Towards a Hip Hop Pedagogy of Discomfort
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.36674Keywords:
critical pedagogy, dialogue, hip hop education, hip hop pedagogy, pedagogy of discomfortAbstract
In this article, we offer philosophical reflections on our participation in a hip hop network and seminar series, UK HipHopEd, where British hip hop artists, activists and educators meet to deliberate over the politics of their work. We analyse this dialogic cultural space with reference to Megan Boler’s notion of a “pedagogy of discomfort”. We argue that the productive tension of the seminars owes much to the diversity of the participants. We discuss how these participants, despite a common interest in hip hop, may have to bridge epistemological and ontological divides in order to understand and accept each other. We examine how dialogue can founder on intransigence and dogmatism when discomfort becomes too difficult to tolerate. We conclude that these reflexive encounters can, however, cultivate a willingness to “stay with” discomfort. This, we insist, opens up new educational and activist horizons within and beyond UK HipHopEd, which are alive to transformative encounters.
References
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Collins, Patricia Hill. 2006. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism and Feminism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Dyson, M. E. 2007. Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip Hop. New York: Basic Civitas Books.
Emdin, C. 2010. Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation. New Milford: Sense Publishers.
—2016. For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…And the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
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Perry, Imani. 2004. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-Hop. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822386155
Porfilio, Brad, J. and Michael J. Viola. 2012. Hip-Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop. New York. Peter Lang.
Sayer, Andrew. 2000. Realism and Social Science. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446218730
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Sharp, Ann Margaret. 2004. “The Other Dimension of Caring Thinking”. Critical & Creative Thinking 12/1: 9–14.
Skeggs, Beverley. 2005. Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge.
Taylor, Charles. 1994. “The Politics of Recognition”. In Multiculturalism, edited by Amy Guttman, 25–74. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Turner, Patrick. 2017. Hip Hop versus Rap: The Politics of Droppin’ Knowledge. London: Routledge.
Weisethaunet, H. 2001. ‘Is There Such a Thing as the ‘Blue Note’? Popular Music 20/1: 99–116. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143001001337
Wetherall, M. 2012. Affect and Emotion: A New Social Science of Understanding. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250945
Winch, Peter. [1958] 2008. The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Archer, Margaret. 2003. Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139087315
Asante Jr., Molefi Kete. 2008. It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: St Martin’s.
Back, Les. 2007. The Art of Listening. London: Berg.
Biesta, Gert. 2007. “Why ‘What Works’ Won’t Work: Evidence-Based Practice and the Democratic Deficit in Educational Research”. Educational Theory 57/1: 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2006.00241.x
Boler, Megan. 1999. Feeling Power: Emotions and Education. New York: Routledge.
Burkett, Ian. 2014. Emotions and Social Relations. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473915060
Chetty, Darren. 2014. “The Elephant in the Room: Picturebooks, Philosophy for Children and Racism”. Childhood & Philosophy 10/19: 11–31.
Chetty, Darren and Judith Suissa. 2016. “No Go Areas”. In The Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children, edited by Maughn Rollins Gregory, Joanna Haynes and Karin Murris, 11–18. London: Routledge.
Collins, Patricia Hill. 2006. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism and Feminism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Dyson, M. E. 2007. Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip Hop. New York: Basic Civitas Books.
Emdin, C. 2010. Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation. New Milford: Sense Publishers.
—2016. For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…And the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Glaude, Eddie S. 2007. In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226298269.001.0001
Gobo, Giampietro. 2008. Doing Ethnography. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028976
Gosa, Travis L. and Tristan Fields. 2012. “Is Hip-Hop Education Another Hustle? The (Ir) Responsible Use of Hip-Hop as Pedagogy”. In Hip-Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop, edited by Brad Porfilio and M. J. Viola, 195–210. New York: Peter Lang.
Graeber, David. 2001. Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value. New York: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299064
Hall, Stuart. 2003. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage.
Harkness, Geoff. 2012. “True School: Situational Authenticity in Chicago’s Hip-Hop Underground”. Cultural Sociology 6/3: 283–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975511401276
Hill, Marc Lamont. 2009. Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hill, Marc Lamont and Emery Petchauer. 2013. Schooling Hip-Hop: Expanding Hip-Hop Based Education Across the Curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press.
King Jr., Martin Luther. 2010. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, Vol. 2. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Lawler, Steph. 2013. Identity: Sociological Perspectives, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
Leonardo, Zeus. 2002. “The Souls of White Folk: Critical Pedagogy, Whiteness Studies and Globalization Discourse”. Race, Ethnicity and Education 5/1: 29–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320120117180
Low, Bronwen, Eloise Tan and Jacqueline Celemencki. 2013. “‘The Limits of Keepin’ it Real’: The Challenges for Critical Hip-Hop Pedagogies of Discourse of Authenticity”. In Schooling Hip-Hop: Expanding Hip-Hop Based Education Across the Curriculum, edited by Marc Lamont Hill and Emery Petchauer, 118–36. New York: Teachers College Press.
Lukes, S. 2017. “Is Universalism Ethnocentric?”. In Liberals and Cannibals: The Implications of Diversity, 10–26. London: Verso.
Marable, Manning. 2003. “The Hip Hop Revolution”. In The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life, 255–70. New York: Basic Civitas Books.
Mills, Charles Wright. [1959] 2000. The Sociological Imagination, 4th edn. New York: Oxford University Press.
Neal, Mark Anthony. 2004. “Postindustrial Soul: Black Popular Music at the Crossroads”. In That’s the Joint: The Hip Hop Studies Reader, edited by Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal, 417–47. New York: Routledge.
Packer, Martin. 2011. The Science of Qualitative Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Perry, Imani. 2004. Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-Hop. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822386155
Porfilio, Brad, J. and Michael J. Viola. 2012. Hip-Hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop. New York. Peter Lang.
Sayer, Andrew. 2000. Realism and Social Science. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446218730
Sen, Amartya. 2007. Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. London. Penguin Books.
Sharp, Ann Margaret. 2004. “The Other Dimension of Caring Thinking”. Critical & Creative Thinking 12/1: 9–14.
Skeggs, Beverley. 2005. Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge.
Taylor, Charles. 1994. “The Politics of Recognition”. In Multiculturalism, edited by Amy Guttman, 25–74. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Turner, Patrick. 2017. Hip Hop versus Rap: The Politics of Droppin’ Knowledge. London: Routledge.
Weisethaunet, H. 2001. ‘Is There Such a Thing as the ‘Blue Note’? Popular Music 20/1: 99–116. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143001001337
Wetherall, M. 2012. Affect and Emotion: A New Social Science of Understanding. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250945
Winch, Peter. [1958] 2008. The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy. London: Routledge.
Published
2018-06-08
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Chetty, D., & Turner, P. (2018). Towards a Hip Hop Pedagogy of Discomfort. Journal of World Popular Music, 5(1), 71-87. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.36674
