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Intersections of Literacy: How and Why Some
High School English Teachers use Popular Media
for Instruction
Dr. Kathy GarlandNAMLE 2015
Florida State UniversitySchool of Teacher Education
English [email protected]
Research
Funding Purpose
This research was funded by FSU’s Council on Research and Creativity’s First Year Assistant Professor Grant
The examination was exploratory and conducted to understand how and why high school English teachers were using popular media with African-American students.
BackgroundO Regardless of race or socioeconomic
status, adolescents are responding to the rise of digital technology by engaging more frequently with screen media such as television and movies and listening to more music (Rideout, Foehr, and Roberts 2010; Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout 2005; Roberts, Foehr, Rideout, and Brodie 1999).
O African-American youth tend to engage with popular media more than any other race (Roberts et al. 2005).
Intersections of Literacy Education
English Education/21st Century
Literacy (NCTE)
Media Literacy
Education(NAMLE)
Intersections of Literacy Education
21st Century Literacies Competencies
Core Principles of Media Literacy
Education“…successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to
O Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;
O Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
O Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;
O Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;
O Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;
O Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.”
(NCTE, 2013
O Media Literacy Education requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create.
O Media Literacy Education expands the concept of literacy to include all forms of media (i.e., reading and writing).
O Media Literacy Education builds and reinforces skills for learners of all ages. Like print literacy, those skills necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated practice.
O Media Literacy Education develops informed, reflective and engaged participants essential for a democratic society.
O Media Literacy Education recognizes that media are a part of culture and function as agents of socialization.
O Media Literacy Education affirms that people use their individual skills, beliefs and experiences to construct their own meanings from media messages.
(NAMLE, 2015)
Intersections of Literacy: Research Focused on using Media with African-
American Adolescents
English Education Media Literacy Education
Morrell and Duncan-Andrade (2002; 2004) and Morrell (2004) not only provide seminal studies rooted in the use of popular media, but they also illustrate the value of pairing culturally relevant media with canonical literature to support high school English students’ critical literacy.
Much of the literacy research centered on successful uses of popular media with African-American adolescents has been reported in out-of-school programs (Kinney 2012; Morrell 2004; Rosales 2013; Turner 2011; Young 2011; Young and Daunic 2012). Critical literacy is a central component in each of these studies.
Research Questions
1. How do secondary language arts teachers in Title I schools of predominantly African-American students view the use of popular culture as pedagogy?
2. How do secondary language arts teachers in Title I schools of predominantly African-American students use popular culture in their classrooms?
Qualitative Research Methods
Data Collection Data Analysis
O Open-ended, Qualtrics Survey
O Face-to-Face Interviews
O Curricular artifacts (lesson plans, Power Points, etc.)
O Domain Analysis (Spradley, 1979)O Topical themesO Sociological
constructs (Straus, 1987)
ParticipantsO Three school districts
O Two middle-Georgia high schoolsO One Northeast Florida high schoolO One Northwest Florida high school
O 28 English teachersO 16 Georgia English teachersO 12 Florida English teachers
O 16 Georgia English teachers O Six (first or second year)O Six (three and ten years)O Four (more than ten years)
School Context
Table 1. Site Demographics
Findings (Q1) - How do secondary language arts teachers in Title I schools view the use of popular culture as pedagogy? English teacher participants perceive
popular culture as useful for the following reasons: O to make content easier to
understand. O to make the curriculum more
authentic.O to engage student learning.O to exemplify literary terms.
Findings (Q2) - How do secondary language arts teachers in Title I schools use popular culture in their classrooms?
English teachers describe the following uses for popular culture in their classrooms: O to teach literary terms and rhetorical
devices.O to teach literary history and analysis. O to reinforce writing strategies.
Findings Example: Relevance/Literary Terms
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YE2FQ2WGL.jpg
http://theinquisitiveloon.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/avatar-the-last-airbender-poster.jpg
Mandated text
“…a little detachment from 4, 000 years ago.”
“Some ideas that may be difficult to conceptualize, as soon as you refer to something that’s from popular culture, they understand it automatically”
Hero’s Journey
Findings Example: Relevance/Literary History
Mandated text/authors
American Romanticism
American Realism
“juxtapose Romanticism and Realism.”
Romanticism through rap lyrics
Realism through rap lyrics
(Non)Intersections of Literacy Education
21st Century Literacies Competencies
Core Principles of Media Literacy
Education“…successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to
O Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;
O Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
O Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;
O Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;
O Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;
O Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.”
(NCTE, 2013
O Media Literacy Education requires active inquiry and critical thinking about the messages we receive and create.
O Media Literacy Education expands the concept of literacy to include all forms of media (i.e., reading and writing).
O Media Literacy Education builds and reinforces skills for learners of all ages. Like print literacy, those skills necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated practice.
O Media Literacy Education develops informed, reflective and engaged participants essential for a democratic society.
O Media Literacy Education recognizes that media are a part of culture and function as agents of socialization.
O Media Literacy Education affirms that people use their individual skills, beliefs and experiences to construct their own meanings from media messages.
(NAMLE, 2015)
Conclusion: How and Why do Some High School English
teachers use Popular Media?O as a way to make the mandated
curriculum authentic, interesting and relevant
O to introduce language arts contentO not for media literacy education or
21st century literacy O not for media production or critical
literacy
Next Steps?
Staff Development Training
Curriculum-based Approaches
O “various approaches to media analysis and/or production” (Hobbs, 2008)O Supports teachers in
moving beyond making the curriculum relevant.
O Supports teachers in learning about different components of Media Literacy Education and 21st century literacies.
O The principles are based upon teachers’ “existing state framework” (Hobbs, 2008). O Begins with teachers’
mandated state/district curriculum.
O Builds on integrating Media Literacy Education and 21st century literacies, not replacing the curriculum.
