Observation Experience
Methods
Setting/Participants: Urban high school students in southwest Ohio, by
observing in the hallways, cafeteria, and a classroom.
Observation Notes: Students played music in the halls during passing
period. The music was loud enough to hear from 5 feet away. Only rap and
hip hop music was played using cell phones on speaker mode. Students
walked in packs, with one person playing music per pack. Several packs
walked and played music at a time.
Challenging Assumptions Through Self-Reflection
1a. What I initially noticed/thought?: The music players/listeners were the
kids who had more of a group mentality and were bolder in their actions as a
“pack” than they would be individually.
1b. Reflection: Impact of cliques (Berk, p. 328-329).
2a. What I initially noticed/thought?: The kids in the pack tend to be the
kids who act out more. They are the ones who are bold in talking back and
disobeying the rules. They are likely to say something disrespectful to an
adult (observed) and putting the phone away temporarily and then taking it
back out (observed). The old saying that what we practice (or listen to or
live) we become seemed to have a lot of truth to it from what I experienced
and saw.
2b. Reflection: Adult expectation has a big impact on kids (Berk, p. 325-326).
What does it mean when I assume things about a child’s character? How does
this lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy and continuation of the behavior? How
does this impact the child’s self-esteem, identity, etc.? Adolescence is a time
of exploring, experimenting, discovering one self. Context shapes things.
Could this also be the case with country music in a different context? What
upsets or triggers us so much with rap and hip-hop? What would this student
tell me about the behavior if I were to interview them non-judgmentally? Why
does this matter to him/her? What would I learn if I asked these students
directly about music’s affect on drug use?
Interesting Statistic
“From a study done in 2009, statistics shows that
of those members of the population who are 12
years of age and over 8.7% had used an illicit
drug in the past month, 6.6% had used marijuana,
and 2.8% had used some form of hallucinogenic.”
(blog.richmond.edu).
Affects
listening to
Rap and HipHop Music on
Adolescent
Drug
Use
Sarah Leighton
leightsk@mail.uc.edu
 The average adolescent is
exposed to 84 references to
explicit substance use per day.
 Only 4% of all music is anti drug
and alcohol messages.
 40% of U.S. young people have
tried cigarette smoking, 63%
drinking, 38% at least one
illegal drug (Berk, p. 300).
“So what we get drunk
So what we smoke weed
We’re just having fun
We don’t care who sees
So what we go out
That’s how its supposed to be
Living young and wild and free.”
Wiz Khalifa- Young, Wild & Free
Lyrics
Connections to the Literature to Help Deepen My Understanding of the
Observations:
• Peer pressure to experiment with drugs and alcohol (Berk, p. 299).
• Lack of self-esteem if you don’t look and act a certain way (seductive).
• Increase in risk-taking behaviors (globalpost.com)
• Addictive behaviors (Berk, p. 300).
Questions that still remain:
• How can talking to veteran urban school teachers help early career urban
school teachers learn how to approach music in the hallways?
• So what? What do we do about this?
• How can we assimilate rap and hip-hop music to educational learning if
music is something the kids are highly interested in? (flocabulary.com)
+
References

Flocabulary is educational hop-hop. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.flocabulary.com/

Nielson. (2012, December 4). Rap and Drugs. Retrieved from
http://blog.richmond.edu/rapmusic/2012/12/04/rap-and-drugs/

Parker Pope, T., & (2013, February 5). Under the influence of music.
Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/under-theinfluence-ofmusic/?_r=1

Selke, L. A. (2013). Does hip hop affect behavior in kids?. Retrieved
from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/hip-hop-affect-behavior-kids5073.html

(2013). Rap Music Videos Affects on African American Children.
Retrieved from http://hiphop368.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/rapmusic-videos-affects-on-african-american-children/