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Abstract

Hip-hop has long served as an educational tradition, emerging from the Bronx as a cultural response to systemic inequities that fostered identity, critical consciousness, creativity, and community through its core elements of emceeing, DJing, breaking, graffiti, and knowledge of self. In this second special hip-hop issue of the Journal of the Arts in Special Education (JASE) and building on the initial 2025 JASE special issue, this collection advances hip-hop pedagogy beyond an engagement strategy by positioning it as a culturally inclusive framework that supports academic achievement, identity affirmation, and meaningful participation for students with disabilities. The contributing scholars explore how hip-hop can deepen belonging, strengthen community partnerships, affirm linguistic diversity, reconceptualize disability, and improve educational outcomes through interdisciplinary perspectives grounded in equity and inclusion. Featured manuscripts examine topics including English learners with disabilities, community partnerships, Black girl genius, translanguaging, culturally responsive instruction for students with behavioral disorders, and an empirical study demonstrating the effectiveness of hip-hop lyrics for teaching literary devices to students with emotional and behavioral disorders.

DOI

10.5703/1288284318655

Keywords

hip-hop, culturally inclusive pedagogy, students with disabilities

Date of this Version

August 2026

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