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It’s been years since I idolised a popular
band (Sherbet, Bay City Rollers, ABBA…), read children’s fiction (The Bobbsey
Twins, Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie) or rushed to see the latest popular teen or
children’s movie (Grease, Saturday Night Fever, E.T.). HELP! This list is
embarrassing! Video was barely a household item! The amount and variety of
popular culture texts that today’s youth consume and participate in is immense
and growing all the time.
Robert Petrone’s article, “Linking Contemporary Research
on Youth, Literacy, and Popular Culture With Literacy Teacher Education”, challenges us as educators to embrace the popular culture of the
students we teach if education is to be relevant in their lives (2013).
In general, this scholarship notes that the ubiquitous nature of popular culture in our 21st-century world, especially in relation to young people, makes it an essential context to take into consideration when attempting to understand young people’s literacy development, the various ways literacy functions in their lives, and their identities in contemporary society (p. 241).
Petrone
adds that the continually evolving digital technologies, corporate influence
and the influence of media and social media extends and changes our perceptions
of popular culture. This is what is shaping and giving meaning to the lives of
our students. To really transform the educational experiences of our students
we need to utilise the popular culture that they are a part of, building on
what they know and what they do in that popular culture space.
HELP!
By now I’m thinking what does this mean
for me? How am I going to be able to truly connect with the Prep to Year 7
students that I teach? How will this fit with an already overcrowded curriculum?
What is the real value of the popular culture that my students engage with out
of school to their education and to what I am teaching? Petrone states that
young people's literacy and learning practices intersect with popular cultures
across many areas of youth experiences such as the classroom, videos, video
games, film-making, sport, television and so on. This affords many
opportunities in the classroom to engage with students’ literacy practices in a
relevant and engaging way.
Petrone proposes 3 springboards or
concepts that need to be considered when literacy education acknowledges the
literacy practices of today’s youth and the popular culture they are immersed
in. I will use Petrone’s exact phrasing of these concepts and then briefly
explain what he means.
1.
Adopt an ethnographic stance toward popular culture to reframe youth
and ascertain funds of knowledge (p. 247).
It is essential to get to know your students and what they are
interested in. Spend time with them to learn what they do and what elements of
popular culture they use to communicate? By taking the youth’s engagement with
popular culture seriously, you will open up ways for him/her to engage and
connect with literacy education. This enables the teacher to facilitate learning
experiences that make strategic connections between what the students bring
with them to school and the academic curricula. This views the student’s
knowledge and skills as an asset not a deficit.
2.
Bridging popular culture funds
of knowledge with academic literacies (p. 250)
This is how educators use what they know of a student’s popular culture practices and knowledge to make connections with curriculum. For example making use of popular song lyrics to learn about use of descriptive literacy techniques. This is particularly important for students who are disengaged or struggling with the regular curriculum as it bridges the gap between their real life literacy practices and school literacy.
3. Using popular culture to facilitate critical media literacy and sociopolitical critique and action (p. 253). Youth use and are being used by popular culture, it shapes their understandings of the world and enables them to shape the world. Popular culture influences a young person sociopolitical critique and action and shapes ideas of race, gender, class, consumerism, patriotism and so forth. For these reasons it is important to undertake a form of critical media literacy to support students' ability to critically understand all texts. Popular culture texts are a springboard to facilitate the students' interrogation of the world at large. Media and popular culture texts can be used as the means for students to become voices and agents of critique' dissent and subsequently social action and transformation.
I recommend reading this article as it highlights the importance of popular culture as it provides the context for students as they navigate their world, form identities and develop literacy. It provides educators with a pathway to develop literacies that are respectful of and responsive to the rich literate and cultural lives of contemporary youth.
I need to understand how students make meaning in their lives through popular culture and then align pedagogical approaches into the classroom to build on these understandings.
This is how educators use what they know of a student’s popular culture practices and knowledge to make connections with curriculum. For example making use of popular song lyrics to learn about use of descriptive literacy techniques. This is particularly important for students who are disengaged or struggling with the regular curriculum as it bridges the gap between their real life literacy practices and school literacy.
3. Using popular culture to facilitate critical media literacy and sociopolitical critique and action (p. 253). Youth use and are being used by popular culture, it shapes their understandings of the world and enables them to shape the world. Popular culture influences a young person sociopolitical critique and action and shapes ideas of race, gender, class, consumerism, patriotism and so forth. For these reasons it is important to undertake a form of critical media literacy to support students' ability to critically understand all texts. Popular culture texts are a springboard to facilitate the students' interrogation of the world at large. Media and popular culture texts can be used as the means for students to become voices and agents of critique' dissent and subsequently social action and transformation.
I recommend reading this article as it highlights the importance of popular culture as it provides the context for students as they navigate their world, form identities and develop literacy. It provides educators with a pathway to develop literacies that are respectful of and responsive to the rich literate and cultural lives of contemporary youth.
I need to understand how students make meaning in their lives through popular culture and then align pedagogical approaches into the classroom to build on these understandings.
Petrone, Robert. (2013). Linking Contemporary Research on Youth, Literacy, and Popular Culture With Literacy Teacher Education. Journal of Literacy Research, 45(3), 240-266.
Available Online at: http://jlr.sagepub.com/content/45/3/240
I think that using popular culture in constructive ways through academic literacies or as a way of looking at the world with a critical eye is essential. I have been tripped up in the past when students have had a similar interest to me and used this to side track lessons. I think this type of thing can be a problem if the popular culture focus is not constructive. As teachers we need to use whatever we can to teach our students. If that is popular culture well and good. I don't feel that popular culture should be taught just because it is popular with our students. There needs to be stronger rationale behind its use.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the insight Margot, I feel your pain with needing help, because popular culture may not be part of our current, personal ethnography. The idea of developing a greater understanding of what is popular culture for others, especially our students is, is vital to remain relevant, effective and to build insight into classroom pedagogy. Running into a room and speaking Shakespearean would be interesting for students for only a short time, and repeated, antiquated understandings would be equally ill conceived. In psychology we learn that people have 5 essential needs i.e.
ReplyDeleteCompetence,
Belonging,
Usefulness,
Potency, and
Optimism
(http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103009/chapters/Identifying-Our-Basic-Psychological-Needs.aspx)
and popular culture, and its appropriate implementation within the classroom, are essential, particularly for belonging. I agree with Jared's comment however, that it must be employed within a constructive framework that improves academic and critical literacy.