Being hipped to their hop: tapping into young minds through Hip Hop play

Adults gain a wealth of knowledge from listening to the voices of children through intentional observations and interactions [Owocki, G., and Y. M. Goodman. 2002. Kidwatching: Documenting Children’s Literacy Development. Portsmouth: Heinemann]. Hip Hop play may provide optimal opportunities for teachers to tap into the young minds of children [Broughton, A. 2017. “Where is my Stuff? Conceptualising Hip Hop as ‘Play’.” Early Child Development and Care]. This paper reports the results of a qualitative, autoethnographic study that examined what an African-American male kindergarten–first grade teacher learned from the voices of his kindergarteners and first graders. Data were analysed through cycles of open and thematic coding. The findings report consistent positive learning outcomes of both teacher and children when Hip Hop pedagogy/play were fostered. This study seeks to inform the participatory literature base regarding ways in which early childhood teachers and early learners engage with Hip Hop in early learning settings.