This book explores the prominence of "race" in the lives of young children and their early childhood educators. It critiques the often presumed racial innocence of young children and shows instead how young children actively engage with the politics of race as they form their own identities. It challenges early childhood educators to engage with…

The trend of higher enrollment patterns among Black females when compared to their Black male counterparts is pronounced. For example, females comprise 65% of the Black student population on college and university campuses across the country (NCES, 2005). The grave imbalance between Black women and Black men in college raises several issues that…

Building on scholarship in African American rhetorics and African American language, an analysis of Walter Dean Myers's (2000) "The Blues of Flats Brown" is presented as a methodology for (re)imagining educational issues and research related to voice, agency, reading, and literacy in the face of racial oppression and subjugation. In the…

This article describes the history and current situation of popular music pedagogy in Finland. While popular music is widely accepted in the curriculum, there are differences in its application in the comprehensive schools and music institutions. Popular styles were first introduced into Finnish music education by secondary school music teachers;…

This chapter discusses how to draw on hip hop as a culturally relevant tool for teaching educators and adult learners to read the word, the world, and the media.

The characteristics of contemporary societies are increasingly theorized as global, fluid, and networked. These conditions underpin the emerging knowledge economy as it is shaped by the societal and technological forces of late capitalism. These shifts and developments have significantly affected the communicational landscape of the 21st century.…

Critics of book publishing have over the centuries decried it as an enterprise of declining literary quality and increasing commercialism catering to the lowest tastes of mass culture. Yet a careful review of the data shows otherwise, that in America more people are reading more books about more serious subjects than ever before. However,…

Explores how Edmund Burke's discourse on the sublime helps illuminate attacks on the vulgarization of culture (as typified by Allan Bloom), both for the presumedly "vulgar" reader and for the champions of high culture. (MG)

Generations are shaped by history and embedded in culture. This chapter explores how history and popular culture can be useful lenses for understanding generations.

There is a link between the context of production and the content of rap music singles. This research finds that when independent labels owned most of the charted singles, lyrics emphasized features of the local environment and hostility to corporate music production and values. In contrast, the major-label dominated market featured lyrics…

In this dissertation I investigated how teachers interpreted intercultural differences and tensions embodied in fictional short stories and films. Participants in the study were 14 English teachers from China, South Korea, and the United States. My key research questions were: How are cultural differences understood and articulated by teachers…

Explores implications of the antagonism between Marxist political economy and cultural studies. Argues that the antagonism is based on a profound misunderstanding of political economy, and that the project of cultural studies can only be successfully pursued if the bridge with political economy is rebuilt. (RS)

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Agrees that cultural studies writers commonly and almost ritualistically distinguish themselves from their "reductionist" cousins, but notes that every few years some political economist attacks cultural studies. Challenges the history of the relation between cultural studies and…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Finds it strange that the intense dispute between political economy and cultural studies is cast as wholly independent of real political issues. Suggests that the aim of cultural studies is to renew a democratic conversation outside of the media, and to begin renewal in the universities.…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Suggests that the author is unwilling to establish an entry point in the realm of culture because he privileges the moment of production over that of consumption. Suggests disregarding the demarcation lines separating cultural studies from critical political economy, and both from the…