How do I do it? What if I make a mistake? What if I pronounce something wrong or use the wrong terms? What if I offend someone? What aspects of the culture and history do I have the right to teach? Who can I reach out to for help? New and experienced teachers alike are trying to answer these questions as we navigate the much-needed new BC curriculum. Reflecting the past year of discussions with my colleagues, last month CBC’s Special Series: Beyond Beads and Bannock attempted to answer the question, “What are the challenges for a non-Indigenous [or Indigenous] teacher to incorporate culturally-accurate Indigenous curriculum in the classroom?” (2018, CBC). The questions that the show’s callers and my peers and I have are not all easily answered, but as one of the guests on the September 6th episode noted, the one question that is no longer being asked is, “Why should I teach this?” For this we are all grateful. I have asked myself the above questions many times over, but, in reflecting on my practice so far, my biggest regrets, my biggest mistakes, have come from avoiding difficult or unfamiliar content, not in attempting to teach it.
of race, politics, religion and mental health. Brian Mooney and many other teachers use this album and this genre as an entryway into difficult discussions about societal issues that need to be addressed in the classroom. I enjoy all genres of music but have never imagined teaching through hip-hop and rap. I started looking into #HipHopEd this summer and became fascinated by the platform that this powerful genre has created. The more I learn about and understand spoken word and and its closely related cousin, rap, the more I appreciate and understand how these genres lend themselves so well to social justice education. This type of poetry is beautiful and real; a tell-it-as-it-is medium with more freedom than rules. As Bryonn Bain, a hip hop and spoken word professor at Harvard University states, “Shakespeare wrote to the verse of his time. Poets today are writing to the verse of their time, and its important to create a place to nurture those voices and give them a chance to talk about the issues that matter to them in a language that resonates with them” (2012, Harvard University).
It felt right to dance. It felt right to enjoy the beat. It felt good to hear the truth with the emotion and passion that it deserves. It felt right to respect the message in the genre in which it was being communicated. Seeing the Snotty Nose Rez Kids perform again at the Koksilah Music Festival in the Cowichan Valley this fall, I tried listening and observing through a different lens. Even more so than the first time I saw them, it felt so inspiring to see everyone enjoying this music – this political, cultural and personal statement – rapped with such pride and pleasure.
I met with a teacher today who has been teaching spoken word poetry throughout the harrowing years of BC’s 40% provincial exams. Longing for the day when English 12 is officially liberated from the BC provincial exam, she says she can not wait to give her students the time that they and the genre deserve to fully explore the liberating power of spoken word. She has observed that, when given the tools and the freedom, many of her students who are typically shy, disinterested or disconnected from English class, suddenly find their voices and become engaged when they can speak what they know through a medium with which they are familiar.
I know that I will make plenty of mistakes in teaching through the hip hop genre, just as I expect to make many mistakes as I learn how to incorporate Indigenous knowledge, culture, and ways of knowing and learning in to my practice. Though I still don't know exactly where to start, it is inspiring to hear that so many others, both in my community and around the world, have started from the same point and have found what works for both them and their students. I will continue to ask many questions, but the answers will get easier to find the more I reach out to others, and within myself, to find them.
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AuthorMs. Rycroft is currently enrolled in the post bacc B.Ed. programme at Vancouver Island University. Archives
October 2018
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