University students facilitating hip hop in a community engagement project: experiences and perceptions

ABSTRACT

Hip hop is the most popular music in the US and remains on the fringes of the music education profession as both under-integrated, researched, and utilised. The purpose of this project was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate music students who facilitated a hip hop project with hip hop experts in a local youth arts organisation located in the southeastern region of the US. As a qualitative investigation, analysis of these data revealed four themes associated with undergraduate music student experiences, which included (1) adaptability, (2) connection, (3) discomfort, and (4) impact. These data suggest direct influences on participant understandings related to hip hop with implications for the field of music education to include hip hop experiences in democratic and learner-led classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• Hip hop pedagogy, hip hop music education, hip hop, popular music education, Facilitated music learning, Music technology, Music production

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathan Kladder

Dr. Jonathan Kladder is an assistant professor of music at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His degrees are from the University of South Florida (Ph.D.), Boston University (M.M.Ed.) and Hope College (B.M.Ed). Jonathan teaches popular music, music technology and music education courses and is the coordinator of the popular music programme. He continues to pursue an active research agenda and is a frequent presenter at local, state, national and international music education conferences. He is interested in the intersections of music and technology, creativity, interrogating the issues of equity and access in undergraduate music admissions and popular music. He has two published books: Commercial and Popular Music in Higher Education and The Learner-Centered Music Classroom: Models and Possibilities. His journal articles have been published in the Journal of Music, Education and Technology, Music Educators Journal, Journal of Popular Music Education, Music Education Research, Visions of Research in Music Education, Creativity Research Journal and The College Music Society. Jonathan is an active musician, playing guitars, keyboards, MIDI controllers and recording in his home studio in Wilmington, NC.