Popular music programs continue to expand into higher education in the United States. By examining the who, what, when, where, how, and why of existing higher education popular music programs, information for future development and assessment can be provided. This qualitative multiple case study explored the creation, implementation and operation…

A widespread atomic science public education movement in the United States during the late 1940s provided multiple media through which the basic science of the atom moved from scientific obscurity to expected public knowledge. During the first half of the twentieth century information about atomic science for the general public was limited and…

This dissertation examines elementary teacher candidates' perceptions of hip-hop culture and utilizing hip-hop pedagogy in a mathematics classroom. This study demonstrates how elements of hip-hop may be integrated into an elementary mathematics methods course to develop pedagogical knowledge that challenges teacher candidates to explore the…

Readers' advisors are tasked with suggesting leisure reading materials to library patrons. The current discourse within the field has it that these advisors ought to adhere to (what I am calling) a "pure preference satisfaction model" wherein they aim to satisfy readers' existing preferences without judging or attempting to alter them.…

This dissertation reports out the results from a socio-cultural media research study that examined how professional periodicals written for United States K-12 public school literacy educators described fanfiction-based recreational literacy practices between 2003 and 2013. In the first decade of the 21st century, many K-12 literacy scholars…

Popular culture texts are widely desired by many elementary students, and yet some teachers do not value the use of popular culture texts in the classroom (Lambirth, 2003; Marsh 2006). The purpose of this research was to explore two, Title I elementary teachers' perceptions of the use of popular culture texts during independent reading. Data…

The field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) has observed how interest-driven extramural English (EE), an outside-of-classroom engagement with English (Sundqvist, 2009), can facilitate language development. Research supports the potential EE has when brought into formal English language teaching (ELT) settings; However,…

College freshmen are expected to enter the university setting with some previous writing experience. Freshmen are then expected to become collegiate writers by completing first-year composition courses. Standard American English remains the language of power in the university, which is problematic to minority student groups, specifically students…

As a visual arts educator, I understand the unique opportunities students have to learn by making, inventing, and creating, to communicate their ideas. The work of the New London Group (2000), the more recent National Core Arts Standards and the National Core Media Arts Standards (2014) and the New York Arts & Media Arts Standards (2017) have…

The purpose of this study was two-fold: a) to investigate the nature of academic entitlement in adult graduate students, and b) to determine if popular culture viewed from a public pedagogical lens influenced adult graduate students in respect to academic entitlement. Academic entitlement, as applied in this research, denotes student expectations…

As the education system turns its attention to climate, bullying, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) issues in the classroom, there is a focus on developing our student population abilities to be more accepting and tolerant of diversity. This study explored how ten students, aged 16-17, interacted with virtual literacy events on…

Science communication is an intersectional practice that involves informing and raising awareness of science-related topics, while increasing public engagement with science. Although there is a fair amount of data in understanding the relationship between scientist representation in popular media and identification with STEM, there is still more…

Recently there has been a call to disrupt the continuous cycle of (re)production from within university-based programs through the development of transformative approaches rooted in the cultural norms of traditionally marginalized populations. This study aimed to explore how one such approach, critical hip-hop pedagogy (CHHP), manifests within the…

Black consumers watch and stream television at a higher percentage than any other demographic. Research has shown that presence of Black teachers, administrators, and school officials has positively influenced Black students' academic success. Research on how Black students understand and connect to portrayals of Blackness is needed in order to…

Music education research on popular music can be characterized by its emphasis on adolescent experiences and performance practice. In contrast, this study explored the ways in which popular music listening fostered deliberation and dialogue within a group of New York City elementary school children. Recognizing that popular music listening is a…