Pop-cultural Foundations of Education: Film/TV, Music, Literature and Schooling in the U.S..

Catalog description

Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This course will examine the relationship between education, schools and society as presented in film/TV, popular music and literature. Visual media and literature are valuable windows that can help us to see how a culture thinks about education and to consider the place of schools in contemporary society. Furthermore, popular culture images of teachers, teaching and schools are powerful influences on public educational debates, arguably even more powerful than educational research. As such, it is essential to think critically about these images, how they have evolved over time, the meanings they convey, and how they structure the ways we think about educational issues. Students will use visual media, music and literature to explore issues such as teaching, equality, educational aims and the relationship between schooling and social change.