Discussion of visual literacy, visual cognition, visual thinking and learning, and visual knowledge focuses on women and gender differences. Topics addressed include educational equality and the visual, including equality versus difference; women and mass culture; difference and the design of visual instruction; and feminist education and the…

Discusses the background of rap music, its definition, its themes and messages, and rap as a blend of language and music. Offers ideas for its use in the classroom as a way to motivate and instruct students. (SR)

Discusses gifted children whose moral development is out of step not only with age peers but with contemporary culture. Discussion focuses on the children's book, "The Lemming Condition," by Alan Arkin. Excerpts from the book and analysis illustrate the importance of helping such children develop their own personal vision while at the same time…

Presents four current topics in whiteness studies: the historical "whitening" of some United States immigrant groups, white privilege, the discursive and communication patterns of United States whites, and representations of whiteness in popular culture. Describes conceptual foundations for each topic followed by examples of relevant scholarship…

This paper argues that the existence of a canon of established and privileged texts in the primary literacy curriculum in England can be traced historically and has informed current national policy and practice. This canonisation of a particular set of literature has served to marginalise popular cultural and media texts, often the preferred texts…

In this paper, the author describes popular visual culture as seductive, engaging the interest of children and adults because it is both complex and highly sophisticated in aesthetic terms. The author states his agreement with the proponents of a visual culture approach designed to broaden the content of art teaching beyond fine arts to include…

The author asserts her belief that teachers can turn movies into "a tool that allows students to understand content in new and intellectually challenging ways." She tells a personal story of using movies in her teacher education program, helping her students "learn and extend their understanding. However, they not only learned about content, but…

The world is moving toward a uniform material culture, dominated by mostly material American influences: technological innovations, fashion, Hollywood and the celebrity culture it promotes, hip-hop, and rock and roll. But the pervasiveness of the trappings of American culture obscures the central cultural paradox that lies within the…

It seems that this paper, as if it were some textual Elvis, by the author's own admission has eluded him. With the set of commas included in the title of the paper, it is not clear whether 2 or 3 people are being referred to. The paper's first version took Bakhtin as the reigning monarch of English studies and applied his complicated and…

This paper presented by the Quebec (Canada) Minister of Communications contends that until the 1900s the cultural essence of a particular western country was found in its folk-tales, folk-songs, and the daily activities of ordinary people. The growth of the electronic and mass media has industrialized popular culture, and large-scale passive…

Two learning activities (one involving a craft and the other radio programs) provided in two elementary classes taught by a community volunteer are described, and related material for implementing the activities in other classrooms is provided. The lessons were taught in a regularly scheduled activity period entitled "Children's Choice;"…

The free jazz movement of the 1960s provided a rhetorical parallel in music to the verbal messages of black power and black nationalism. The use of Third World musical patterns represented an attempt to reinforce the revolutions in perceptions that black Americans held of themselves, their cultural heritage, and relationships to the rest of the…

The art of poetry is being worn away by democracy, the rule of the average, and by an attitude of narcissism which equates sincere endeavor with significant endeavor. The opening lines of several poems taken from a poetry journal reveal a distinct lack of significant emotion. While poetry is the most significant expression of the Self, the…

The discussion in this paper is based on three conclusions drawn from a professional lifetime in the media: that limited to a choice from among information, persuasion, or entertainment, the purpose of the mass media is entertainment; that given a choice between technology and content, technology such as cable TV predominates; and that faced with…

In the years following the commercial success of television, leadership of the radio industry passed from the radio networks to the owners of independent local stations. While the networks seemed to stand crippled and paralyzed by television's impact, local stations experimented in programing, promotion, and news coverage. The foremost innovators…