(Springer Nature, 2024-07-22) Laforgue Bullido, Noemí; Abril Hervás, David; Malik Lievano, Beatriz
The purpose of this study was to describe educational initiatives that use hip-hop
culture as a means of socio-educational action. To this end, the authors carried out a
systematic review of relevant articles published over the last 10 years in high-impact
peer-reviewed journals and written in English, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian.
After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, 68 articles were analysed. This analysis
revealed how most of the reported experiences refer to formal secondary education.
Although a third of these experiences are linked to critical pedagogies, these were
not derived from the critical use of hip-hop – which was largely instrumental. But
by means of a thematic content analysis, the authors identify the main strengths and
limitations of hip-hop culture as an educational medium. Among the strengths they
highlight are its potential to build culturally relevant educational contexts for students traditionally excluded from the academic curriculum, its fostering of students’
political and social participation, and its facility to promote critical thinking. Among
the challenges encountered in using hip-hop culture in educational spaces are some
educators and families’ perceptions of hip-hop as anti-educational, the imposition
by educators of a vision of hip-hop that is not shared by young people, and the lack
of systematisation of experiences that can provide guidance on how to carry out this
type of initiative.
