This presentation is for the 2015 National Association of Media Literacy Education Conference. Here, I describe a small qualitative study of 28 high school English teachers of predominantly African American students. I provide these teachers' rationale for using popular culture with their students. Two examples are given, as well as next steps for professional development for teachers who seek 21st century literacy and media literacy education methods.

1. Intersections of Literacy: How and Why Some
High School English Teachers use Popular Media
for Instruction
Dr. Kathy Garland
NAMLE 2015
Florida State University
School of Teacher Education
English Education
kgarland@fsu.edu

2. Research
Funding Purpose
This research was
funded by FSU’s
Council on Research
and Creativity’s First
Year Assistant
Professor Grant
The examination was
exploratory and
conducted to
understand how and
why high school English
teachers were using
popular media with
African-American
students.

3. Background
O Regardless of race or socioeconomic status,
adolescents are responding to the rise of
digital technology by engaging more
frequently with screen media such as
television and movies and listening to more
music (Rideout, Foehr, and Roberts 2010;
Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout 2005; Roberts,
Foehr, Rideout, and Brodie 1999).
O African-American youth tend to engage with
popular media more than any other race
(Roberts et al. 2005).

4. Intersections of Literacy
Education
English
Education/21st
Century
Literacy
(NCTE)
Media Literacy
Education
(NAMLE)

5. Intersections of Literacy
Education
21st Century Literacies
Competencies
Core Principles of
Media Literacy
Education
“…successful participants in this 21st century global
society must be able to
O Develop proficiency and fluency with the
tools of technology;
O Build intentional cross-cultural connections
and relationships with others so to pose
and solve problems collaboratively and
strengthen independent thought;
O Design and share information for global
communities to meet a variety of
purposes;
O Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple
streams of simultaneous information;
O Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate
multimedia texts;
O Attend to the ethical responsibilities
required by these complex environments.”
(NCTE, 2013
O Media Literacy Education requires active inquiry and
critical thinking about the messages we receive and
create.
O Media Literacy Education expands the concept of
literacy to include all forms of media (i.e., reading and
writing).
O Media Literacy Education builds and reinforces skills
for learners of all ages. Like print literacy, those skills
necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated
practice.
O Media Literacy Education develops informed, reflective
and engaged participants essential for a democratic
society.
O Media Literacy Education recognizes that media are a
part of culture and function as agents of socialization.
O Media Literacy Education affirms that people use their
individual skills, beliefs and experiences to construct
their own meanings from media messages.
(NAMLE, 2015)

6. Intersections of Literacy: Research
Focused on using Media with African-
American Adolescents
English Education
Media Literacy
Education
Morrell and Duncan-
Andrade (2002; 2004) and
Morrell (2004) not only
provide seminal studies
rooted in the use of popular
media, but they also
illustrate the value of pairing
culturally relevant media
with canonical literature to
support high school English
students’ critical literacy.
Much of the literacy research
centered on successful uses of
popular media with African-
American adolescents has
been reported in out-of-
school programs (Kinney
2012; Morrell 2004; Rosales
2013; Turner 2011; Young
2011; Young and Daunic 2012).
Critical literacy is a central
component in each of these
studies.

7. Research Questions
1. How do secondary language arts
teachers in Title I schools of
predominantly African-American
students view the use of popular culture
as pedagogy?
2. How do secondary language arts
teachers in Title I schools of
predominantly African-American
students use popular culture in their
classrooms?

8. Qualitative Research Methods
Data Collection Data Analysis
O Open-ended,
Qualtrics Survey
O Face-to-Face
Interviews
O Curricular artifacts
(lesson plans,
Power Points, etc.)
O Domain Analysis
(Spradley, 1979)
O Topical themes
O Sociological
constructs (Straus,
1987)

9. Participants
O Three school districts
O Two middle-Georgia high schools
O One Northeast Florida high school
O One Northwest Florida high school
O 28 English teachers
O 16 Georgia English teachers
O 12 Florida English teachers
O 16 Georgia English teachers
O Six (first or second year)
O Six (three and ten years)
O Four (more than ten years)

10. School Context
Table 1. Site Demographics

11. Findings (Q1) - How do secondary language arts
teachers in Title I schools view the use of
popular culture as pedagogy?
English teacher participants perceive
popular culture as useful for the following
reasons:
O to make content easier to understand.
O to make the curriculum more authentic.
O to engage student learning.
O to exemplify literary terms.

12. Findings (Q2) - How do secondary language arts
teachers in Title I schools use popular culture in
their classrooms?
English teachers describe the following uses
for popular culture in their classrooms:
O to teach literary terms and rhetorical
devices.
O to teach literary history and analysis.
O to reinforce writing strategies.

13. Findings Example:
Relevance/Literary Terms
http://ecx.images-
amazon.com/images/I/51YE2FQ2WGL.jpg
http://theinquisitiveloon.files.wordpress.c
om/2013/04/avatar-the-last-airbender-
poster.jpg
Mandated text
“…a little
detachment
from 4, 000
years ago.”
“Some ideas
that may be
difficult to
conceptualize
, as soon as
you refer to
something
that’s from
popular
culture, they
understand it
automatically”
Hero’s Journey

14. Findings Example: Relevance/Literary
History
Mandated
text/authors
American
Romanticism
American
Realism
“juxtapose
Romanticism
and Realism.”
Romanticism
through rap
lyrics
Realism through
rap lyrics

15. (Non)Intersections of Literacy
Education
21st Century Literacies
Competencies
Core Principles of
Media Literacy
Education
“…successful participants in this 21st century global
society must be able to
O Develop proficiency and fluency with the
tools of technology;
O Build intentional cross-cultural connections
and relationships with others so to pose
and solve problems collaboratively and
strengthen independent thought;
O Design and share information for global
communities to meet a variety of
purposes;
O Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple
streams of simultaneous information;
O Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate
multimedia texts;
O Attend to the ethical responsibilities
required by these complex environments.”
(NCTE, 2013
O Media Literacy Education requires active inquiry and
critical thinking about the messages we receive and
create.
O Media Literacy Education expands the concept of
literacy to include all forms of media (i.e., reading and
writing).
O Media Literacy Education builds and reinforces skills
for learners of all ages. Like print literacy, those skills
necessitate integrated, interactive, and repeated
practice.
O Media Literacy Education develops informed, reflective
and engaged participants essential for a democratic
society.
O Media Literacy Education recognizes that media are a
part of culture and function as agents of socialization.
O Media Literacy Education affirms that people use their
individual skills, beliefs and experiences to construct
their own meanings from media messages.
(NAMLE, 2015)

16. Conclusion: How and Why do Some
High School English teachers use
Popular Media?
O as a way to make the mandated
curriculum authentic, interesting and
relevant
O to introduce language arts content
O not for media literacy education or 21st
century literacy
O not for media production or critical literacy

17. Next Steps?
Staff Development
Training
Curriculum-based
Approaches
O “various approaches to
media analysis and/or
production” (Hobbs,
2008)
O Supports teachers in
moving beyond making
the curriculum relevant.
O Supports teachers in
learning about different
components of Media
Literacy Education and
21st century literacies.
O The principles are based
upon teachers’ “existing
state framework” (Hobbs,
2008).
O Begins with teachers’
mandated state/district
curriculum.
O Builds on integrating
Media Literacy
Education and 21st
century literacies, not
replacing the curriculum.