ECS 203 Curriculum & Pedagogy

Before the Akom reading, I had never given much thought to how valuable hip hop could be within the classroom. Akom insists that hip hop can be used as a tool to illuminate current issues of poverty, police brutality, patriarchy, misogyny, incarceration, racial discrimination, as well as love, hope, and joy. Not only does this approach to teaching social justice challenge the typical classroom practices, but it engages students by producing more justice-oriented citizens. The goal of integrating critical hip hop pedagogy is for students to develop meaningful strategies to fight for social justice and take on roles of advocating within their community. Not only does this encourage students to use critical thinking, reflection, analysis, and action with a social justice lens, it engages students with music, something kids care about . It is argued that Hip Hop is a valuable tool we can use to introduce youth to social justice issues as "Hip Hop is the dominant language of youth cult

In my schooling, the main focus was creating a personally responsible citizen, to be a functioning part of society. I was taught to be personally responsible as my elementary schools motto was the "3R's: responsible, respectful and ready". Students were expected to be responsible, be respectful and be ready while being honest, obeying the rules and using our manners. I remember an emphasis on learning how to recycle, taking part in walks around the school yard picking up litter, as well as donating non-perishables to the local food drive. In high school there was a slight shift in citizenship as it became more of a focus of participatory citizenship. There was more of an emphasis on the students taking the leadership roles through organization of school fundraisers for things like sports teams, dances and graduation.  Having most of my school experiences focus on the personally responsible citizen I was never really taught to push for change, or made aware that change was

After reading Levin's article I have a better understanding about the development of curriculum and how it is created through a process starting with a policy. The process involves bringing in groups of experts and representatives to revise or renew curriculum. This process could be negative as these experts are not considering the teachers in this process and how they may not have the resources or level of expertise to teach the curriculum in that way they are expecting. I now understand it is not as simple as you would like to think. The process involved in creating curriculum also has a lot to do with politics involving discussions of what subjects should be included or excluded, how much of these subjects and during what stage of a students' education should they be taught. There is also debate over the content of the subjects. Levin describes how difficult the curriculum making process is as "Any issue that is politically contentious can also turn into a curriculum di

 [Deepening the Discussion]  Educators can go about addressing the ways in which the systems that we teach our curriculum in are intrinsically homophobic, transphobic, biphobic and oppressive towards queer and trans people in many ways. It is the responsibility for educators to develop further understandings and educate themselves on these topics to have a deeper and complete understanding of these terms and how to support all students who might identify as gender or sexually diverse. It is also important to be aware of their own ideas and how they transmit them within their classrooms. The deepening understanding text mentioned it is important for educators to "reflect on their own privileges and assumptions."(p18).  As educators it is our responsibility to become aware of personal assumptions and how they might influence the classroom or conversations. In doing this, future teachers will provide and make a habit of using inclusive and appropriate resources and language to a