- We're now joined by Dr. Edmund Adjapong, who is Program Director for Secondary Education at Seton Hall University, one of our higher ed partners.

Good to see you, Doctor.

- Thanks for having me, Steve.

- So, tell us exactly what hip hop education is.

By the way, hip hop, I was just told by Usame, our producer, 50 years, celebrating 50 years hip.

How do we mark that?

- Yeah, you know, hip hop is a beautiful culture, and genre of music that emerged from the Bronx in 1970s and we're currently, this whole year, we're celebrating this 50 year of the culture.

There are a lot of activities and events that are happening, all across the country, all across the globe, and particularly here in the Bronx, New York.

Where we're celebrating this phenomenal culture, that's really emerged from, you know, young folks and youth from black immigrant communities, just trying to make sense of their communities, and having opportunities to share their experiences with the world.

- So hip hop education means what?

- Well, you know, hip hop education is the merging of hip hop culture, with an educational context and spaces.

You know, when we think about traditional teaching and learning, and traditional educational spaces, we, you know, we recognize that, you know, education is, can often be Eurocentric and align to Eurocentric values, and oftentimes really not incorporate, you know, values of other folks, right?

So when we think about hip hop and education, particularly within my work and my research, I'm thinking about how do we leverage the different creative elements of hip hop.

Which include at the MC, the B-boy the graffiti artists, the DJ, and knowledge itself, and how can we leverage those elements, in supporting young people in learning, and engaging, and developing their identities.

As it relates to whatever content, they're trying to engage in.

- So again, I struggled with science all the whole time, it doesn't matter, but STEM, science, technology, education, math.

- Yeah.

- So, it's so interesting only 34% of black students complete STEM degrees compared to 58% of white students.

So when it comes to hip hop education, pedagogy if you will, It's, I think you told our producers that break dancing can be used to teach different states of matter.

Huh, I didn't understand it the first time.

I might be able to understand it now.

Please help us, Professor.

- Yeah, you know, when we think about hip hop, you know, a lot of us see hip hop as a genre of music, which it is, right?

But I want folks to recognize that hip hop is a very nuanced and beautiful culture.

So when we talk about break dancing in particular, like you know, we see hip hop dances, and hip hop dancers maybe at concerts, at events.

But when we think about break dancing, and bringing these elements into the classroom, it's really about taking the framework, and the philosophy of these elements.

So break dancing really aligns to kinesthetic learning, right?

And recognizing that young people in schools, they have diverse needs, learning needs, right?

So young people might, you know, not want to sit in their seat for the whole day, right?

And they may not learn the best in that way.

So when we wanna leverage break dance in the classroom, You know, one way it could look like in the science classroom, as it relates to my research, is how can we get young people to imagine themselves as the content, right?

Their physical being, their physical bodies themselves, and literally move around the classroom, the space, in reference to that.

So when we think about the different states of matter, we know that we have gas, we have solid, and then we have liquids, right?

We know that solids have a particular composition.

Solid molecules are, you know, they're held tightly.

They don't necessarily take the shape of the container.

They have a rigid structure, shape or form.

And I remember teaching this to my sixth grade students in the Bronx years ago, and they understood the concept, but it was really heady for them, right?

They understood the composition of the molecules, but they didn't really have a deep understanding of the concepts.

- So how'd you bring break dancing into it?

- Well the students weren't actually break dancing, but I was getting them to be kinesthetic learners, right?

Which is in reference to break dancing.

So I said, you know what, you guys all act as molecules.

I want you all to stand behind your seats, and assume that you each student in the classroom is a molecule.

Now, the whole class is a solid, right?

The classroom is a shape of container.

So the students, you know slowly, they understood the composition of solid molecules, and how they interact and engage.

So all the students started to line up on the side of the classroom in a structured shape or form.

And then I asked them, so what do we know about solid molecules?

And what do we know about molecules of matter?

Are they ever stagnant or staying still?

And the student's like, no, they're always moving even if they're in place.

So the students started shaking in their spots and vibrating, right?

So this idea of recognizing that students like to move around, they like to engage, but to break dancers and joining that in reference to how they learn and understand content has been really remarkable, in connection to hip hop and education.

- Where'd your passion for this come from?

I'm curious about how your colleagues - Yeah.

- have reacted to it.

I'll ask that in a second.

Where'd your passion come from for this?

- Ah man, you know, my passion, it comes.

I'm a young person that grew up in the Bronx, New York, the birthplace of hip hop.

And as a child, as a young person, you know, navigating schools, you know, I was marked as a gifted and talented student, but I never saw myself really connecting with the content, within the classes that I navigated as a child.

When I got to high school, I had this teacher who used hip hop as a way to spark our interest in a physics class.

You know, I always loved science, but I just ne never really connected with the content.

I remember being in the high school, in my high school physics class, learning conceptual physics and studying rapper's chains, and talking about, hey the pen.

This can be a pendulum, right?

And doing calculations and learning conceptual physics through hip hop, right?

Through the culture, that I engaged in outside of school.

And that really is what sparked my interest, and what led me to use these practices when I was a teacher in the Bronx.

And what led me to become a researcher in this field.

- So, I'm curious about this, to what degree if at all.

- Yeah.

- Doctor, is race relevant here?

Meaning your experience, the experience of many African American students in urban communities?

Not the same, but there are obviously certain similarities.

For a white kid from the suburb, right?

Whether it's Seton Hall or any other place, typical, I don't even know what typical means.

Do you teach it any differently?

Is it any less relevant?

And how the heck do you do that in a diverse setting?

- Yeah, great question Steve, and I get this question often.

You know, when we think about hip hop, and hip hop music, and hip hop culture.

Like for me in my work, it's really targeted for black and brown students, right?

To support them in developing identities, and fully connected to science content.

But when it comes to teaching various students from different races, it's all the same, right?

When we think about white students, they benefit from this as well.

Hip hop really is anchored in a multimodal way of learning, right?

So we talk about break dancing, and we take the kinesthetic aspect of that, right?

How do we get young people to move around in the classroom, and make sense of the content, while engaging and embodying the content in their physics?

- No different for white kids, black kids.

- Absolutely, no.

- No different.

Relate the same - Relate the same.

When we think about hip hop, you know, white youth are the top consumer of hip hop music, right?

So they're engaging the culture just as similar.

And this is the same as black students, right?

They might be different connections, and different points of entry, but there are similar connections, right?

And the work is not just about hip hop music.

It's really about idea of multimodal learning.

- Wow, and real quick, any pushback from colleagues?

- Not pushback per se, but I would say that my colleagues generally don't necessarily understand it, at face value.

A lot of folks don't understand it at face value, when we talk about bringing hip hop into schools.

You know, I really try to advocate as, you know, we all of our students, regardless of race and background are diverse learners, and have various diverse learning needs.

And when we bring hip hop in these multi-modal ways of learning, we're able to meet our students where they are, right?

Regardless of how they learn, and how they connect to the content.

- Thank you, Professor.

I appreciate it.

Well said, well done.

Important conversation.

We'll make sure we catch up with you again.

Thanks so much.

- Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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