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The Digest of Education Statistics forecasts that, during the next decade, the number of ethnic minority teachers will shrink to 5 percent, while the enrollment of ethnic minority children in America's schools will grow to 41 percent. As classrooms across the country become increasingly diverse, determining how to connect in significant ways across multiple lines of difference may be the greatest challenge facing teachers today. Teachers in new century schools must meet this challenge and find ways to forge meaningful relationships with students who come from different worlds, while also helping these students develop academic skills and the skills needed to become critical citizens in a multicultural democracy. This challenge also presents a tremendous opportunity for progressive, critical educators who wish to promote curricula and pedagogies that value and affirm the cultural practices of urban students and members of urban communities.
As English teachers at an urban high school in northern California, we witnessed the impact of Hip-hop music and culture on all of our students. We saw at the same time that its influence seemed to transcend race, as students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds were strongly influenced by the culture (Mahiri). At the same time, through looking at the literacy practices associated with engagement (Barton and Hamilton 7-15), we also saw that students in this non-mainstream cultural practice (Ferdman 181-204) were exhibiting the critical and analytical skills that we wanted them to bring to academic texts from the canon. We ultimately decided that we could utilize Hip-hop music and culture to forge a common and critical discourse that was centered upon the lives of the students, yet transcended the racial divide and allowed us to tap into students' lives in ways that promoted academic literacy and critical consciousness.
Baker, Farley, and George all argue that the creative people who are talking about youth culture in away that makes sense happen to be rappers, and the youth are responding in many ways. Hip-hop artists sold more than 81 million CDs, tapes, and albums in 1998, more than any other genre of music. Although Hip-hop got its start in black America, more than 70 percent of albums are purchased by whites. Taking their cue from the music industry, other major corporations are creating advertising...