A teaching artist reflects on his travels and work across the South Pacific and India. He concludes that American culture views art as a commodity appreciated mostly for its personal entertainment value, and therefore judges the outcome of artistic endeavors rather than appreciate the purpose of such endeavors. His teaching experiences have…

This essay is a cursory examination of 1972 and the early 1970s. These were foundational years for Chicana/o literature. The author has only been able to offer a suggestive analysis of some of the literary production during this period. The author has not discussed the numerous periodicals and journals of the period, some underground, some with…

Much American popular culture has often been criticized for its negative portrayals of females and its potentially harmful influence on young children. However, there are insufficient studies about American young girls' actual understanding of these female representations. Specifically, the perspectives of young immigrant girls have hardly been…

Rather than assume that ethnicity or race necessarily marks the edges of one's culture or politics, the contributors to this dossier highlight the messy, blurry, and often contradictory relationships that arise when Chicana/os and African Americans engage one another. The essays explore the complicated mix of cooperation and conflict that…

While much of mainstream qualitative research has focused on conventional methodology, in terms of axis of inquiry, epistemology, and approaches to ground the theory of its questions to construct knowledge, educational researchers have yet to conceptually develop an alternative praxis in our work which takes into account hip-hop culture. More…

This study examines (a) the stability of Dutch adolescents' preferences for heavy metal and hip-hop youth culture styles, (b) longitudinal associations between their preferences and externalizing problem behavior, and (c) the moderating role of gender in these associations. Questionnaire data were gathered from 931 adolescents between the ages of…

The year 1972 was part of a dynamic period of Chicano politics and cultural production in South Texas. A few years earlier, in the Crystal City Revolts, Tejanos had moved to gain control of city and school board positions, events that resulted in the creation of the Raza Unida Party in 1970. Nineteen seventy-two also marked the beginning of the…

Using Critical Race and Latino Critical theories, this study examines 20 in-depth interviews conducted by the author with Mexican and Puerto Rican youth from the Chicago area. The author contends that youth utilized hip hop music in multiple and overlapping ways, engaging hip hop music as both a pedagogy that centers the perspectives of people of…

The researcher analysed two women's uses of popular culture texts on the island of Hawai'i. They read these texts in order to learn about, and manage, their health problems. These vernacular texts were different from the institutional texts that were prescribed to them by their doctors, as well as the commercial ones that were in the literacy…

The critical study of rap music and hip-hop culture has the potential to expand Americans understanding of race and culture in the United States. Hip-hop culture as a multiracial, multiethnic phenomenon reveals the ways in which race relations over the past thirty years have become increasingly complex. The theories and concepts that they use to…

Hip-hop is an interethnic contact zone that allows for the creation of new expressive cultures and new identities for young people. Its openness derives in part from the wide range of expression and interpretation allowed in 182 "McFarland" African musics. Moving beyond the often stifling options offered by an earlier generation that focused on…

By examining the cultural images present in the popular musical "Wicked", cultural norms and biases toward women in leadership and women's leadership practices are explored. The discussion rests on conceptions of male and female leadership "styles", how power is obtained and utilised within organisational settings and how resistance and…

A perennial talking point of politicians and scientists, since the time of the Greeks, is to lament how American youth are sliding into moral decrepitude, lawlessness, and poor mental health. Indeed, to hear some observers talk, particularly in this election year, young people in the United States are being battered by a coarsened culture that…

This is a pioneer study of Macau's music education focusing on music listening preference. Adopting models from Western cultures, the study, launched in 2006, aimed to explore the factors of age and gender in regard to music preference. The subjects ranged from fourth-graders to university students (N=2495) (15 missing). Participants rated their…

Hip hop culture is typically excluded from conventional educational spaces within the U.S. Drawing on the experiences of an educator who works with urban high school students and university level pre- and in-service educators, this article examines the role of hip hop culture for student engagement in two settings--an alternative high school…