A Student Teachers' Perception

Parents’ & Student Teachers’ Perceptions of using Popular Culture in the Classroom

 

Through carrying out a survey with a current student teacher, it is clear her views reflect the importance of popular culture in the classrooms. The student believes that teaching approaches should evolve with new media. The visual world of popular, media and consumer texts ask different skills from their readers (Lambirth, 2003). Dean (2010:57) believes ‘children arrive in the classroom with an already well-developed experience of moving images’ through their favourite films and television. As a teacher ‘capitalising on this knowledge’, and using this as a starting point in teaching is worthwhile. However it has been found, ‘the most common means by which our population receives the vast majority of its information is almost wholly ignored in the education system’ (Dean, 2010:51). The student also believes that having engaging contexts is vital to successful learning, this can be captured through the children’s interests in popular culture, Lambirth (2003) found this to be a view of many teachers who ‘linked children’s levels of engagement with popular culture and their use of it to influence their school work with the child’s intellectual capacity’ (2003:9). The student expressed they would use popular culture in their planning and teaching as they felt confident with new media and had strong experience on school placements where the children’s film ‘How to train your dragon’ was implemented successfully. Marsh et al (2005:50) found ‘the use of popular culture in early childhood settings is more widespread than has been identified previously’. However Lankshear and Knobel (2004) found that there appears to be a ‘digital divide’ between people who have been immersed in technology from a young age and people who have had to acquire the skills at a later stage in life (Marsh et al, 2005). ‘For [children], new technologies are a seamless part of the world into which they were born’ (Byron, 2008:208), for this reason it is understandable that some teachers may feel less confident to apply popular culture in their teaching having little previous experience. To conclude my views reflect those of the student teacher surveyed, popular culture can hold significance in the teaching and learning today.

 

Byron (2008) Safer Children in a Digital World The Report of the Byron Review – Children and New Technology

Dean, G. ‘Rethinking Literacy’ in Bazalgette, C. (ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms London: Sage

Lambirth, A. (2003) “They get enough of that at home”: Understanding aversion to popular cultures in schools’ Reading 37 (1) pp.9-13

Marsh, J. Brooks, G. Hughes, J. Ritchie,L. Roberts, S. Wright,K. (2005) Digital beginnings: Young children’s use of popular culture, media and new Technologies University of Sheffield