Educating through Popular Culture

You're Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics

Contributions by Maha Al-Saati, Pearl Chaozon Bauer, Emily L. Brandon, Melissa Chapman, Paul A. Crutcher, Autumn M. Dodge, Tonia A. Dousay, Haley M. G. Ford, Andrew L. Grunzke, Jacob Hardesty, Richard Hartsell, Meghan Hawkins, Richard Hughes, Sarah Hunt-Barron, Cadey Korson, Weronika Kusek, Katie Lopez, Kimberley McMahon-Coleman, Tammy L. Mielke, Josh Thompson, Chad William Timm, Meredith J. Tolson, Jillian L. Wenburg, Kenya Wolff, Marc Wolterbeek Edited by Edward A. Janak, Ludovic A. Sourdot

Not available to order

Publication date:

01 March 2017

Length of book:

364 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498549189

This edited volume serves as a place for teachers and scholars to begin seeking ways in which popular culture has been effectively tapped for research and teaching purposes around the country. The contents of the book came together in a way that allowed for a detailed examination of teaching with popular culture on many levels. The first part allows teachers in PreK-12 schools the opportunity to share their successful practices. The second part affords the same opportunity to teachers in community colleges and university settings. The third part shows the impact of US popular culture in classrooms around the world. The fourth part closes the loop, to some extent, showing how universities can prepare teachers to use popular culture with their future PreK-12 students. The final part of the book allows researchers to discuss the impact popular culture plays in their work. It also seeks to address a shortcoming in the field; while there are outlets to publish studies of popular culture, and outlets to publish pedagogical/practitioner pieces, there is no outlet to publish practitioner pieces on studying popular culture, in spite of the increased popularity and legitimacy of the field.

Introduction - Educating through Popular Culture: “You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics”
Ludovic A. Sourdot and Edward Janak

Part I - Looking Behind: Teaching in the K-12 Schools With Popular Culture

Chapter 1 - Reclaimed Identity in Tak Toyoshima’s Secret Asian Man and Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese
Tammy L. Mielke and Emily Brandon
Chapter 2 - History, Literacy, and Popular Culture: Using Graphic Novels to Teach the Struggle for Racial Justice
Richard Hughes, Meghan Hawkins, and Katie Lopez
Chapter 3 - Karma in Comics: Discovering Hidden Superpowers through Creating
Tonia A. Dousay Part II - Looking Around: Teaching in Postsecondary Schools with Popular Culture

Part II - Looking Around: Teaching in Postsecondary Schools with Popular Culture

Chapter 4 - Making Academia Cool: Serious Study of Sequential Art at the University
Pearl Chaozon Bauer and Marc Wolterbeek
Chapter 5 - Meditation: Mediating the Writing Process
Jillian L. Wenburg
Chapter 6 - Exploring Migration through Popular Media and Fieldwork
Cadey Korson and Weronika Kusek

Part III - Looking Globally: Teaching U.S. Popular Culture in Global Context

Chapter 7 - A Question of Relevance: Teaching with Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film in a Saudi University
Maha Al-Saati
Chapter 8 - Teaching Little Professors: Autism Spectrum on TV and in the Classroom
Kimberley McMahon-Coleman

Part IV - Looking Ahead: Preparing Teachers With Popular Culture

Chapter 9 - Poking It with a Shtick: Humor as Hermeneutic in the Pre-service Teacher Education Classroom
Sarah Hunt-Barron and Richard Hartsell
Chapter 10 - Orange is the New Blackboard: Lessons for Student and Teacher Advocacy
Haley M. G. Ford and Meredith J. Tolson
Chapter 11 - Thinking Philosophically: The Power of Pop Culture in Developing a Personal Philosophy of Education
Chad William Timm

Part IV - Looking Theoretically: Research Utilizing Popular Culture

Chapter 12 - Using Multimodal Literacy to Teach Gender History through Comic Books or How “The Wonder Women of History” Became “Marriage A La Mode”
Andrew Grunzke
Chapter 13 - Exploring the Intersections of Social Identity, Popular Culture and Men in Early Childhood Education.
Kenya Wolff, Melissa Chapman, and Josh Thompson
Chapter 14 - Loyal Opposition: Conservative Student Resistance to Jazz Culture in the 1920s
Jacob Hardesty
Conclusion - But I Don't Want to Read a Graphic Novel: Truth and Nuance about Pop Culture in Education
Paul Crutcher and Autumn Dodge

In addition to exploring relevant mediums that have not been considered carefully in previous anthologies, there are several other useful dimensions of Educating through Popular Culture. This volume integrates theory and practice in critical, innovative ways and also brings an important, global perspective to our ongoing conversation about education and popular culture.