Educators as MCs

Educators as MCs

In hip-hop, the responsibility of the MC is to cater to the needs of their audience through entertainment. MC acquired backronyms such as “microphone checker,” “microphone controller,” “music commentator,” and one who “moves the crowd” through their lyrical content. As we draw connections between the MC and teaching, I propose a new backronym that considers educators as the MC, or the Master of Content. Just as the MC is a central component of hip-hop culture, educators are central to education. Similar to the MC in hip-hop, an educator’s most important responsibility is arguably to attend to the cultures, needs, and interests of their students.

Throughout history, MCs have redefined their role and reimagined it so it may benefit them personally and their community and advance hip-hop culture as a whole. The role of the MC has evolved from solely introducing DJs and other acts during a hip-hop party to the MC being a solo act in curating and creating music that is listened to across the globe, as well as performing and commanding large crowds at hip-hop shows. I encourage educators to redefine their role and reclaim the power that is associated with identifying as an educator. Educators must recognize how their social position and power shape their identities and, as a result, how they are perceived by society (Ambrose et al. 2010). Educators have the power to teach, impart content knowledge, facilitate understanding, develop skills, and serve as mentors to young people. We can focus on the negative public perceptions of teachers, or we can consider how we, as educators, can have an effective and lasting influence on the students to whom we are dedicated to serving.

Educators train for years to gain a deep understanding of teaching strategies, curricula development, assessment strategies, and their selected content areas. To this point, I encourage educators who strive to be culturally responsive in their practices and mindset to identify as MCs—Masters of Content. Even after years of higher education, an effective educator is always learning, always growing, always becoming, always evolving. Additionally, a Master of Content uses Hip-Hop Pedagogy’s love to set high expectations for themselves and their students. They invite and honor how and when joy reveals itself and do so to support the liberation of their students and communities.

For this reason, I identify Masters of Content as educators who strive to be culturally responsive in their practices and mindset by engaging and implementing Hip-Hop Pedagogy. Masters of Content are not only experts in subject areas such as science, math, English, social studies, etc., but in their approaches to teaching and learning, as well. Masters of Content also commit to aligning their mindset, teaching philosophies, and practices to culturally responsive education and are able to reflect their personal identities and inspire learning in the classroom.

Masters of Content understand:

• How to draw connections between content knowledge and students’ lived experiences
• how to use the context of students’ communities in their instruction
• how to read a classroom to collect informal data from their students
• how to assess the needs of various students
• when to interject during a class discussion and when to step back and allow students to process and make sense of content practice skills
• to always center students’ needs and experiences. 

While there are many backronyms for MCs that we accept, there is one that hip-hop pedagogues reject: Master of the Classroom. Master of the classroom refers to an educator who facilitates a teacher-centered classroom where the teacher has the primary responsibility of communicating knowledge to students in a learning environment (Mascolo 2009). This traditional, unidirectional form of teaching and learning is not empowering or engaging to students. Masters of the classroom center the teachers’ experiences and ways of constructing knowledge while providing little to no consideration for students. While masters of the classroom may be active, their students are passive. Passive learners are compliant and are driven by the completion of tasks, answering recall questions, and memorization—these skills serve as primary assessments of knowledge and indicate examples of a teacher-centered classroom. A master of the classroom does not demonstrate love, joy, or liberation in their practice because they believe the teacher must be centered for true learning to take place. Conversely, a Master of Content initiates love, joy, and liberation to create opportunities for students to apply knowledge, discuss and negotiate meaning, and create change in their community because they believe students already have the capacity to do so within themselves, not because of the teacher.

Masters of Content work alongside students to gain a deep understanding of students’ needs and experiences. In hip-hop, while an MC may be at the forefront of the crowd/audience, in order to be effective at captivating and connecting with the audience, they must consider, understand, and respond to the needs and desires of that audience. Similarly, the responsibility of an MC as an educator is to position themselves as constant learners of their students and gain insight of students directly from students—not our perception of students. This work requires creating a space conducive for students to make sense of their needs and experiences. Moreover, the learning environment should invite students to bring their authentic selves into the space, which functions as joy. This is the only way to gain an authentic and accurate understanding of students and then leverage these understandings as assets within the classroom.

As with hip-hop MCs, Masters of Content have core responsibilities that are all centered on the benefit of their audience and their students: know yourself, know your power, remain persistent, and remain authentic.