ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some case studies of educational settings where DJing, MCing and Electronic Dance Music (EDM)/urban music have very successfully been used to engage young people, giving them an outlet for creativity and self-expression and, indeed, an opportunity to have some fun whilst actually learning new skills. Spencer Hickson's educational activities, which operate as an arm of his broader 'Groove Noise' organisation, have grown primarily through word of mouth. As with Spencer, then, Brett Gordon and Rawz of Ark T/Urban Music Foundation had significant levels of success in encouraging inclusion of disaffected learners – but almost always at the peripheries of mainstream education. Ark T works with local schools to combat disaffection in a range of ways. Sam Seidel's Hip Hop Genius: Remixing High School Education (2011) is primarily focused upon the world's first 'hip hop high school' – the High School for Recording Arts (HSRA) of St. Paul, Minnesota.
