This research is an exploration of my evolving relationship with popular culture: as an activist, an educator, and a self-described pop-culture geek. As a biracial and queer woman working in the field of education, I am motivated to examine my own experiences with formal and informal methods of learning, addressing the social and political gaps in…

Many teacher educator preparation programs do not provide opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to experience and examine the use of popular fiction as a connection point to science teaching. This study explores a unit designed to support PSTs in learning and applying core concepts and processes of literacy and science by leveraging a…

It is imperative that social work programs facilitate discussions pertaining to social justice in the classroom. This gives students the space to navigate barriers to changing policy and oppressive systems. However, there are multiple barriers to having critical discussions of challenges in advocating for marginalized and oppressed groups. One way…

This study sought to explore the impact of what has been identified as hip hop pedagogy, and how selective songs from the musical genre may motivate student achievement. This research also explored the willingness of educators at multiple levels to incorporate this form of pedagogy. The research made use of the hip hop genre, using specific song…

Black males in higher education continue to face persistent challenges due to overt and covert racism, hindering their progress towards graduation, particularly within Historically White Institutions (HWIs). This study examines the factors contributing to the invisibility and barriers faced by Black males, including engagement, academic…

The story of American superheroes cannot be told without the publisher DC and its evolving audience. During the latter 1930s and early 1940s, DC Comics assembled a catalog of superheroes that became the archetype of the genre itself: Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. As DC Comics' audience and market grew throughout the decades, the company's…

Given the increasing popularity of the science-fiction genre, its capacity for worldbuilding and its long-durée vision, coupled with both the difficulty of discussing issues of migration in today's world as something more than a problem of the present and the necessity to go beyond this presentism, the author argues that science-fiction films…

This article draws upon Rancière's concepts of the 'distribution of the sensible' and 'dissensus' in order to explore some of the tensions and processes at work in a multi-year school change project that sought to transform a school through the 'urban arts'. Building on student interest in extracurricular Hip-Hop and street art programming, the…

We present a case study to teach data visualization with Tableau in an introductory business analytics course. The case uses publicly available data sets from touringplans.com that record wait times for various attractions at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In the case study, students use Tableau to clean, organize, and analyze wait time data,…

We argue that students can understand an historical period by building on the foundations of their existing knowledge. Specifically, popular media can be used to develop students' historical literacies -- that is their ability to engage with past societies vastly different from their own. Our methodology takes inspiration from the ancient Romans'…

Recent contexts of migration for immigrant communities from African countries have comprised what sociologist April Gordon discussed as a "new diaspora of black Africans to the U.S." (p. 84). Yet amid contemporary contexts of migration, popularized narratives of African immigrant youth consistently linger on deficit framings and…

The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip-hop culture which, as a global industry and phenomenon, has accomplished a lot. But as a culture, what has hip-hop taught us? How has it inspired us? In what ways has it freed us? This book presents The Hip-Hop Mindset Framework--a perspective that gives us the permission to show up in…

This study explores the impacts of popular music education in classroom practices from different aspects such as learning by ear, motivation, musicianship, peer learning and creativity. The Sing by Ear approach was created based on the concepts of informal learning in singing a cappella. A total of 323 participants aged 11-14 were invited to…

This paper explored the relationship between graffiti arts and civic education among young people in Nigeria. A mixed methods approach was employed to generate and synthesize empirical data. The study was guided by Barbara Rogoff's social constructivism theory. Findings indicated that graffiti arts and artists were present in Nigeria, driven by…

The United States still has one of the lowest evolution acceptance rates in the world. Biology educators have been diligent in their methods to increase evolution acceptance and knowledge, with much success. However, misconceptions still arise through education, textbooks, and even social and religious settings that may influence our citizens' low…