Six Swedish educators’ views on rap music as an educational tool

Abstract

This study investigates six Swedish educators’ approaches and working methods regarding rap music as an educational tool. There may be a strength in incorporating rap music in schools. The aim of the paper was to investigate how rap music can be used as a pedagogical tool in the Swedish educational system. The following research questions were posed: 1) How can rap music be used in an educational context to describe exclusion; and 2) How can the use of rap music help students in school lessons? Through six unstructured qualitative interviews with educators, the themes that emerged showed that it is important to talk about exclusion and see the individual from a critical pedagogical approach, where rap music can be a key to reaching young people. The findings showed that the educators see possibilities in using rap music in their respective activities, mainly to talk about rhythm and rhyme in the Swedish language but also as a discussion topic in a more social science context. It can also give the lessons a clearer intercultural perspective in education. The explicit expression of the music genre rap emerged throughout the interviews with the educators. A practical implication of this study is that music, especially the subgenre gangster rap, is an aesthetic expression that stands for more than just musical expression which may be considered as an educational tool to reach young people.