Hip Hop Education and the Pursuit of Justice

Educators who choose to use Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy in their classrooms are committed to thinking creatively and alternatively on issues of curriculum content. This thesis investigates how that thinking is translated during moments of conflict, violence, disruption and disorder in the classroom. Choosing to utilize educators who have chosen to root their pedagogy in a practice that calls for a lens of social justice, I am interested in the ways that their strategies challenge, affirm, reinforce, subvert or align particular notions of justice. As this research was inspired by my own personal experiences as an educator, I use personal reflection and narrative data analysis with other educators as method. The study highlights the potential alignment of Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy and practices of restorative justice illustrating its capacity to develop more reflective, consistent and transformative practices for educators.M.A