Mediacy Articles - Volume 17, No. 1
Discussion about school and schooling is often taken lightly or dismissed by some who believe that we are all authorities on the topic by virtue of the fact that we have all been there. Conversely, research into popular culture and the suggestion that it has a place in the curriculum is quite an unfamiliar notion to many academics as well as to many parents. The texts of popular culture have historically been banned from the classroom, permitted perhaps on the playground. Two myths emerge from these propositions. Myth number one: Having spent so many years in school and with so much experience under our belts, no book about the institution can possibly tell us anything that we do not already know. Myth number two: We all understand and interact freely with popular culture, so we know that it is frivolous, meaningless and has no bearing on education.
Implicit in the design and choice of essays in Schooling In the Light of Popular Culture is some attempt to shatter these two myths. The book is a departure from most texts in the area of education, for in examining schooling in the same context as popular culture, it also assumes the two to be related – a difficult concept for traditionalists.
The collection of twelve articles is divided into four categories or Parts. Part I, Foil and Folly is subheaded, "Adolescents and Schooling in Popular Culture"; Part II, Framing the Story, "Representations of Schooling for the General Public"; Part III, Plotting Lives, "Narrative Accounts of the School Experience"; and, Part IV, Flares and Snapshots, "Telling Images of School Experience".
The book’s format is consistent and clear: each Part begins with an introductory overview of the essays it includes as well as brief descriptions of questions and topics each examines. Articles average 15-20 pages in length, and end with substantial lists of notes and references. All but one of the thirteen American contributors are currently teaching and/or doing research in the field of education or communications, and biographical notes suggest that they are no strangers to the classroom and the field of education.
The text appears to be intended for a wide audience which includes researchers, teachers and policymakers. Whether it succeeds in responding to the needs of such a vast audience is questionable.
To be fair, by virtue of the topic, the authors are wading into the murky waters of the relatively new, not yet totally-defined, rhetoric of popular culture. The introduction is promising, for it indicates that it will attempt to examine how ideas about schooling are shaped by popular culture. This is based on the premise that popular culture helps construct social meaning. However, the text finally falls short of clarifying or defining popular culture, and never completely succeeds in illustrating how it influences the construction of social meaning or learning.
One problem is that contributors use the terms “popular media” and “popular culture” somewhat indiscriminantly. The issue is not whether one is correct and another is not; rather, the issue is how we are to arrive at a better understanding of these texts and their role in learning if we must sift through the many ambiguous terms the anthology presents. Perhaps the collection’s greatest weakness is that it heightens the ambiguity of the term by looking at a number of texts, suggesting that they are all “popular” texts.
The article which best confirms this is "Educational Cartoons as Popular Culture: The Case of the Kappan". The ambiguity is in the title, for it seems a contradiction – are educational cartoons popular culture? This surely begs the question of whether the cartoons which appear in Kappan are, in fact, synonymous with the comics of popular culture. If they are, can we discuss those cartoons and Superman or Archie in the same breath?
This ambiguity is repeated in several of the articles which address different aspects of American films and their influence on culture and schooling. This topic is relevant and important to the discussion; however the tendency to mix genres without acknowledging differences is again problematic. There seems to be a piece missing if genre does not become at least part of the discussion. To compare Dead Poet’s Society and Summer School in an analysis of charismatic educators in recent American films may simply be too facile. To consider Lean On Me and Teachers in the same analysis without pointing out their obvious and intended stylistic differences surely leaves the discussion wanting.
Schooling in the Light of Popular Culture is not without its redeeming features. One recommendation is that each article be considered and evaluated on its own merit, for a number of them are very interesting. "Learning in Style: The Portrayal of Schooling in Seventeen Magazine" is one example. Another is "Reader’s Digest and the Mythology of Schooling," an analysis which sheds light on contemporary tendencies. “Miracle Working and the Image of the Exceptional Student” is yet another which begins with a clarity of purpose sustained throughout. What the book does best is raise some crucial questions about definitions, interpretations and perceptions of culture and the media. Some of us already knew these uncomfortable and “sticky” questions existed, but Schooling in the Light of Popular Culture makes it official, often in ways it did not intend. While it may not advance the discussion of popular culture as far as it might have hoped, the book makes some critical questions difficult to ignore. And so, perhaps its weaknesses are also its strengths.