Given the growing interest and representation of superheroes in comics and other media, we are interested in the ways young people read superhero texts and how those readings influence their conceptualisations of gender within and outside educational spaces. In this article we explore students' responses to (re)presentations of gender in superhero…

This study aims to identify students' approaches toward courses lectured by visual arts teachers with elements of popular culture with a view to enabling students to attain 7th grade targeted achievements. To this end, the multiple-case design, one of the qualitative research methods, was utilized in the study. The sample of the study comprised 11…

This conceptual article explores early adolescent students' responses to an experimental Gothic reading unit (including popular culture and traditional texts). The Gothic genre was selected due to both its prevalence in youth culture and lack of representation in reading classrooms. This hybrid curriculum increased academic reading engagement in…

This article seeks to explore the theoretical contributions of Axel Honneth, particularly in his works, "The Struggle for Recognition and Reification," aiming at diving deep into the debate on the contemporary ideological expressions and their incidence in the process of subjective constitution in teenage years. This particular interest…

This qualitative case study explores adolescents' responses to texts containing death and destruction, a seminal trope of the Gothic literary genre. Participants read both classic and popular culture texts featuring characters grappling with death in their seventh grade reading classroom. Observations, interviews, and documents were collected and…

The purpose of this study is to investigate gifted middle school students' images about scientists in terms of cultural similarity. Sample of the study is 64 gifted middle school students taking courses from a formal school for gifted students. The data were collected by using Draw-a-scientist (DAST) instrument and was analysed by two researchers…

Located in the suburbs of a large midwestern city, Trail Middle School serves a predominantly middle-class population. The data the authors feature in this article include group discussions and interviews with students, as well as recordings of in-class lessons, student work, and fieldnotes. The authors focus on the theme of gender as it emerged…

Although we live in a global society, educators face many challenges in finding meaningful ways to connect students to people of other cultures. This paper offers a case study of a collaboration between teachers in the US and Turkey, where 7th grade students interacted with each other via online social media as a means to promote cultural…

This empirical study investigates Chinese students' popular music preferences in daily life and to what extent and in what ways they prefer learning popular music in school in Shanghai, China. Data were drawn from questionnaires completed by 1,730 secondary students (aged 12-17) and interviews with 60 students from 10 secondary schools, between…

The 160 third, seventh, and eleventh-graders involved in this study agreed, almost unanimously, that reading was "important." Participants cited the empowering benefits of reading as they justified this opinion. However, with regards to the enjoyment of reading, fewer middle and high school participants reported "liking"…

New literacies are affecting the ways that we choose to spend our time in teaching and learning. In this article, Hagood describes the work of nine middle grades teachers' explorations of new literacies, including digital technologies and pop culture, and their implementations in their content area instruction. She also highlights some of the…

Films are multimodal, often memorable, and change one's way of thinking. Films provide narratives and visual metaphors that function as tools for one's imagination and learning. No other film has amplified this phenomenon in the United States more than the "Star Wars" Cycle. "Star Wars" exemplifies the multidimensionality of…

The author has been deeply committed to shaping an art curriculum that offers students a more meaningful and authentic experience. In addition, she has been interested in the notion of students as victims of their popular culture. She questioned the ways in which cultural sources might impact their aesthetic choices with regard to personal…

Action Potential Science Experience (APSE) is a five-day summer camp offering science opportunities for K-8 students. The focus of the APSE curriculum is to teach science concepts and methods while challenging the participants to solve an overarching problem from the popular-culture context. The participants in the APSE entitled Burger 'N Fries…

The messages students receive through popular media such as movies, television, the internet, and music videos have a powerful influence and can shape their thinking. A national survey of media use by 8- to 18-year-olds found the average adolescent spends over seven and a half hours daily with entertainment media (KFF 2010). Rather than viewing…