A student teachers thought on popular culture within the classroom.

Within my survey carried out with a student teacher on their attitudes towards popular culture within the classroom it became apparent that she had positive attitudes however also had some reservations. She responded that she appreciated that teaching is evolving as children are now growing up in a digital world and they develop a wide range of skills, knowledge and understanding of this world. (Marsh, Brooks, Hughes, Ritchie, Roberts and Wright 2005) These children are known as “digital natives” (Paffrey & Gasser 2008:1).

She appreciated that popular culture was an important aspect of children’s lives which Arthur (2005) supported stating that for many it was even “the main part of their lives” (Arthur 2005:175) now we have evolved into a society with ‘digital natives’. The student teacher discussed how popular culture within the classroom can engage children far more within their learning and motivation and allow them to become much more of a part of their learning journey as they will have more experience to reflect on which is an idea that Lambrith (2003) discusses stating that using popular culture can capture the interests of children, ‘empowering’ them and allowing them to feel more comfortable and welcome within the school environment (Lambrith 2003). Arthur (2005) concurs stating that it encompasses their own experiences, allowing them to connect to their interests and validate their strengths. (Arthur 2005) Using popular culture in the classroom is reported to have a positive impact on children’s progress in speaking and listening within literacy. (Marsh, Brooks, Hughes, Ritchie, Roberts and Wright 2005)

The student teacher however argued that she wouldn’t want all traditional Literacy teaching values to go out the window and still feels that it is important for children to appreciate the importance of Literacy in a non-digital world and that there is a huge wealth of learning that can be gained from focusing on non-popular cultures and that the two could be balanced out and taught together. This idea is discussed within Lambrith’s research were it is discussed that popular culture just be used as a tool to teach traditional literacy skills. It would be used to capture children’s interests but just be a gateway to teaching the traditional points of literacy practice. (Lambrith 2003) Merchant (2007) also queries the place of popular culture within the classroom stating teachers have a responsibility to provide a critical view of the nature of popular culture.  (Merchant 2007)

As a student teacher myself I agree with my fellow student teacher. It is clear there are a huge number of benefits to incorporating popular culture within your teaching however I think within my classroom I will use popular culture as a starting point or a gateway and not get too carried away with incorporating it into my lessons. I do appreciate however that digital literacy will be becoming a much bigger part of the classroom and will need to be incorporated into teaching.

Arthur, L. (2005) ‘Popular culture: views of parents and educators’ in Marsh, J. (2005) Popular Culture, New media and Digital Literacy in Early Childhood. Oxon:RoutledgeFalmer

Lambrith, A. (2003) ‘”The 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 childrens use of popular culture, media and new technologies. University of Sheffield (Section 2.10 p.46; Sections 3.2 & 3.3 p48/49)

Merchant, G. (2007) Writing the future in the digital age Literacy 41 (3) pp118-128

Paffrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives.  New York: Basic Books (Introduction pp. 1-15)