Adolescents in search of themselves and their future: rap music as a means of giving voice to dreams and fears

Abstract

The paper presents educational guidance pathways that employ rap music as an evocative language to foster adolescents’ self-reflection. In particular, it illustrates the “Rap Therapy” method, adapted to the educational context and implemented in third-year classes of upper secondary schools within school-to-university transition projects. A qualitative analysis conducted on 24 rap songs produced by 510 students, made it possible to investigate the guidance processes activated according to the models proposed by Savickas (2011), Guichard (2009), and Hirschi (2010). The findings reveal a strong activation of dimensions related to personal reflection, future projection, confidence in one’s own abilities, and exploration, as well as a critical reworking of the relationship with the social context and with extrinsic values such as money and success. Rap thus emerges as an educational device capable of promoting meaningful guidance processes.