Research Spotlight: Dr. Ian Levy
Dr. Ian Levy is a former high school counselor, school counselor educator, and emcee. His research explores preparing school counselors to use Hip Hop based interventions to support youth development. Dr. Levy’s work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, and is documented in a variety of academic journals. His research monograph, Hip Hop and Spoken Word Therapy in School Counseling: Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches, is published with Routledge. He believes the school counselor’s identity as always both an educator and a counselor; a position that is supported by the GSE’s commitment to training school counselors alongside other school building educators, helping to forge necessary interdisciplinary collaborations that promote the wellbeing of young people in K-12 schools.
Can you tell us about a new research project you are working on?
My research interests include developing, implementing, and evaluating Hip Hop and School Counseling interventions in schools, towards synthesizing a model for Hip Hop and School Counseling practice. This project involves understanding the impact of Hip Hop interventions (like lyric writing as emotive journaling, mixtape making as action research, or the creation of studios as therapeutic environments) on youth’s well-being, as well as the training and supervision of professional school counselors interested in practicing said interventions.
What kind of methodological and theoretical approaches do you use?
The bulk of my research has drawn on qualitative methodologies, like interpretative phenomenological analysis, to explore the meaning youth and educators make of Hip Hop interventions in schools. Theoretically, I pull from humanistic counseling, believing that Hip Hop and school counseling approaches invite youth to share and process their thoughts and feelings authentically within schools. Relatedly, I also draw on youth participatory action research to support youth in telling their stories and wield those stories as tools for systemic change. It is not enough for school counselors to help youth emote; it is also crucial that school systems are altered in ways that aid youth’s identity development. I believe Hip Hop strategies in schools are an exemplar of a culturally responsive approach that simultaneously works towards systemic change and fosters individual student growth.
And why are these important to your work?
Hip Hop practices center the voices, stories, and assets of youth and their communities within school systems that have historically undercut their authentic identity development. It is essential to draw on culturally sustaining methods and theories that charge school counselors and other educators with the responsibility of partnering with youth and their communities towards combating systems of oppression in schools and creating hospitable environments where youth can self-actualize.
What’s next for you in terms of research or this project?
The next steps in my research involve a multi-site evaluation of a Hip-Hop mixtape-making group counseling intervention, as well as the implementation and evaluation of professional development training, Counselor Education coursework, and supervision of school counselors in Hip Hop methods. Collectively, these efforts seek to concretize a model for Hip Hop and School Counseling where school counselors can be trained to imbue Hip Hop methods across school counseling roles and responsibilities and can be offered adequate supervision to sustain Hip Hop programming in K-12 schools.