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Popular Culture and Learning in a Classroom

Alexander Basilis

Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary

EDUC 435: Literacy, Language, and Culture

Dr. Douglas Sewell

November 25, 2020

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Research Question

Popular culture includes, but is not limited to, television programs, movies, books, video

games, music, social media apps, sports, and fashion. Anything that is easily accessed and

consumable by a significant portion of the population can be considered popular culture.

Movies, music, books, and television programs are woven into the fabric of students lives

(Horton, 2014). These are all elements of today’s popular culture, and that list could be extended

to include comic books, social media and the internet, sports, video games, fashion, and more.

Coming across a student who is not emotionally invested in some part of popular culture would

be rare, therefore the ‘cultural capital’ of students must be recognized and the at-home culture of

the students must be embraced to increase their motivation (Parry, 2014).

Meaningful learning occurs within productive pedagogies in which the students feel

connectedness, a supportive classroom environment (positive classroom cultures), and when they

feel engaged (Parry, 2014). To this end, I wanted to explore how popular culture could affect

these three factors in terms of student learning using the previous available literature and the

observational data I gathered from my field experience and while working as a tutor. In this

paper, I will be exploring the research question of how does popular culture affect student

behavior in a way that impacts learning?

Themes and Learning Examples

Engagement

Student engagement is a critical component of student learning, and ways to engage our

students should be a focus of all teachers across all disciplines and ages. Students engage when
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they feel enthusiastic, interested, when they enjoy the class, when they are satisfied with their

learning, and when they are proud to be learning what they are (Marzano and Pickering, 2011).

One of the key aspects of engagement is the energy levels of the students (Marzano and

Pickering, 2011). A way to quickly raise student’s energy is to get them thinking and talking

about popular culture. Popular culture items have the potential to snatch a student’s attention

when it may be slipping. During my field 1 experience, I saw this very thing happen. Near the

end of a lesson the students seemed to be zoning out in anticipation of the bell. My partner

teacher, realizing this, started connecting his lesson to the Star Wars films, and specifically he

told a joke about the films and at that moment I could feel the energy roaring back into the class.

Discussions flared up and my partner teacher actually had to bring the students back down, but it

was a powerful example of popular culture working to raise the energy levels of a classroom.

In addition to student energy levels, another important aspect of student engagement is

the teacher’s positive demeanor (Marzano and Pickering, 2011). A teacher who carries

themselves in a positive way every day can only do so if they enjoy the work they are doing. One

way teachers can keep their classes enjoyable is by integrating popular culture into their lessons.

It was not by coincidence that my partner teacher chose Star Wars as his avenue into popular

culture for that lesson. His classroom is full of Star Wars memorabilia so talking about Star Wars

made him visibly excited and happy, and I could tell the students fed off of that positive energy.

Connection

There are two types of connection that must be fostered to allow student learning to best

happen. The student must feel connected to the content (they must feel like it matters to them),
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and the students must also feel some sort of connection to the teacher. This is the element of

connection I will discuss first.

If students do not connect with their teacher, they are far less likely to learn anything

from that teacher (Bernstein‐Yamashiro, 2004). Popular culture can again be used to bridge the

gap between adult teachers and adolescents. In talking with my field 1 partner teacher, he made

the point that as a teacher you do not need to find adolescent pop culture interesting yourself, but

it is useful to get an idea of what is entertaining your students while their not at school, creating a

point of connection from the students to yourself. He used the example of Game of Thrones. He

was not interested in watching the show, but he researched it enough to make references during

class to form a connection and improve the learning of a number of his students.

Connecting the content to experiences that the students care about is another way that

teachers can utilize popular culture. Students learn about what they care about, which is a fact I

have observed during my experience as a tutor. I tutor biology and the majority of my students

are athletes, so to connect the content to them I will explain how body systems facilitate their

ability to play their sport. It is those connections that I find those students remember when being

tested at the end of the unit.

Classroom Culture

The culture of a classroom is essential to creating an environment where students feel

comfortable working together, taking risks, and engaging in challenging learning experiences

(DiTullio, 2014). A classroom that fosters psychological safety is imperative to allow students to

learn with both their peers and their teacher. It is important that students learn about each other,

human nature dictates that we are less likely to be hurtful towards people we know and perceive
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as friends as opposed to people we are just acquainted with (DiTullio, 2014). This all goes to

prove that students must feel accepted within the classroom to provide a foundation for their

learning, and one of the best ways to feel accepted within a group is to connect over popular

culture. I experienced the importance of classroom culture during my practicum, as the teacher

ensured the classroom I was in had a culture of acceptance. As a result, when my partner teacher

introduced an element of competition to his students, the competition was both friendly and

productive for learning. Had the culture not been so psychologically safe, the competition could

have turned toxic and damaged some of the students’ confidence.

Beyond the culture of the classroom, popular culture can be used to help English

Language Learning (ELL) students specifically to learn and to feel confident to express their

own cultures. ELLs bring a variety of literacy experiences to their classrooms in the form of

popular culture texts, and these texts are often relevant to the lives of those students. Teachers

should then use these popular culture texts to scaffold the school-based curriculum for these

students (Page, 2012). Allowing students, especially ELLs, to explore the popular culture that

means the most to them within a school setting will provide to them a source of confidence and

self-efficacy that will accelerate their learning.

Reflections and Implications

The most important aspect for me to take into my future classrooms is how to create a

psychologically safe environment for my students. I define psychological safety as the belief that

it is ok and even expected to speak up with mistakes, questions, and ideas, without fear of

judgement from peers or the teacher. A powerful way for me to establish this safety net and build

a positive classroom culture would be by using popular culture texts through which my students

can relate to myself and each other.

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Through previous experience, I am aware of the importance of high student energy levels

to their learning, but I had never associated the teacher’s positive demeanor as being just as

important. Using this knowledge in my own teaching, I will ensure my demeanor stays positive

no matter the scenario, and in doing so I will allow my students to engage with the content I am

teaching more fully. When it comes to connection, my view that teacher-student connection is

not necessary for learning to take place was challenged and ultimately disproven. Especially

when it comes to language and literacy, students that have an adult teacher to rely on and who

they know cares about their learning will make learning that content both easier and more

rewarding. I always recognized that connection to the content itself is important for student

learning, as I had seen as much while tutoring students. Researching for and writing this paper

further confirmed this point, and I now have some more tools I can use to connect students to

content in the form of popular culture. Entering the field of education, I will make a conscious

effort to not only connect with each and every one of my students, perhaps with the help of

popular culture, but also I will do my best to make what I teach relevant to all of them, again

using popular culture as my ally.

Popular culture certainly can have a positive effect on student learning if properly utilized

by the students’ teacher, and as I progress in this field I will consciously interject popular

cultural elements into my lessons to facilitate greater student engagement, connection, and

classroom culture.
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References

Bernstein‐Yamashiro, B. (2004). Learning relationships: Teacher‐student connections, learning,

and identity in high school. New Directions for Youth Development, 2004(103),

55–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.91

DiTullio, G. (2014). Classroom culture promotes academic resiliency: the recipe: a classroom

culture safe for exploring and experimenting; mix in collaboration skills; add "just right"

challenges; bake in academic resiliency. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(2), 37.

Horton, J. (2014). For Geographies of Children, Young People and Popular Culture. Geography

Compass, 8(10), 726–738. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12161

Marzano, R.J. & Pickering, D.J. (2011). Chapter one: Research and Theory. In R.J. Marzano &

D.J. Pickering, The highly engaged classroom (pp. 3-20). Bloomington, IN:

Marzano Research Laboratory. https://ebookcentral-proquest-

com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/lib/ucal gary-ebooks/reader.action?

docID=3404837&ppg=13

Page, L., (2012). Gifted English Language Learners: Using popular culture texts to enhance

learning. In M.T. Cowart & G. Anderson (Eds.) Critical Issues in the Education

of English Language Learners. (pp. 152-172). Texas: Bilingual/ESL Committee of

the Federation of North Texas Area Universities. https://twu-ir.tdl.org/twu-

ir/handle/11274 /272

Parry, B. (2014). Popular culture, participation and progression in the literacy classroom.

Literacy (Oxford, England), 48(1), 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12027