Teaching Popular Culture

Education in Popular Culture explores what makes schools, colleges, teachers and students an enduring focus for a wide range of contemporary media. What is it about the school experience that makes us wish to relive it again and again? The book provides an overview of education as it is represented in popular culture, together with a framework through which educators can interpret these representations in relation to their own professional values and development. The analyses are contextualised within contemporary, historical and ideological frameworks, and make connections between popular representations and professional and political discourses about education. Through its examination of film, television, popular lyrics and fiction, this book tackles educational themes that recur in popular culture, and demonstrates how they intersect with debates concerning teacher performance, the curriculum and young people’s behaviour and morality. Chapters explore how experiences of education are both reflected and constructed in ways that sometimes reinforce official and professional educational perspectives, and sometimes resist and oppose them. Education in Popular Culture will stimulate critical reflection on the popular myths and professional discourses that surround teachers and teaching. It will serve to deepen analyses of teaching and learning and their associated institutional and societal contexts in a creative and challenging way.

The integration of popular culture into education is a pervasive theme at all educational levels and in all subject areas. Popular Culture, Pedagogy and Teacher Education explores how ‘popular culture’ and ‘education’ come together and interact in research and practice from an interdisciplinary perspective. The international case studies in this edited volume address issues related to: how popular culture ‘teaches’ our students and what they learn from it outside the classroom how popular culture connects education to students’ lives how teachers ‘use’ popular culture in educational settings how far teachers should shape what students learn from engagement with popular culture in school how teacher educators can help teachers integrate popular culture into their teaching Providing vivid accounts of students, teachers and teacher educators, and drawing out the pedagogical implications of their work, this book will appeal to teachers and teacher educators who are searching for practical answers to the questions that the integration of popular culture into education poses for their work.

This book is written for teachers, researchers, and theorists who have grown up in a world radically different from that of the students they teach and study. It considers the possibilities involved in teaching critical media literacy using popular culture, and explore what such teaching might look like in your classroom. Published by International Reading Association

A provocative collection of articles that begins with the idea that the "popular" in classrooms and in the everyday lives of teachers and students is fundamentally political. This anthology includes articles by elementary and secondary public school teachers, scholars and activists who examine how and what popular toys, books, films, music and other media "teach." The essays offer strong critiques and practical pedagogical strategies for educators at every level to engage with the popular.

A collection of eloquent essays, Tooning In critically examines and interprets the concept of 'popular culture.' Many interesting works have addressed this subject, but few have provided a critical perspective regarding the possibilities of popular culture as a tool for teaching and learning. White and Walker suggest that popular culture is a vital aspect of contemporary life and can be wielded as a tool for efficacy and empowerment, particularly among youth. The book addresses such important questions as: What is the role of popular culture in students' lives? What are the possibilities for popular culture in schooling and education? What are the differences between traditional and transformative approaches to popular culture? With essays specifically devoted to film, music, television, games, and other alternative popular culture texts, Tooning In invites readers to re-examine the fundamental aspects of popular culture as a societal force.

Teaching about the media and popular culture has been a major concern for radical educators. Yet in recent years, the hyperbolic rhetoric of "critical pedagogy" has come under attack, not only from theoretical perspectives such as feminism, anti-racism and postmodernism, but also in The Light Of Actual Classroom Experience. The Notion That Teachers Might "liberate" students through rationalistic forms of ideological critique has been increasingly questioned, not only on the grounds of its political arrogance, but also because of its ineffectiveness in practice. This book seeks to move beyond the limitations of these debates, and to explore positive alternatives. It contains a broad international range of contributions, covering practice from primary schools right through to higher education. The authors draw on diverse perspectives, including poststructuralism, postmodernism, cultural studies, anti-racism and feminism; yet they share a willingness to challenge radical orthodoxies, and to offer positive practical alternatives.

Educating through Popular Culture is a tool for educators at all levels to improve their practice via popular culture in ways that both embrace and resist contemporary thinking. Its chapters provide a range of theoretical and practical suggestions to elicit discussion and spark creativity in all students.

Authored by scholars from a variety of disciplines, including English, Theology, Philosophy, Communications, Sociology, Humanities and Peace Studies, this edited volume provides detailed descriptions of the many ways popular culture can be used to teach peace. Chapters discuss documentary and feature film, music, television, literature and more, providing both educators and the general public with a timely and useful tool. From popular dystopian novels like The Hunger Games to feature films like The Matrix to modern rap and hip-hop music, contributors not only provide critical analysis of the violence in popular culture but also an assessment of how the same or alternate forms can be used by peace educators. Additionally, each chapter project synopses and teaching ideas, as well as recommended resources.