Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) has been a topic in education since 1995. Since Gloria Ladson-Billings presented her grounded theory, some teachers have adopted this approach in general education. According to limited data-based resources specifically about music education and CRP, it seems that music educators might have limited knowledge of what CRP is and how to implement its tenets effectively in their classrooms. This thesis is a critical analysis of CRP through a discussion of each of its three components: academic success, building cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. After a brief history of multicultural education and some background on Gloria Ladson-Billings and her research projects that suggest effective ways to educate African Americans, the ideas of CRP are applied to a sixth grade general music setting. Recognition of teachers’ own biases, as well as their cultural values, is presented as an important part of building cultural competence for themselves and their students. Sociopolitical consciousness has the potential to empower students to address inequities and when music educators use CRP in their classrooms they help affirm and celebrate student culture.
Applying the tenets of CRP, music standards and benchmarks are used to develop a unit on hip-hop music and culture. This model can be adapted to other contexts for music educators to use in their classrooms. Background information is provided of the art form to help guide understanding and explore its application to music education to suggest further research on this topic.