While significant attention has been given to student learning loss across summer, much less attention is given to student stressors and mental health concerns. To assist youth in processing and coping with emotional stress, research explores approaches to group counseling wherein youth write, record, and perform emotionally themed hip hop…

The neoliberal proposition that the "invisible hand" of the market is the most efficient and just mechanism for structuring economies, societies, and cultures has had a powerful impact on the nature and delivery of what have historically been considered as "public goods" in America, including social welfare services and public education. The mode…

Despite a significant increase in gay representation in contemporary television fiction, many media scholars argue that the representation of gay men and women is governed by heteronormativity. They postulate that even rounded and heterogeneous representations of gay men and women are characters that desire to participate in institutions,…

This small action research study (ARS) began with a review of the literature examining the relationship of gangsta rap in regards to academic achievement, self-esteem, decision-making, identity issues and development of young African American males. The purpose of the ARS was to examine the correlation between gangsta rap and its influence on 5th…

Years after the publication of its seventh and final volume in 2007 and the completion of the film series in 2011, the "Harry Potter" series is still studied and cited by professionals in fields ranging from science and economics to law and theology (for recent examples see Gierzynski and Eddy; Reagin; Bassham). Its continuing popularity…

One fundamental breakthrough in the field of hip-hop education in recent years is the shift from understanding hip-hop solely as content to understanding hip-hop also as aesthetic form. In this article, I chart the roots of this shift across disciplines and focus on what it might mean for the future of hip-hop education, pedagogy, and research in…

Today's global digital culture not only engages young people in daily consumption of visual images, texts, and artifacts, but also provides them with the tools to actively participate in the production of imagery and narratives. Whether they post a picture on Facebook, create a blog, or make a YouTube video with their peers, they engage in what…

Everyday cultural resources that originate outside school offer possibilities for multimodal creativity and identity play, as children consume, transform and produce multimodal texts. In this study, Kyle, a boy in elementary school, fluidly performed social identities and engaged in playful and parodic rescripting of identities and resources from…

This article analyzes the cultural content in three communicative English as a foreign language textbooks that are used as main instructional resources in the English classroom. The study examined whether the textbooks include elements of surface or deep culture, and the findings indicate that the textbooks contain only static and congratulatory…

This study uses interpretive sociological methods to explore parallels between fictional accounts of cyborgs and educational technology-based practices currently present in some e-learning environments. Specifically, the cyborg in fictional accounts ("Star Trek" and "Doctor Who") and the cyborg in academic accounts (Donna…

Science educators have noted the unique characteristics of science literacy in terms of text structure, vocabulary demands, and reliance on abstract concepts (Cervetti, Pearson, Bravo, & Barber, 2006; Fang & Schleppegrell, 2008; Pytash, 2013). Furthermore, other scholars have defined scientific thinking processes as inextricable from the…

The idea of storytelling goes beyond the borders of language, culture, or traditional education, and has historically been a tie that bonds families, communities, and nations. Digital storytelling offers opportunities for authentic academic and non-academic literacy learning across a multitude of genres. It is easily accessible to most members of…

This qualitative study explored diverse college students' perspectives on the portrayal of college life in recent popular films. Results from this study suggest that White college students dismiss stereotypes as comedic satire whereas their non-White peers readily identify the influence of negative media representations upon their academic and…

According to the author, as our abilities to combine image and text become more sophisticated and ubiquitous, digital storytelling is a powerful means for sharing those stories. Digital storytelling is a perfect way to remix stories. To present American literature as relevant to students' lives, the author rewrote their curriculum using backwards…

When Alexandra Gold described her composition course: one that situates feminist and queer theory as a lens through which to view, analyze, and discuss contemporary television, a male acquaintance responded by saying he would not pay for that class. Another female acquaintance assured Gold that although she had loved a similar class at her Ivy…