The Pop Culture Critical Pedagogy Reader Edited by Danira Cantu
Contents Why Pop Culture? (My Intro) Part One: Understanding Critical Pedagogy and Pop Culture Introduction to Part One 1 Critical Theory and Educational Practice Henry A. Giroux 2 From Pedagogy of the Opressed Paulo Freire 3 Toward a critical pedagogy of popular culture: Literacy development among urban youth Ernest Morrell Part Two: Visual Media Introduction to Part Two 4 “The writers are getting kind of desperate”: Young adolescents, television, and literacy JoEllen Fisherkeller 5 Television Literacy C.P. Harding and Morton Waimon Part Three: Music Introduction to Part Three 6 Rap and orality: Critical media literacy, pedagogy, and cultural synchronization Dierdre Glenn Paul 7 Pedagogy and Popular Music Thomas J. Burns and Theresa A. Martinez Part Four: And the rest… (Misc.) Introduction to Part Four 8
Pop Culture Pedagogy and the End(s) of School Jabari Mahiri
9
Popular Media, Critical Pedagogy, and Inner City Youth
Diane Wishart Leard & Brett Lashua 10 Popular Media, Education, and Resistance Michelle Stack & Deirdre M. Kelly Part 5: Suggested Readings for Future Study 11 Where do we go next?
Why Pop Culture? Danira Cantu
“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” ― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
I couldn’t have said it any better myself. Through Freire’s works and that of many others we have been able to find a new way of seeing pedagogy. This “critical” approach has transformed education and has led to less “oppressive” classrooms, bring equality to both teacher and student. However as time goes by so do the needs of the students. I have found that many times children become unresponsive to teaching methods and seek to find methods that are “cooler” than the rather structured ones we have today. For this reason I have decided to compile these texts based on Critical Pedagogy in the form of Pop Culture. This form of pedagogy is characterized as one of “many modes of transmission (e.g., TV, the Internet, video games, music compact discs, movies)” and is seen as different approach towards pedagogy in the classroom, helping teachers think critically and allowing them to creatively deal with today’s “reality”, as well as the students in it (Mahiri, 382). Critical Pedagogy has come a long way since it’s start but a lot of work is still
to be done. Though Pop Culture isn’t exactly “mainstream” and is often times seen as a “a kind of bizarre alternative curriculum”, I believe that with a bit more persistence and a couple of years this form of pedagogy can become a pivotal force in both critical pedagogy and the classroom (Stack & Kelley, 16). Critical Pedagogy isn’t something that can be grasped easily. This approach to teaching is founded on different ideas and mentalities but all pedagogues have the same goal: to teach equally. When I say equally I don’t mean the same amount but rather the same “nurturing” among the students. The desired end result of this equal nurturing would be to avoid prejudice in the classroom, educational equality. In order to do this, educators must be able to assess student needs as well as understand the world around them. Because of the world’s constant changing, popular culture has made an appearance in pedagogy, acting as the new “hipper” version of the current model with all of its different “pedagogical lures” (Paul, 246). The first part of this reader is here to give the audience a taste of what critical pedagogy is in general and at the same time define “pop culture” and give a bit of info on what this as a pedagogy is all about. I felt that before one could truly grasp the whole “pop culture as critical pedagogy” idea, you have to at least get a little background in the matter. The next section of this book introduces television viewing as a mean of pedagogy. The reason I chose visual media was because this consumes a great amount of children’s lives. It is a “prevalent, systematic, and powerful means of communicating to the world”, students included(Fisherkeller, 597). Focusing on
such a widespread form of media can lead to widespread results in terms of student education. The third installment in this reader focuses on music as a means of teaching. From hip-hop to rap, music has been a great force in teaching students how to draw conclusions as well as understand literature. To ignore such a grand force in today’s society as a means of pedagogy would be absurd. The fourth section in this book is a mix up of popular culture pedagogy. This focuses on different combinations of and different types of popular culture media. From theatre to the new, this section focuses on other creative forces to teach. Lastly the fifth section in this reader is a bibliography of works that detail the use of popular culture as a form of pedagogy. Whether it is the model we are currently working with or the popular culture version of pedagogy, these critical forms of teaching can often lead to discovery among teachers, helping them better understand their students at a different and more meaningful level. Critical pedagogy in any form is a commitment and takes great effort to use effectively. But as times change so must we as educators and if “schooling is to survive these pop culture ways of knowing and being, it too must transform� (Mahiri, 385).
Works Cited Burns, Thomas J. and Martinez, Theresa A, . PEDAGOGY AND POPULAR MUSIC. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations , Vol. 19, No. 1 (1993), pp. 117-129 Fisherkeller, JoEllen."The Writers Are Getting Kind of Desperate": Young Adolescents, Television, and Literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , Vol. 43, No. 7 (Apr., 2000), pp. 596-606 Freire, Paulo. Chapter Two in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (1970) by Contiuum Press, pp.71-86 Giroux, Henry A.” Critical Theory and Educational Practice” from Theory and Resistance in Education by Henry A. Giroux. (1983) pp. 7-41 Harding, C. P. and Waimon, Morton. Television Literacy. The Clearing House , Vol. 47, No. 2 (Oct., 1972), pp. 107-110 Leard, Diane Wishart, and Lashua, Brett. Popular Media, Critical Pedagogy, and Inner City Youth.Canadian Journal of Education / Revue ca nadienne de l'éducation , Vol. 29, No. 1, The Popular Media, Education, and Resistance/ Les mass-média populaires, l'éducation et la résistance (2006), pp. 244-264 Mahiri, Jabari. “Pop Culture Pedagogy and the End(s) of School.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literature 44 (2000-2001): 382-85. Morrell, Ernest. Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Popular Culture: Literacy Development among Urban Youth. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , Vol. 46, No. 1 (Sep., 2002), pp. 72-77 Paul, Dierdre Glenn. Rap and Orality: Critical Media Literacy, Pedagogy, and Cultural Synchronization. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , Vol. 44, No. 3 (Nov., 2000), pp. 246-252 Stack, Michelle and Kelly, Deirdre M. Popular Media, Education, and Resistance.Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation , Vol. 29, No. 1, The Popular Media, Education, and Resistance/ Les mass-média populaires, l'éducation et la résistance (2006), pp. 5-26
In the future‌ This section is a small compilation of suggested reading for further study in Pop Culture as a means of critical pedagogy. Wishing you all the best! –D.C.
Alvermann, Donna E and Hagood, Margaret C. Fandom and Critical Media Literacy Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , Vol. 43, No. 5, Re/Mediating Adolescent Literacies (Feb., 2000), pp. 436-446 Brehony, Kevin J . 'I Used to Get Mad at My School': Representations of Schooling in Rock and Pop Music.British Journal of Sociology of Education , Vol. 19, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 113-134 Kahn-Egan, Seth.Pedagogy of the Pissed: Punk Pedagogy in the First-Year Writing Classroom.College Composition and Communication , Vol. 49, No. 1 (Feb., 1998), pp. 99-104 Giroux, Henry A. "Breaking into the movies: Pedagogy and the politics of film." JAC Vol. 21, No. 3 (2001), pp. 583-598. Lewison, Mitzi, Seely Flint, Amy, and Van Sluys, Katie. Taking on Critical Literacy: The Journey of Newcomers and Novices. Language Arts , Vol. 79, No. 5, Critical Literacy (May 2002), pp. 382-392 Morrell, Ernest and Duncan-Andrade, Jeffrey M. R.Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth through Engaging Hip-Hop Culture.The English Journal , Vol. 91, No. 6 (Jul., 2002), pp. 88-92
Pardue, Derek. Hip Hop as Pedagogy: A Look into "Heaven and "Soul" in S達o-Paulo, Brazil. Anthropological Quarterly , Vol. 80, No. 3 (Summer, 2007), pp. 673-709 Rice, Jeff. The 1963 Hip-Hop Machine: Hip-Hop Pedagogy as Composition. College Composition and Communication , Vol. 54, No. 3 (Feb., 2003), pp. 453-471 Sandlin Jennifer A., and Milam, Jennifer L. "Mixing Pop (Culture) and Politics": Cultural Resistance, Culture Jamming, and Anti-Consumption Activism as Critical Public Pedagogy. Curriculum Inquiry , Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jun., 2008), pp. 323-350 Keller Simon, Richard and Ogdon, Bethany. Popular Culture: An Introduction by Carla Freccero; The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence by Henry A. Giroux; Trash Culture: Popular Culture and the College English , Vol. 63, No. 4 (Mar., 2001), pp. 500-516 Stevens, Lisa Patel. "South Park" and Society: Instructional and Curricular Implications of Popular Culture in the Classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy , Vol. 44, No. 6 (Mar., 2001), pp. 548-555 Tavin, Kevin. Hauntological Shifts: Fear and Loathing of Popular (Visual) Culture. Studies in Art Education , Vol. 46, No. 2 (Winter, 2005), pp. 101-117 Tavin, Kevin M . Wrestling with Angels, Searching for Ghosts: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Visual Culture.Studies in Art Education , Vol. 44, No. 3 (Spring, 2003), pp. 197-213