Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture

  Again this is really interesting stuff and I am glad we are talking about it. Personally I am moved by the critical pedagogy concepts and I think it looks like a really super good way to teach. Then again I can see how hard it will be to incorporate critical teaching into all of my lessons.

  I think this study is very useful. It seems to present the information in a mostly impartial way and acknowledges the bias toward critical pedagogy right from the start. That being said the examples given of actual classroom lessons and interactions seem very useful.

  In college I have had a few experiences with inclusion of pop culture into the curriculum. In English 201 we listened to, read the lyrics for, and analyzed a popular band’s album in much the same way we would a book. I felt like the class really responded to this kind of different approach to interpreting literature so the discussions were livelier and more students participated. I have also had experiences where hip hop music was analyzed like poetry and felt similarly that my classmates were more interested and engaged than when we read Keats. If this works well in college then why not high school?

  I think I identify with the statement on page 190, “We sought to encourage a critical dialogue whereby our students would understand that they possessed the individual and collective ability to achieve even within a structure that can be labeled as oppressive.” So the goal isn’t to recognize the oppression, but to recognize that it does not limit them. I like this. Especially in relation to the movie Stand and Deliver which my educational psychology class viewed as well. It is an inspirational movie and the teacher is a hero! But at the end of that film I just kept thinking, “What good does calculus do those kids after the class ends?”