messenger is equally as significant as the message. More specifically, in hip hop culture, the artists image is just as significant as the actual product, as it is in
most cultures. However, in the case of hip hop in the U.S., the messenger is often a young person
of color. In the classroom and during the dialogue, the youth resembled the prototypical image
of hip hop cultureyoung and black or Latina/oan image that is frequently misrepresented in
the media. It seemed that an uncritical acceptance of this portrayal as factual seemed to spill into
the psyches of the preservice teachers. For some of the preservice teachers in the audience, it was
difficult to separate their preconceived stereotypes of the youth from the stereotypical images that
cloud the television and radio waves, particularly in commercialized hip hop culture.
Even more challenging were the implications that resulted from this interaction. That is, while
the student-researchers earned their place at the academic table by conducting original research,

TOWARD A HIP HOP PEDAGOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

31

the preservice teachers still could not get beyond their own images of youth. However, after the
dialogues, I encouraged the preservice teachers to reflect on their experiences. The preservice
teacher who made the disparaging comment about students later understood why the studentresearchers were upset at her comment and promised to be more thoughtful and reflective about the
youth.
Another example of the way the student-researchers were disrespected by the preservice
teachers revolved around the legitimacy of their research. After the presentation, the preservice
teachers were required to write a reflection on their experiences in the dialogue. One white Hispanic (self-identified) preservice teacher noted how the student-researchers were impressive but
suggested that they needed to take some formal communication classes to convey their points
more effectively. This comment was shared in many of the preservice teachers reflections. As an
audience member, I had no problem understanding the language or logic of their presentation. A
handful of preservice teachers agreed with me. The youth did speak passionately about the injustices they faced in school, particularly through the ways they were treated by some teachers. To
compound the student-researchers fervor, the disrespectful interjections made by the preservice
teachers did not help legitimize the student-researchers arguments during their presentations. In
fact, the same disrespect and discrimination they experienced in school was being reflected in
this dialogue within the university classroom. For example, the student-researchers spoke about
the powerlessness they experienced with authority, discrimination they experienced with teachers, and their struggle to find their place in the world. Not only was this an issue in their high
school classrooms, but it also was an issue of how society views and treats youth from the hip
hop generation. This interaction cogently demonstrated how larger realities of society spill into
teachers beliefs and practices long before they enter the classroom.
Further, the conviction that permeated the student-researchers experiences were similar to
the experiences and stories that emanate from hip hop culture. Many youth from the hip hop
generation speak and carry themselves with a certain style and swagger that can be misinterpreted
as confrontational or combative. To a large degree, the student-researchers spoke with this style,
demonstrating their skill and confidence as young people who are experts about their own
experiences. If preservice teachers are unfamiliar with this type of cultural communication, then
it is unsurprising that a classroom full of the preservice teachers had a difficult time legitimizing
the voices and perspectives of the youth.
A final way that the student-researchers were disrespected was through the doubt expressed by
the preservice teachers. Because the student-researchers focused on an in-depth analysis of a few
students through case-study analysis, the student-researchers neither collected survey data nor
official school data as part of the methodology. The small sample size prompted a few preservice
teachers to question the validity of the studys findings because the interviewed students did not
represent the larger student population. While the preservice teachers were correct in noting
the lack of generalizability of the findings, they used this critique to discount and discredit the
very real everyday experiences described by the students who were interviewed. I maintain that
because the student-researchers represented a youth culture that is typically characterized as
anti-intellectual (McWhorter, 2000), witnessing the opposite was troubling to some preservice
teachers. Because these youth of color were in a position of power, as researchers, coupled with
discontent with some teachers, the preservice teachers devalued the student-researchers claims
and the methodology used to make their claims.

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RODRIGUEZ

There seemed to be several dynamics at play during this dialogue. Not only was there a cultural
disconnection between the overwhelmingly white preservice teachers and student-researchers of
color; the preservice teachers were overwhelmingly disconnected from hip hop culture. The
preservice teachers had a difficult time validating the legitimacy of student-researchers claims,
seemed uncomfortable with the student-researchers style of communication, and questioned
the integrity of the research methodology. I argue that these three challenges are central to
the reasons that dialogue between these two groups is so necessary. Given that hip hop is
often delegitimized as a genuine cultural form, particularly in schools, and its integrity is under
constant attack by society, forging dialogue between youth from hip hop culture and preservice
teachers helped to expose some of the divisions that exist between these two groups. While the
distinctions between the two groups emerged through dissing the youth and hip hop culture, the
role of dialogue and exchanging capital served as a critical step in bridging these two divergent
worlds.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The purpose of this article was twofold and driven largely by the spirit of Kevins profound
pedagogical challenge. It is clear to me that hip hop culture both directly and indirectly informs
and challenges the work of educators. The manner in which knowledge about hip hop culture
can serve as a source of community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) is a revolutionary idea and an
even more revolutionary practice. The preservice teachers and emerging school leaders during
the professional development session were stumped by Kevins question. While it would be easy
to dismiss the richness of Kevins question, his challenge informs the work of teacher educators,
in-service educators, and leadership across the country, particularly those serving youth who are
connected to hip hop culture. The second intention was to demonstrate that dialoguing, as an
element of hip hop culture, leads to powerful understandings of the ways in which preservice
educators responded to a research presentation created and delivered by urban youth from the
hip hop generation. It was incredible to witness how the youth were trying to bring attention
to the injustice they experienced in high school by replicating in the dialogue with preservice
teachers.
Over the course of my nascent career as an educator, I have come into contact with a small but
critical mass of culturally competent and highly engaged educators who are connected with hip
hop culture. Most of these young educators grew up in the culture and made their way through
the academy to become teachers, organizers, and professors. However, the field is occupied by
a majority of educators who are both disconnected from historically marginalized youth and hip
hop culture. I recommend that universities examine the degree to which hip hop is addressed in
their teacher and leadership development curriculum. For those of us who recognize the power
of hip hop, it is simply unacceptable that urban educators are unfamiliar with the significance
of this cultures impact on young people and on the world. Denying or overlooking its impact is
both short-sighted and unjust. Students, professors, and the wider community, especially urban
youth, should be included in this undertaking. Until we disassemble the human-made barriers
(i.e., financial, ideological, and practical) between universities and K-12 schools, we will continue
to produce educators who misserve an already marginalized segment of our population.

TOWARD A HIP HOP PEDAGOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

33

Another recommendation revolves around the need for schools and universities to invest in
curriculum development that addresses hip hop culture. There are endless hip hop artists who
are struggling to share their work in creative ways and an exchange of services between artists
and educators could be mutually beneficial. Hip hop artists can serve as resident experts on hip
hop-related content and the universities can provide financial and spatial resources to pilot and
disseminate the curriculum. The disruption of knowledge control, ownership, and production is the
aim of this endeavor. As Kevins case demonstrates, one question can serve as the vehicle to help
educators engage youth who have been historically marginalized by society, especially in schools.
Finally, serious steps need to be made to forge dialogues between educators and youth from
hip hop culture. Such dialogues are missing in schools, and university educators need to step
out of the university setting and facilitate these processes, particularly when engaging preservice
educators and urban youth. For the first time in an educational setting, youth who are historically
marginalized or face resistance when introducing hip hop culture in the conventional classroom
can be in a position to demonstrate their expertise to the world through dialogue.
In a perfect world, teachers who encounter students like Kevin will recognize opportunities to
capitalize on the wealth of hip hop culture to engage students and as a way to validate the power of
this culture on education. If educators and university leadership have the political will to recognize
the salience of hip hop culture and its hope for education, this study demonstrates that dialogical
pedagogy facilitates opportunities for social and political justice for our youth and in our schools.
I close with a quote by KRS-Ones (2001) song, Why, which sends out a challenge to all educators:
Class in session. What is democracy? Yo, its the rule of the people, the self-rule, its what the people
want. Thats right, but is this a democracy? No, a democracy is a goal to be attained. Thats right. The
character of the people should be reflected in the laws and institutions of the State. I dont see my
character reflected. Tell me why the schools are fallin apart and why the youth not taking no music
or art, why the professionals really dont know where to start, no one really cares about why.

NOTE
1. A pseudonym.

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Louie F. Rodrguez is an assistant professor in the department of Educational Leadership

and Policy Studies in the College of Education at Florida International University in Miami. His
research focuses on issues of equity and opportunity for historically marginalized communities
in the U.S.