This study brings into conversation two bodies of research that operate from different assumptions and make divergent conclusions about high school students' capacity to read and respond to literary texts. On one hand, cognitively-oriented expert-novice research comparing experienced literary readers to high school students indicates that students…

Songs, along with poetry, short stories, novels, and dramas, belong to the language of humanity (literary language). As an art form that began to be popular in the last century, it has come into the view of linguists more frequently today. Between its lines, vivid expressions such as "city can sleep", "animals can talk to each…

In this exploratory study, the authors investigated students' perceptions of justice. A stanza from a poem was used to stimulate student writing, drawing, and conversation. Students were engaged with the exploration and considered issues surrounding being good or bad, race, and power. They also represented justice abstractly in their drawings and…

This qualitative study examined preservice teachers' (PSTs') ideas and beliefs regarding the use of rap for instructional purposes in P-12 classrooms, and the ways in which they proposed to use rap in the teaching of middle and high school social studies. Participants included the instructor of a social studies methods course, and thirteen PSTs…

This case study examined a Romanticism unit within a Year 9 English class in Sydney, Australia. It considered whether popular culture could build connections between students' lives and Romanticism, and whether the process of remixing "high" Romantic poetry with "low" popular culture could foster student engagement. Thematic…

How can teachers integrate rap and technology strategies to teach students with learning disabilities the art of persuasive argument writing? This teacher research study presents creative new approaches for teaching argument writing. Strategies used in the study helped college freshmen with learning disabilities (LD) succeed in developing…

Spoken word poetry is an art form that involves poetry writing and performance. Past research on spoken word has described the benefits for poets and looked at its use in pre-service teacher education; however, research is needed to understand how to assist in-service teachers in using this art form. During the 2016-2017 school year, 15 teachers…

This article explores using spoken word poetry and song analysis in the classroom to inspire students to analyze their identities and strive for social justice in their research efforts. Poetry is empowering. It can show students how people express themselves, push them to consider their own identities, and inspire them to seek social change.…

This study investigates the collaborative composing processes of a group of five high school seniors who constructed interpretations of each of the five acts of Shakespeare's Hamlet through the medium of spoken word performances. The group composing processes were analyzed to identify how the students drew on conventions from the spoken word…

Given the prevalence of racial segregation in the U.S., college is an opportunity to prepare students for diversity through cross-racial interaction. Hip-hop, a culture steeped in black and Latino experiences, has significant white supporters. Through diversity and critical whiteness frameworks, this research considers how white hip-hop collegians…

Using a feminist lens and a constructivist approach as the theoretical framework, we used rap lyrics and videos to help college students explore mass media's representation of the "independent" Black woman and the concept of "independence" in general. Students must be able to formulate their own concept of independence to…

This article responds to intermediality through a case study of an intermedial applied performance for young people. "Heterophobia," a hybrid fusion of live performance, digital technology, social media and urban street art, aimed to challenge homophobia in schools and online. Intermediality was used as a tool to enhance young people's…

Consistent with a sociocritical frame and the analytic tools of hybridity theory, this article explicates how urban fifth-grade children made language hybrids using rap and poetry to participate in classroom literacy. Ethnographic data from a yearlong study illustrate two key findings. First, standards-based and canon-driven writing models…

Although it depicts a Germanic warrior culture of nearly 1,500 years ago, the Old English epic poem "Beowulf" contains timely insights into leadership and motivation, trust, respect, loyalty, and sacrifice that could inform current leadership practice and teaching. To help reveal some of these insights, this study has three main…

In this paper, the author looks closely at two spaces where students engaged in practices and forms of cultural production with transformative possibilities. Specifically, the author sought out spaces where youth came together for one of two important purposes: to cross boundaries of difference or to affirm and re-imagine identities. The two…