ABSTRACT RICHARDS, RONALD JUSTIN. Teaching Hip Hop in The
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ABSTRACT RICHARDS, RONALD JUSTIN. Teaching Hip hop in the ‘Burbs: Using Self-study Teacher Research to Reveal a Secondary ELA Teacher’s Role Implementing Hip hop Pedagogy in the Classroom (Under the direction of Dr. Angela Wiseman). The purpose of this self-study is to investigate how an English teacher who is a hip hop outsider integrates hip hop pedagogy in a public school eleventh grade ELA classroom in a standardized educational setting. Self-study teacher research includes the belief that one uses implementation, reflection, and enhancement to improve one’s teaching practice (Samaras, 2011). This self-study teacher research study explored my hip hop based instruction at a high school located in a rural town on the outskirts of a large county in the southern United States. The participating class was an eleventh grade ELA classroom of 34 students selected because it was a convenient sample of one of my classes. Data collection occurred during the semester and consisted of teacher reflections, student assignments and reflections, critical friends meetings, and artifacts. Data were analyzed through descriptive coding (Miles et.al., 2014) and then placed in coding categories (Creswell, 2013) before finally being collapsed into five larger themes (Samaras, 2011). The first three themes focus on my hip hop based instruction. The first theme addresses the power of authentic teaching vs. standardization. The second theme details how Hip Hop-Based Education (HHBE) can overcome instructional fear, and the third theme focuses on building strong student and teacher relationships through hip hop instruction. The last two major themes focus on how students respond to hip hop pedagogy. The fourth theme addresses the advantages of creating hip hop-based dialogue in a democratic space. The last theme focuses on how hip hop pedagogy presents opportunities for student identity development. The findings from this study validate existing research on the benefits and challenges of using hip hop pedagogy in the secondary ELA classroom. © Copyright 2021 by Justin Richards All Rights Reserved Teaching Hip hop in the ‘Burbs: Using Self-study Teacher Research to Reveal a Secondary ELA Teacher’s Role Implementing Hip hop Pedagogy in the Classroom by Ronald Justin Richards A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Curriculum & Instruction Raleigh, North Carolina 2021 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Angela Wiseman. Dr. Meghan Manfra Committee Chair _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Michelle Falter Dr. Ruie Pritchard ii DEDICATION To my parents -Betsy and Ron Richards- who provided the love and support during my lifetime to pursue my goals and aspirations. You instilled a drive and grind in me that made this accomplishment possible. You make me proud. iii BIOGRAPHY Justin was born in Raleigh and raised in Wake Forest, North Carolina. During his senior year in high school as the football team’s starting quarterback, he tossed three touchdown passes, including the winner in a last minute comeback drive at Harnett Central. It was at this moment a legend was born. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Communications from Appalachian State University. After a brief stint in finance, he then returned to Boone get certified to teach secondary English Language Arts at Appalachian State University. After teaching for a few years in the secondary ELA classroom, he attended North Carolina State University part-time while teaching to earn his master’s degree in secondary English. Finally, he continued to teach full time ELA while pursuing his PhD at North Carolina University. His research interests include creativity, hip hop, and student engagement in the secondary ELA classroom. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To the real ones. I want to give a shout out to my brother-Zach Richards-for all the love and support during my doctorate and lifetime journey. To all my friends and G’s who were always there to keep me real and grounded. To my committee: Dr. Manfra and Dr. Falter for providing me guidance to grow as a doctorate student. Dr. Prichard for taking a chance on my somewhat suspect graduate school application back in the day (circa 2008ish) and giving me the chance to grow as a professional and student. We shared some epic times. Shout out to Surrey! Finally, Dr. Wiseman, for being incredibly supportive from the first day I stepped in your class. You helped me fulfill my vision of academic aspirations by leading while letting me maintain my Voice. You provided an amazing graduate experience. One Love. I want to give a shout out to all the educators and students I have encountered throughout my professional career. You helped mold me into who I am today. Finally, to all the hip hop heads and rap artists that instilled in me this passion of hip hop. It has been the realest. -J. Rich Out v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................................ 1 A Hip Hop “Outsider” ............................................................................................................... 3 Problem Statement ..................................................................................................................... 4 Purpose Statement ...................................................................................................................... 6 Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 6 Methods and Research Approach .............................................................................................. 7 Significance of Study ................................................................................................................. 8 Organization of Study ................................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................................................ 9 Dewey’s Conceptualization of Democratic Classrooms............................................................ 9 Democratic Learning: The Anti-Standardization .................................................................. 11 Teacher as Facilitator to Create Student Empowerment....................................................... 12 Dialogical Classrooms ............................................................................................................. 13 Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ................................................................................................. 16 Music Education in the ELA Classroom ................................................................................. 19 Hip Hop Pedagogy ................................................................................................................... 20 Background of Hip Hop Pedagogy ....................................................................................... 21 Hip Hop Based Education (HHBE): The Ultimate Hip Hop Pedagogy ............................... 26 Hip Hop Pedagogies: Of Hip Hop, about Hip Hop, and with Hip Hop ................................ 27 Hip Hop Pedagogy in ELA ...................................................................................................... 29 Using Hip Hop Pedagogy for Fostering Engagement, Critical Consciousness, and Identity32 Using HHBE to Magnify Student Voice through Social Media and Performance ............... 36 Incorporating Intersectionality in HHBE .............................................................................. 38 Summary .................................................................................................................................. 44 CHAPTER 3: METHODS ........................................................................................................ 45 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 45 Research Method ..................................................................................................................... 45 Methods Overview: Self-study as a form of Teacher Action Research................................ 45 Defining Self-study ............................................................................................................... 46 Self-study Fits as a Democratic and Dialogical Theoretical Orientation ............................. 47 Characteristics of Self-study ................................................................................................. 48 Self-initiated and focused .................................................................................................. 48 Improvement-aimed ........................................................................................................... 48 Interactive and collaborative .............................................................................................