“Come as you are. We are a family.”: Examining Hip Hop, belonging, and civicness in social studies

ABSTRACT Hip Hop is a cultural phenomenon deeply rooted in the collective knowledge and resistance of Black and Latina/o(x) youth, who are often silenced or missing from the traditional social studies curriculum. Even as the culture’s presence has spread within schools, the social studies has yet to engage with the civic identities and critical understandings of teachers and students who participate in Hip Hop culture. This critical qualitative study utilizes the politics of recognition and belonging as lenses to examine how the use of Hip Hop culture by four Black and Latina/o(x) teachers disrupts dominant notions of citizenship. These teachers’ critical Hip Hop pedagogical practices revealed a critical civicness that worked to trouble the social studies curriculum by making visible and resonant the civic identity, agency, and membership of systemically marginalized communities. Their work demonstrates how Hip Hop culture can be used to foster more civically inclusive and engaging spaces, as well as the importance of civic recognition and belonging in social studies classrooms.