The practice of "memes" -- taking an image from pop culture and adding humorous or inspiring text to it -- are an opportunity for marketing practice. We posit that memes also provide an innovative technique to help students become more engaged in marketing classes. We propose requiring students to submit one or more graded homework…

Superhero themes have been increasingly used in the teaching of a range of topics including business, humanities and science in recent years. Typically, characters from existing popular media are adopted for the teaching activities. On the other hand, customised characters that are developed from scratch allow the educator to have more control of…

Previous studies found that linguistic features can be used to predict the success of novels. However, which specific linguistic features better contribute to a novel's popularity is unclear. This study addressed this issue by investigating the linguistic features of 2,008 online Chinese fantasy novels with different popularity (indicated by the…

The scholarship on using popular culture -- specifically from films -- as an effective educational tool to enhance teaching opportunities that link leadership theory to practice has gained traction in the past decade. This article extends the discourse and uses "Harry Potter," the cultural phenomenon fantasy film series, as a source of…

Popular films can influence the public's image of women scientists and (re)shape social stereotypes. In this study, we examined how women scientists were portrayed in films in the context of fourth-wave feminism. Twelve characters of women scientists in eight films were analysed using sociological film interpretation across the following…

This article explores the normative representations of higher education students in seven films and television series from four European countries. Drawing on the concept of the 'independent learner' as an 'ideal construction', I demonstrate how these texts offer complex and at times paradoxical representations of who gets positioned as the…

Due to negative classroom experiences, lack of resources and access, the fear of the unknown, and at times a disconnect, students are often fearful of literacy learning (reading, writing)--and in some cases outright bored. This piece highlights a variation of Childs' "C.O.U.N.T." acronym, which addresses ways in which teachers can infuse…

In this study, we examine how race and racism impact the schooling of African American males by analyzing the first-person perspective of hip-hop superstar, Nasir "Nas" Jones. We selected Nas due to his unique yet prevalent educational trajectory and perspectives. Critical race theory is employed as a framework as well as notions of…

Both personalization and utility value (UV) interventions have emerged in educational psychology as ways to increase students' interest in learning an academic subject, and potentially improve learning outcomes. However, empirical results for each approach have been mixed and these approaches have worked differently for different groups of…

This article explores the ways in which popular musicians in Malaysia learn the craft of Western popular music-making in comparison to those in the United Kingdom. Literature that studied popular musicians and their practices had largely focused on communities within Anglosphere regions, and there are insufficient understandings of the journeys of…

Wuxia culture has deep historical roots in traditional Chinese culture and is an important manifestation of the national spirit and social values. This study explores the cultural representation mechanism of Wuxia animation characters and analyzes their educational functions and communication paths. Current research on Wuxia animation is…

The "Star Trek" franchise presents a hopeful vision of the future that is free from many of the social issues that plague our current society. This research explores "Star Trek's" utopian vision through a disabled lens, presenting a critical content analysis examining the representation of mobility disability in the "Star…

Reggaetón music is very popular among young people of school-age. Thus, we intend to examine the values of equality transmitted in the lyrics of this music genre. Using critical discourse analysis and assisted by the Maxqda software package we analysed the lyrics of 65 of the most popular reggaetón songs of 2020. Results suggest that reggaetón…

Owing to the different models of disablement in different religions and cultures around the world, social and aesthetic representations of intellectually disabled people are diverse in various societies. Disability is perceived in a different way in India than in the West. There are very few studies on the complex role of Indian mainstream Hindi…

Chengdu's popular music, with its profound historical and cultural significance, serves as an educational resource at the intersection of music, literacy, and cultural education. This research aims to propose guidelines for the teaching resource of Chengdu popular music for fostering literacy and cultural education. Located in the culturally…