Each year, seventh graders at Woodlawn School in Davidson, North Carolina, learn about Japan through a compilation of literature, history, and art. They are introduced to a wide range of ideas and materials: they study the Heian and Tokugawa Periods as well as modern Japan, the code of the samurai warriors, haiku and its components, and Japanese…

This article presents an overview of how the popular "3-Cs" model (creative, critical and cultural) for literacy and media literacy can be applied to the study of computer games in the English and Media classroom. Focusing on the development of an existing computer games course that encompasses many opportunities for critical activity…

One of the key tasks of the university in the 21st century is to nurture visually literate students in the information age. Given that we live in a very highly visualized world, it is increasingly important that students are educated as critical viewers who are able to respond to visual images in an analytical and selective manner. The education…

This article examines portrayals of female gamblers in recent Hong Kong movies. The authors report that the depiction of female gamblers is very different from that of male gamblers in the movies made in the same period. Whereas the male gamblers are pitching a lonely and desperate battle against an evil opponent, the female gamblers portrayed in…

Dr. Wangari Maathai--"environmentalist, human rights advocate, global peace worker, and community builder"--passed away in 2011. The first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Maathai left a legacy even greater than the 47 million trees that her organization, the Greenbelt Movement, has planted across Kenya since 1977. As…

This piece shares preservice teachers and instructors reflections on their perceptions of a course on Spanish language arts methods in Puerto Rico. The course was redesigned to focus on interrelated curricular and pedagogical aspects such as literacies as situated social practice, funds of knowledge, popular culture and critical literacy. In…

Contemporary art requires that art and cultural educators reposition encounters with artefacts, images and performances into a context for new discourses. Whereas digital media and other aspects of visual popular culture predominate the frames of reference of school-age children, their context (codes) of reference, in large part, do not contain…

In 2001, the Canadian Education Association concluded that "technology has become an accepted fact of life and education." Nearly a decade later, digital technologies continue to evolve rapidly and video games are no exception. While the popularity of video games among children is undeniable, the debate about the risks and benefits of…

As the range of experiences offered by conservatoires expands to serve an increasingly diverse student cohort, it is no longer reasonable to assume that all students will fit neatly into the traditional expectations of institutions. In the 3P model of learning, the prior learning of students is one of the presage factors that interact with process…

This qualitative study examined South Korean teenagers' views on North Korea and possible reunification. In-depth interviews conducted with fourteen (14) South Korean high school students reported that these teenagers were torn about whether or not they should support reunification. While students acknowledged the lack of dialogue and discussion…

In this investigative study, the authors sought to reveal the learning strategies adopted by participants as they learned to play a 12-bar improvised blues with both hands together on a musical keyboard in an e-learning environment. There were 3 participants, 2 female and 1 male. Participants' average age was 21 years. They worked individually in…

The inclusion of popular music as a content area in music education is not uncommon. The musicological study of popular music is well established in higher education, and even the practice of popular music is becoming more common in both secondary education and the post-compulsory sector. However, when this occurs, it is likely to be taught in…

Popular music is a "lingua franca" for young people. The songs of German "Liedermacher" lend themselves to classroom uses. "Liedermacher" are cultural commentators who entertain and edify with their songs. Focusing on social and political aspects of postwar Germany, "Liedermacher" songs have been a…

This paper discusses the work of Slavoj Zizek and links several of his ideas to educational contexts. After giving a brief background on his unique intellectual perspective, I pull three themes (control, torture, and politics) from his body of work, and I consider their educational connections and implications. I conclude by speculating on the…

Based on Moje et al.'s (2004) conceptions of "third space theory", this article describes how five nursery-aged children created a "third space" between home and school, in order to find continuity between home and school constructions of reading. This article describes how the children used various aspects of their home…