Outcomes from my Popular Culture survey

Explore the outcomes of your parental/student teacher survey. Did any responses surprise or challenge you? What might be the subsequent implications for your future practice? Make links to the in-session discussion and to any relevant readings.

 In order to get a contrasting response from my popular culture survey, I chose to ask both of my parents; one who is a head teacher and the other who is a class teacher, gaining opinions from a current and relevant teacher as well as attaining views from a non-teaching perspective. The first question I proposed to them was ‘how do you feel about integrating children’s popular cultures into the classroom?’ Their response to this was both positive and negative. I agree with the statement that they made about how using popular culture like children’s comics and favourite toys could be beneficial if they provide the opportunity of ways into teaching particular subject areas because they can motivate children’s learning as these are things children can relate too. However, they did raise the question that bringing popular culture into the classroom and curriculum could be more harmful than beneficial. Their argument was that bringing popular culture like the latest toy or computer game into the classroom, could lead to pupil bullying and rivalry between children for example who has the latest video game or most up to date iPad. I think what surprised me the most after conducting the survey, was how reluctant both participants were to integrate popular culture into the curriculum and see it featuring more often within their classrooms.

During a seminar surrounding popular culture and digital literacies; we discussed as a group whether or not popular culture and technology should feature within the classroom, we mentioned that integrating this into schools would be beneficial because our society is gradually becoming more and more digital where children will need to have confidence and knowledge surrounding different technologies. However, if children are exposed to too much technology and popular culture like violent video games, this could damage their childhood, preventing them from leading a healthy lifestyle.  

 Although I can see the disadvantages of using popular culture within the classroom, I would personally take forward into my own practice the use of popular culture and how it can work alongside the English curriculum. From reading research by Kenner, 2005, I agree with their statement that using popular culture within the English curriculum is extremely valuable because it creates a ‘dialogic classroom’ where pupils can arrive at the same meaning through a shared experience (Kenner,2005). Combining technology with the English curriculum provides practitioners with the opportunity to explore specific subject areas through interactivity and creativity; which could arise from integrating popular culture into our classrooms.

Bibliography:

Kenner, C. (2005) Bilingual children's uses of popular culture in text-making. In: Marsh, J. (ed) Popular Culture, New Media and Digital Literacy in Early Childhood. London: Routledge Falmer.