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Abstract

Hip-hop pedagogy has emerged as a culturally responsive instructional framework designed to increase student engagement, identity affirmation, and academic achievement by incorporating elements of hip-hop culture into classroom instruction. Despite growing interest in hip-hop-based education, limited empirical research has examined its effectiveness for students with disabilities, particularly students identified with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). This study investigated the effects of using hip-hop song lyrics during English language arts instruction to teach literary devices to three secondary students with EBD using a single-case multiple-baseline-across-participants probe design. Three comparison students receiving traditional textbook-based instruction were also included. Dependent variables included instructional engagement, measured using the Pupil-Teacher Classroom Observation Scale, and academic achievement, measured through daily literary device probes. Visual analysis examined level, trend, variability, immediacy, consistency, and percentage of non-overlapping data. Effect size analyses included within-case standardized mean differences (WC-SMD) and between-case standardized mean differences (BC-SMD). Results indicated stronger improvements in engagement and achievement for students receiving hip-hop lyric-based instruction compared to students receiving traditional instruction. Intervention participants demonstrated consistently larger effect sizes, stronger visual outcomes, and highly favorable social validity ratings. Findings suggest hip-hop song lyrics may be an effective culturally responsive instructional tool for improving academic and behavioral outcomes among students with EBD.

DOI

10.5703/1288284318661

Keywords

hip-hop pedagogy, emotional and behavioral disorders, engagement, academic achievement, culturally responsive teaching

Date of this Version

August 2026

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