Emdin Discusses How to Reach Students with Hip-Hop

At the Askwith Forum, “The Hidden Science of Hip Hop: S.T.E.M. with No Root Bears No Fruit,” Christopher Emdin, associate professor at Teacher’s College, urged educators to look deeper into hip-hop culture as a means to teach and reach students today.

“Our kids are different, not deficient,” he said in his address, a keynote for the 2014 Alumni of Color Conference. Emdin’s research examines how hip-hop culture — particularly its words, phrases, expressions, and language — contains science that often goes unnoticed by educators.

The phenomenon of young adults “dropping science” is less about science than it is about dropping out entirely, Emdin said. In many cases, the students simply aren’t engaged in the classroom and feel that school has nothing to offer. These ideas are often reflected in popular rap songs by artists like Nas and Kanye West. Yet, hip hop also has a long history of references to science, including rappers like Biz Markie and The Mad Scientists referencing it in their music and album art — even the popular term “droppin’ science” means to rap. “What I’m trying to do is get kids to drop back in to science,” Emdin said.

Many popular hip-hop artists, Emdin said, have expressed personal interest in science. For example, Wu Tang Clan’s GZA admitted to wanting to learn science while in school, but he found himself overlooked in the classroom. Once he found fame, he shared his dreams of being an astronaut, going so far as to take science classes on his own. His latest album is entitled, “Dark Matters.” Emdin said interested-but-overlooked students like GZA exist all across the country. At the root of the issue is that educators are not using culture as a means to connect with students.

“We’ve done everything else,” Emdin said, pointing to sweeping education reforms that exclude understanding students’ cultures. “The one thing we haven’t done yet is have a hyper focus on understanding the culture of young people…. And if we don’t do that, then we are spinning wheels.”

Referring to himself as a “science geek,” Emdin has conducted an examination of science themes within contemporary urban Black popular music and culture: in graffiti, the science of sound, and even the neuroscience of rapping. Then, he explored the ways these themes can be used as pedagogical tools to bridge the divides between “non-academic” hip hop and academic science.

“You are not going to find this in an education book,” he said. “Everything you want in your classroom is being found on the street corner in cypher.”

Part of reaching the students is what an educator brings into the space. “I don’t shake hands, I give pows,” he said. He encouraged educators to meet students in their world, talk with their hands, wear sneakers, and find some common threads to their culture. “It’s not about not being yourself,” he said, noting that it’s about creating a hybridized identity similar to what we require of our students.

Educators, Emdin suggested, should model their pedagogy after cyphers or rap battles to create similar engagements in the classroom. The long history of hip-hop pedagogy and its structures, such as in the church and community, can be replicated in the classroom. Examples include creating a circular learning environment, co-teaching, making a shared experience, incorporating where they are from, and adding content like science through rhymes.

After suggesting that educators bring a “cultural broker,” or someone from the community, to the classroom to help make a connection between the instructor and the students, Emdin asked the audience if they were “willing to engage in the discomfort?”

“When the educator realizes that you are [also] the student, and the student believes the educator is ready, then your internal educator will appear,” he said. “What you are learning is [about the] young people in front of you, and [they are learning that] you have a respect and admiration for their culture.”