Critical Pedagogy Through Popular Culture

Authors

  • Ghada Sfeir Interdisciplinary Studies Program, University of Saskatchewan

Abstract

In our media-saturated society, integrating critical pedagogy in the curriculum at all levels has sparked the interest of researchers, scholars, and educators. They have focused their effort on redefining literacy, analyzing the profound influence of the media on the social, economic, and political issues, and promoting critical pedagogy to engage students to challenge the ideological and hegemonic representations, the structures of oppression, gender, class, power, and race. This study attempts to highlight that, in addition to these goals, critical pedagogy of popular culture in the curriculum holds other tremendous benefits to students such as expanding thinking about others, finding alternative narratives in students’ own lives, enhancing cultural synchronization, building culturally responsive awareness, building consumer awareness, and scaffolding social intelligence. This study also discusses the essential aspects of a successful implementation of critical pedagogy of popular culture in terms of content, teacher’s role and education.

Keywords: critical pedagogy, popular culture, culturally responsive pedagogy

Author Biography

Ghada Sfeir, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, University of Saskatchewan

I am a third-year doctoral student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in the integrated areas of cosmopolitanism, citizenship education, multiculturalism, and critical pedagogy.  I have taught  EDUC 230/2 Introduction to the Philosophy of Education, an undergraduate course at Concordia University, Montreal. I have a total of 6 years of diverse teaching experience (particularly English) in various settings and educational levels, including university and elementary levels. To network professionally, I have joined the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), The Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE), the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) and Quebec Association for Lifelong Learning (QALL).  I was one the recipients of Concordia Volunteer Recognition Award in 2012.

References

References
Au, K. (2006). Multicultural issues and literacy achievement. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Bartholome, L. G. (2005). The value of teaching popular culture in the community college: A stew of abstract, concrete, serious, and not-so-serious notions. In R. B. Browne (ed.),
Popular culture across the curriculum (pp. 148-162). North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Callahan, M. & Low, B. E. (2004). At the crossroads of expertise: The risky business of teaching popular culture. The English Journal 93(3), 52-57. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from Eric
Database.

Dolby, N. (2003). “Popular culture and democratic practice.” Harvard Educational Review 73(3), 258-284.

Giroux, H. A. & Simon, R. I. (1989). Schooling, popular culture, and a pedagogy of possibility. In Henry A. Giroux and Peter Mclaren (Eds.), Critical pedagogy, the state, and cultural struggle (pp.217-236). New York: State University of New York.

Goleman, D. (2006). Social Intelligence: The new science of human relationships. New York: Bantam Dell.

Kincheloe, J. L. (2004). Critical pedagogy. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

Kline, S., Stewart, K., & Murphy, D. (2006). Media literacy in the risk society: Toward a risk reduction strategy. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1), 131-153.

Lynde, K. (2005). Putting methodology where the mouth is: Integrating popular culture into the high school curriculum. In R. B. Browne (ed.), Popular culture across the curriculum (pp. 148-162). North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.

McLaren, P. (1995). Critical pedagogy and predatory culture: Oppositional politics in a postmodern era. London: Routledge.

Paul, G. D. (2000). Rap and orality: Critical media literacy, pedagogy, and cultural synchronization. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44(3), pp. 246-247. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from Academic Search Primer Database.

Semali, L. (2000). Literacy in multimedia America: Integrating media education across the curriculum. New York & London: Falmer Press.

Tisdell, E. J., & Thompson, P. M. (2007). ‘Seeing from a different angle’: the role of pop culture in teaching for diversity and critical media literacy in adult education. International Journal of Lifelong Education 26(6), 651-673. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from Canadian Research Knowledge Network.

Weaver, J. A. (2005). Popular culture primer. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

Weaver, A. & Daspit, T. (1999). Critical pedagogy, popular culture, and the creation of meaning. In Weaver, A. and Daspit, T. (Eds.). Popular culture and the critical pedagogy: Reading,
constructing, connecting (pp. XIII-XXXIII). New York: Garland.

White, C. & Walker, T. (2008). The Spiderman curriculum: Popular culture in social studies. In C. White and t. walker (Eds.). Tooning in: Essays on popular culture and education (pp.
31-37). Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.

Downloads

Published

2014-07-23

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2014)

Section

Essays

License

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Authors are able to enter separate, additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in an institutional repository or on their website) prior and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access)

4. Please note that while every opportunity will be taken to ensure author participation in the editing process, due to time constraints final copyediting changes may be made before publication to ensure APA adherence throughout all submissions.