Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom

By: Anna Papst

Through reading Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture, I was taken back by the unique offering of this media piece to education. It is so important to offer different mediums to our students in order for them to understand and for education to be applicable to them. There are so many students who see life so differently from where teachers or other students see it. In order for all of our students to pass, it is important to offer new techniques and try new things in our classrooms. One student might not understand what the lesson is trying to convey by simply reading it in a textbook or hearing a lecture about it, but as soon as a video comes on, then the student is suddenly engaged or is understanding what is going on.

I think in this day and age with all the technology, students have become lazy. There is something to be said for the reading of literature and learning from the written word. Your imaginations take over when one reads. In this day and age, a lot of reading isn’t being done by the younger generation. We need to find a way to make reading appealing to our students. Our world is so fast paced these days that it is a challenge to have to sit down and be quiet and read a book. We need to be teaching them discipline and the value that comes with reading literature of any kind. There are so many different mediums, for different purposes and attached to many different messages.

The study that was done about this particular classroom was phenomenal. One of the most important aspects of this article showed that the teacher knew the students. They knew what the students needed to be successful in school and in their learning. We need to know how to reach our students and what will be the most important tool for them to get engaged. I am so excited to reach the unreachable. Teachers can take any difficult student and turn that relationship into a project and a positive challenge. When a student finally clicks with a concept or idea, the teacher feels so confident and encouraged in his or her skills. This article truly got me to think about the different possibilities of education and the opportunity teachers have to reach kids in a way that not many other people get.