Using a Critical Hip-Hop School Counseling Framework to Promote Black Consciousness Among Black Boys

Abstract

In this article, I outline an approach for critical hip-hop school counseling (CHHSC) for novice and tenured school counselors to use when working with Black boys. Various facets of hip-hop culture (e.g., music, hip-hop scholarship) can sharpen Black boys’ conscientização ( Freire, 1996 ) and help them discern how interconnected social institutions (e.g., political systems, traditional schools) are grounded in anti-Black discourses and practices that endanger Black life (Baldwin, 1963; Dumas, 2016). The article begins with an operational definition of hip-hop culture. From there, I connect dissident ideas within hip-hop culture to the ways social justice has been operationalized in education and counseling, school counseling in particular. I conclude with suggestions and resources school counselors can research and integrate when using this approach with Black boys in middle and secondary school settings (Grades 6–12).