Kunjufu, Jawanza (2005). Hip Hop Street Curriculum: Keeping it Real

This book is non-traditional in the sense that it is not the typical curriculum used in schools to cover math, reading, history, current events, and social responsibility. Furthermore, it is non-traditional because it illuminates the issues students are facing in today's society. The text purposely addresses peer pressure, gang violence, media relations, career development, sexuality, and the academic underachievement of African American and urban students. Using these themes, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu's goal is to address and cultivate the critical thinking abilities of urban students. Through the use of challenging questions and contemporary life experiences, the curriculum engages youth to explore beliefs, actions, and practices used in their reality. For example, lesson 38 challenges students on their use of the "N" word by exploring its history, its acceptable use among African Americans, and its use in Hip Hop music. After the lesson a series of questions leads students through a paradigm shift that is designed to transform the attitudes of students regarding that word. The lesson challenges students to view the word from the perspective of other citizens; which include African American elders, those from different ethnicities, individuals involved in the civil rights movement, and many others.
The author has taken a bold, and innovative, step in creating a culture specific curriculum addressing the shortcomings of the educational system and its impact on students. Kunjufu's curriculum identifies three major objectives. The first is to provide educators with a different method to approach urban, African American, and at-risk students. Secondly, Kunjufu's curriculum sets out to make obvious that urban, African American, and at-risk student are capable of academic success — they are not intended to uphold the myth that they are destined to be athletes, performers, or inhabitants of the correctional system. Lastly, Kunjufu encourages teachers to engage students by becoming participants rather than critics of their different, but valuable, world.
Kunjufu accomplishes his objectives by creating a curriculum that meets urban youth on their level; the examples he provides embrace the culture, reality, and lens that urban youth use to operate. This approach is motivating for students who have learned that education is not for them based on distressing educational experiences. They have felt left out of the community of practice established in the classroom. These students now have the opportunity to learn core educational subjects such as math, English, and history, through a familiar lens (street knowledge).
The way this book bridges the gap between urban life, Hip-Hop, and education is ingenious. Written in an adolescent-friendly style, its innovative content creates a framework that has the potential to motivate at-risk youth to continue their educational process. Kunjufu, through his curriculum, addresses the drop out rate, aims to make school relevant, captures the interests of the students, and merges the culture of academia with the culture of the urban Hip Hop student.
Despite his formal education in economics and doctoral degree in Business Administration from Union Graduate School, Kunjufu is capable of producing this type of content because he has studied and researched urban youth since 1974 (Martin & Pendergast, 2005). Kunjufu was both intrigued and disturbed by the educational system for black students in America, and from 1974 onward he began lecturing and conducting workshops focusing on the problems facing black educators (Martin & Pendergast, 2005). The feedback and positive reception to those efforts encouraged him to walk away from the business sector and making educational consulting his full time career; in 1980 he founded African American Images, a publishing and educational consulting company in Chicago. Since that time he has published many works, including his best known book, Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys and the study: State of Emergency: We Must Save African American Males (Martin & Pendergast, 2005).
In my work as the Director of a federal Trio Educational Talent Search, a pre-college post-secondary access program; our objective is to work with 800 low income and/or first generation students who reside in Denver's inner city. As a postsecondary access provider, an individual who educates middle and high school students on the collegiate admissions process and assists those students in accessing higher education, I was impressed with how quickly and how long my students were engaged with this book. Students that normally attempt to leave campus within seconds of the final bell or ditch the entire day, were in the library with me for nearly an hour each day after school for several weeks. The students reported that the curriculum was indeed "real;" and math was much more enjoyable when it was applied to something relatable. Lesson 74 is called Hip Hop Math and it uses the salaries of performers and athletes, ratios of teams that make the playoffs, points scored by poplar NBA players, Nike shoe production, and many other examples to explore addition, subtraction, statistics, percentages, and word problems. Students who have struggled this semester in class were suddenly answering questions and taking the risk to participate without fear of embarrassment.
Although I am clearly a fan of the book I do have concerns. The book does not show how to implement the curriculum, how to have discussions around the topics proposed, or how Kunjufu has arrived at this new curriculum. I am afraid that teachers without experience or exposure to the culture of Hip Hop will be unable to implement the curriculum without significant training. How do these teachers not offend students while exploring topics? How do they learn terminology and Hip Hop culture without specific instruction?
Furthermore, one could assume that Kunjufu's extensive experience has led him to create this curriculum. Assumptions, unfortunately, should not drive the selection of curricula. After an extensive search I was not able to find any of Kunjufu's work that directly correlates with this curriculum. As an educator, I am left to wonder if this work was influenced by some theoretical perspective (i.e. cultural psychology) or whether the curriculum has been validated anywhere. I am certain other educators, school districts, and researchers will share these questions. Additionally, with the current focus on research based practices being implemented in schools, I am afraid that this curriculum will be devalued or worse, ignored. Furthermore, the content of the book concerns me because it addresses serious issues such as racism, sexism, gangs, and drugs. Parents may be against having their children exposed to a curriculum that addresses topics in such a direct manner. As a pre-collegiate provider, I do not have to worry about the parent objecting the use of the curriculum because they sign a consent form that allows us to expose students to cultural, social, and diversity activities upon acceptance into the program. I am interested to learn if Kunjufu has had any problems with his curriculum regarding parental resistance or implementation strategies.
Hip Hop is not only a music, genre, and lifestyle accepted by African Americans and urban students. According to the September 19, 2007 Philadelphia Daily News article entitled, "Hip-Hop Music's White Enablers," the largest share of rap music sales in America is to white listeners. If this is the case future research opportunities are available for exploration: Kunjufu's curriculum could be used in suburban schools; issues of diversity, the achievement gap, and social interactions could be studied using the culture that seems to have the attention of many youth.
Concerns aside, I think this curriculum represents the correct direction for education. This model creates shared learning from both student and teacher perspectives and it engages students who have been identified as at-risk. Moreover, I know this is right because of the reactions my students and I share. In addition to being a postsecondary access provider I am also African American male. I attended high school in a predominately white private, Catholic, college preparatory high school on a community-based scholarship for inner-city students. I often felt that I could not identify with my teachers and they had no clue about my world, no matter how nice or supportive they were. I know the feeling of insecurity in the classroom. I had to work extremely hard to catch up, keep up, and often wondered if any of it mattered since my world was vastly different from that of my classroom or neighborhood peers.
It is important to note that Kunjufu's work is not intended to replace but rather complement educational curricula currently delivered in classrooms. It is a tool to make learning fun for disengaged students. This curriculum has the potential to capture the attention of students and create buy-in for the students to participate. The education community is experiencing some woes; perhaps an innovative curriculum, contemporary ideas, and concepts such as those in Kunjufu's curriculum are needed to create strategies for change.

source: http://staff.lib.msu.edu