Rap4Skills

The idea of this small book has resulted from a series of educational projects and activities I have been working on for the community since the Covid-9 pandemic. One of them was a project called ETUF: Empowering Teachers for an Uncertain Future, funded by the Australian government in the Aus4Skills programme for teachers. Working with and observing them during the project, I learned that many teachers lacked various skills to master themselves. Then I thought about their students and how they would be guided to develop. I was glad that we initiated and implemented the ETUF project, though it was on a small scale.

Then, when I moved to Birmingham City University, UK, as a Professor of Business Education post Covid pandemic. Birmingham city where I live, is the third largest city in the UK. I want to do something for some deprived communities to help people to stand on their feet. However, I struggle with how I should approach and work with those people when I am an outsider.

By accident, I had a conversation with a colleague at my University, Dr Matin Glynn. He told me that apart from being a lecturer, he also worked as an artist and writer. He wrote rap, poems and comedies to transfer research ideas into performing arts. It was a eureka moment for me. It triggered my language background. It woke up my recent research on language performativity in the digitalisation era. It reminded me of my teenage when I wrote poems and short stories for local newspapers. I realised the power of performing art, language and music and thought: why don't I integrate them into business education to change people's thoughts, behaviours and then their lives?

The book comprises a collection of 20 verses I wrote with help from technology on a series of critical skills, such as critical thinking, systems thinking, or design thinking for people's development in the age of digitalisation. I hope school teachers, their students and young people out there will know about and master these skills for their life and their development in a fun way by rapping and performing them, i.e., they can read those rhythms, add music, and/or perform them if they wish. At least those short verses can help develop these skills in a fast engaging approach. With some creativity from teachers in designing tasks for their students, young people can learn these skills in the most effective and entertaining way. Then, hopefully, their performance can be shared on social media, reaching a wider range of people, including street people and people from lower socioeconomic groups.