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The complexity of modern biology poses challenges in fostering interdisciplinary understanding, particularly between practicing scientists and the public. Furthermore, scientists often lack formal training in science communication, despite various motivations to engage the public. The science literacy of the public in the biological sciences can also vary across socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Leveraging popular culture and informal learning practices to promote active learning offers promising avenues to enhance public understanding of biological systems. Organized sports hold collective recognition across various communities and cultures, serving as a means to bring people together. Notably, the NCAA March Madness event holds widespread national and international popularity, presenting an opportunity to laterally apply this concept to promote science communication within STEM and biology education. An educational social media and web-based contest tool was developed integrating NCAA-inspired brackets with animal biological systems concepts. The tool featured tournament-style matchups based on animal biological systems, interesting animal facts, and a voting system, all housed within a user-friendly interface. To encourage regular user access to the tool, graphic designs were developed for all social media posts to aid in visual recruitment to the voting website. Based on online metrics, the use of social media garnered repeat users across both the public and educators. The latter noted the tool's simplicity and informative content. Application of this social media and web-based bracket contest tool, which leverages informal settings for active learning for use in biology education, can foster science communication to engage audiences, improve comprehension, and promote interdisciplinary biology education.

With the growing importance of the United Nations' SDGs, many EFL textbooks addressing the goals have been developed. However, these textbooks generally discuss the applicability of the SDGs in Global South countries, and for university students in Japan, this has resulted in "SDG burnout," as they study the topic but often fail to find meaningful connections to the materials. This article builds on previous research into the efficacy of culturally familiar materials, and it takes SDG education in a new direction through the creation of materials in dialogue with social justice issues. Four lessons were created by the researchers, and as part of the post-reading assignment, learners had the autonomy to choose between culturally familiar or unfamiliar activities related to either the news or popular culture. A 6-point Likert scale was used to gauge student interest, which indicated that the inclusion of social justice issues may positively affect interest. A series of binomial tests revealed that learners preferred culturally familiar activities and activities related to the news. These findings provide important implications for teaching the SDGs as they suggest learners might be most receptive to culturally familiar materials that are based on the news and connected to issues of social justice.

Due to negative classroom experiences, lack of resources and access, the fear of the unknown, and at times a disconnect, students are often fearful of literacy learning (reading, writing)--and in some cases outright bored. This piece highlights a variation of Childs' "C.O.U.N.T." acronym, which addresses ways in which teachers can infuse popular culture, technology, and authentic experiences into their traditional writing and literacy curriculums. From creating and cultivating a culture that embraces literacy in various modes, and providing assignments that move beyond traditional assessment, this article will demonstrate the powerful reach that teachers can have by honing in on creative ways to facilitate writing instruction. Going beyond the use of pencil and paper writing and assessment in classrooms, and simple but meaningful and authentic ways to enhance literacy instruction for teachers will be discussed.

Overt and Covert errors are categorized as translation assessments that focus on functional match of lexical items. This study investigates functional equivalence (overt error) in translating idioms in the American fantasy film Maleficent. This study aims to explore the common problems in translating idioms because of non-equivalence and to describe the overt errors. The study used a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research design, with random sampling technique used for data collection. The data of this study comprised twenty idioms from the film Maleficent, with the objective to examine the problem of non-equivalence in translating idioms. Baker's Functional Target Language Equivalence theory of translation and House' Model of Translation Quality Assessment were used to figure out overt errors. The study found out eight common translation problems including complexity of source-language words; difference in expressive meaning; source-language concept not lexicalized in the target language; source and target languages make different distinctions in meaning; target language lacks superordinate, cultural-specific concepts and specific terms. In addition, the study also discovered some overt errors in translating idioms due to breach of language system; change in meaning; cultural filtering, and distortion of meaning. This study was confined to only those idioms which have common non-equivalence problems; hence generalization of findings is not emphasized.

Throughout 2022, we carried out an outreach project called "Young Adults and Pop Songs in English: Exploring Connections for Post-Pandemic Teaching" at the National University of La Pampa in Argentina. The project consisted of a sequence of online and in-person workshops for young adults (YAs) between the ages of 14 and 18. The workshops were taught mostly by pre-service teachers enrolled in the English language teaching (ELT) program at the university. Those pre-service teachers selected a pop song for each session and designed a structured lesson based on the form and content of the song's lyrics. The lessons, 60 to 80 minutes long, were delivered mostly in English, except for the final discussions which, due to their relatively abstract nature, often combined English and Spanish. The main aim of the project was not merely to review the structures and lexicon of pop songs in English but also to open spaces for dialog around the problems experienced by YAs in the post-pandemic context.

Along with the rapid development of Chinese modern design since the 1980s, modern design education has grown in China. Many studies have already been conducted to examine the key aspects of this historical phenomenon, e.g., heroic figures and well-known institutes. This article, however, investigates the anonymous activities of modern design education in Western China that have long been ignored because of their mundane function. Methods such as document analysis, questionnaire, interview, and subjective understanding are used to achieve the goal of this article. Through research on the School of Fine Arts in a University of Science and Engineering in Western China, as a typical case, this article reveals that although the school lags behind many other design schools, modern design education at the school has experienced sustained growth since its rise in the twenty-first century. The school has made achievements in a difficult situation but suffers from a series of disadvantages and problems. Additionally, modern design education at the school is facing new challenges resulting from changes related to raised standards and intense competition. In conclusion, the value of relatively unknown educational organisations of modern design is becoming clearer, since they are closely connected to the everyday life of ordinary people in Western China and take on a great deal of responsibility in serving the general populace and the vulnerable groups in society. This article, therefore, tries to call attention to anonymous modern design education whose aspects are disclosed through a case study.

That a certain class of verb commonly known as 'statives' is undergoing change in terms of the way in which certain verbs of this type are being used in everyday speech is nothing new to the field of linguistics. Much has been written about it, and the author of this paper alone has been preoccupied with the subject for many years now. However, notwithstanding that this change has been fairly widely documented for well over half a century, the present paper has been motivated by the desire to capture the root cause of this change in writing and to establish the linguistic conditions that have enabled it to occur. This is not so much a reductionist venture, negatively conceived, as a quest to determine the primary factors involved in what can seem at times to be a most peculiar phenomenon. The method employed to delimit these causal factors proceeds by a process of elimination, while the provision of evidence adopts the traditional, tried-and-tested method of 'observation and collection'. The stative-specific research papers that examine the current variation constituting the focus of this paper are all from the present century.

This article explores international students' experiences in their graduate STEM programs at predominantly white US institutions through in-depth qualitative interviews and thematic analysis. International students reported encountering social and cultural barriers with American peers and sometimes even with other international students. These barriers include language, popular cultural, and social norms. Some students, who were less culturally represented in their cohorts, felt isolated but later found other people outside of their departments, often people from their same cultural background. The experiences of our participants varied by the representation of their culture in their departments, where students from less represented countries experienced more isolation. Connections to current acculturation theory will be discussed, as well as further implications and possible solutions for increasing intercultural exchanges.

Chengdu's popular music, with its profound historical and cultural significance, serves as an educational resource at the intersection of music, literacy, and cultural education. This research aims to propose guidelines for the teaching resource of Chengdu popular music for fostering literacy and cultural education. Located in the culturally diverse Sichuan Province, Chengdu boasts a rich tapestry of musical traditions, from folk to hip-hop, making it an ideal research site. Two key informants, experts in folk and hip-hop music, provide valuable insights into Chengdu's musical evolution. Data analysis involves thematic analysis of questionnaires and interviews, offering a comprehensive understanding of the city's music culture. The study reveals Chengdu's historical role as a cultural crossroads and the evolution of its pop music into a distinctive force within China's music landscape. Advocating for the integration of Chengdu popular music into educational curricula, this research emphasizes the need for well-structured teaching resources to capture its cultural authenticity. The benefits of cultural education include fostering diversity appreciation, enhancing cultural understanding, promoting literacy skills, cultivating emotional intelligence, strengthening cultural identity, and inspiring creativity and expression. Chengdu popular music offers a transformative approach to fostering cultural literacy, empowering students to thrive in a globalized world.

The purpose of this qualitative participatory research study was to explore what happens when English language arts (ELA) preservice teachers collaborate to develop multimodal, intersectional, and critical feminist empowerment literacy curricula. This study centered on the following research question: How do ELA preservice teachers make sense of how pop-cultural, multimodal texts such as VSCO stickers frame girlhood and womanhood? Multiple data were collected: audio and video recording transcripts of monthly Saturday workshops, artifacts, such as curriculum writing and workshop photographs, researcher journals, analytic memos, and a shared Google Drive of written student thinking. The constant comparative method was used to analyze and triangulate the data. Analyses of data revealed that preservice teachers were able to critically analyze consumerism relating to VSCO stickers and girlhood and were able to notice how stickers typecast and reify individualism while also navigating authenticity during self-selection and categorizing stickers. Additionally, data analysis demonstrated how critical literacies played a role in the preservice teachers' understanding of how several groups, communities, and individual voices were not recognized in the marketing and consumption of VSCO sticker packaging as well as providing additional gender biases in society.

Many of Disney movies have been criticized for perpetuating traditional gender stereotypes which constrain opportunities for children at large. Its recent characters have also incurred heated discussions on gender portrayal. Moreover, stereotypes of gender roles, developed early on, can exert an immediate impact on individuals' behaviors and utterances and a long-term impact on individuals' perceived options academically, professionally, personally, and socially. Recognizing the significance of this matter, this paper employed a meta-narrative review to collect and conceptually and empirically synthesize previous literature on the impact of Disney movies on young children's gender awareness. Through an academic database search, 49 articles were collected using combinations of the keywords "Disney character, Disney movie, young children, early childhood education, classroom practices," and "gender." Furthermore, this review, in the pedagogical implication section, highlights the authors' call for teachers to develop critical mindfulness of gender and shares hands-on activities for children to play with Disney characters in a reconstructive and agentic way.

This research investigated the impact popular novels have on knowledge about and attitudes towards Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), compared to that of traditional college textbooks. Study 1 found that participants in the novel condition chose fewer correct and fewer incorrect responses to questions about ASD. Participants did not differ in their desired social distance from individuals with ASD. Study 2 found that participants in the novel and textbook conditions both showed the same amount of learning, with higher scores on the post-test assessment of knowledge than the pre-test. Participants in the novel condition showed significant improvement in their attitudes towards individuals with ASD after reading, while those in the textbook condition showed more negative attitudes after reading the textbook chapter. These findings add to our understanding of the potential of popular fiction to impact consumers' knowledge about ASD while improving our attitudes towards individuals with ASD. These findings also raise concerns about traditional educational material used to teach about ASD.

In this study, we examine how race and racism impact the schooling of African American males by analyzing the first-person perspective of hip-hop superstar, Nasir "Nas" Jones. We selected Nas due to his unique yet prevalent educational trajectory and perspectives. Critical race theory is employed as a framework as well as notions of Sankofa methodology and literary analysis to investigate his music, documentaries, and an open letter whereby he critiques the public school system while providing academic ideas to engage and inspire Black students. Studies about Black males routinely focus on their subpar academic performance with the intention of "correcting" these behaviors. We utilize the experiences of Nas to reframe the conversation and provide nuanced insight into Black educational experiences instead of perpetuating recycled, bleak narratives. This article concludes with suggestions for educators to better serve African American males in the Pre K-12 academic context.

This article explores the ways in which popular musicians in Malaysia learn the craft of Western popular music-making in comparison to those in the United Kingdom. Literature that studied popular musicians and their practices had largely focused on communities within Anglosphere regions, and there are insufficient understandings of the journeys of non-Anglosphere popular musicians to determine if their experiences coincided with those from Anglosphere nations. In this mixed method study, popular musicians from Malaysia and the UK completed online questionnaires that enquired into their experiences with formal learning, as well as the practices they engaged in. Secondary data was also harvested from literature based on UK musicians for triangulation purposes. Though the findings indicated numerous overlaps in the experiences of popular musicians from both countries, there were areas of distinction. Malaysian popular musicians were more inclined than their counterparts in the UK, to engage with formal popular music learning, to cultivate a reliance on notation, and to experience instrumental lessons that comprised more features of informal learning. Implications from this article include the need to further investigate the factors behind the disparities, and to afford increased attention towards the learning cultures of non-Anglosphere popular musicians.

In order to create and foster learning spaces that build upon children's knowledge and experiences, we must respect and value their ways of knowing and being, including their play. Accordingly, this study highlights the ways that young children (re)imagined spaces, materials, and identities through their digital play in an analog (containing no physical, digital-based toys/materials) preschool classroom. This qualitative study utilized a framework of children's play as murmuration (a transmodal assemblage), to analyze and discuss the children's various digital play engagements. Three main themes were identified within/across these engagements, including the ways the children: (re)imagined the digital, drew from popular digital culture and media to make connections and construct meaning, and composed digital identities. Insights highlight the ways the children set aside perceived rules for materials, objects, spaces, and identities and created space for critically (re)envisioned ideas, concepts, realities, and futures to emerge. We encourage educators to continue to create and foster classroom spaces that value and build upon children's playful ways of knowing, being, and becoming in the digital world.

A cross-cultural historical examination of Santa Claus reflects that women have contributed substantially to the legend of Santa Claus, but their contributions are downplayed, demeaned, or reframed to fit a sexist view of women's roles. Santa Claus type figures have emerged around the world as part of celebrations of the winter solstice, but strategically removed from their original cultural context to be portrayed to be part of a Christian holiday, when in fact they are not. In most reviews of the winter holidays around the world, there is almost no mention of the vital role that women play in their creation and sustainability. In a diversified world, it is time to change the narrative of this altruistic figure so that he can become more inclusive for all.

To investigate how music educators engage their students with Hip-Hop, we adopted a "research remix" approach, combining elements of case study and constructivist grounded theory. This approach allowed us to privilege Hip-Hop culture and to construct new understandings about Hip-Hop teaching and learning. Six elementary and middle school music teachers implemented Hip-Hop-focused instruction in their classrooms while also attending professional development workshops. Data included videos of classroom instruction, participant interviews, and videos of the workshops with co-facilitation from Hip-Hop artists and the researchers. Educators encountered tensions and challenges related to a perceived Hip-Hop "realness" and a lack of musical and pedagogical skills. To address these challenges, participants remixed their approaches by blending elements of Hip-Hop music and culture with their established teaching strategies. Teachers' dispositions and feedback from students and colleagues engendered critical reflections about their positionalities in relation to Hip-Hop. We constructed a visual model of a DJ as a metaphor to describe participants' approaches to remixing their teaching with Hip-Hop within their contexts. Implications include a need for increased emphasis on Hip-Hop in U.S. music teacher education programs and institutional pathways for Hip-Hop musicians to become music educators.

Introduction: Internet memes are a ubiquitous part of internet culture and a common communication tool among students. Because they are a good medium for expressing ideas and concepts in a concise and fun manner, memes are a potentially valuable tool for teaching and engaging students. Statement of the Problem: Instructors may not know how to use memes in classroom assignments or activities to support learning objectives. Literature Review: Students finding or creating their own class-related content is an empirically supported way to enhance learning. Instructors can enhance learning by using multimedia approaches (pictures/videos in addition to words), which is a good fit for the use of memes. We include examples of ways that memes have already been used in psychology classrooms. Teaching Implications: Incorporating meme assignments or activities in the classroom could be beneficial. Conclusion: We describe how students can explain or generate memes that illustrate concepts related to course material. Instructions and supporting information and resources, as well as calls for research into the effectiveness of the use of memes in the classroom, are included.

Black experiences and discourse concerning citizenship are unique. Moreover, Black access to full citizenship is often a matter of life and death. The civic purposes driving this pursuit are often negated in conventional curriculum and pedagogy, especially in early childhood settings. Still, it is essential for educators and policymakers to understand the civic purposes that initiate and sustain civic engagement. The purpose of this study is to amplify the voices of young Black boys in regards to US citizenship. By employing notions of in the wake/wake work as the theoretical framework and curricular and pedagogical resuscitation (CPR) as the methodology, this study unearthed the power of children to examine the complexities and ironies of citizenship. More so, these first- and second-grade students linked Black citizenship to fundamental issues of life, death, and purpose. Ultimately, the authors call for instruction reflecting how for students, especially Black students, honorable civic purposes striving for full citizenship remain valued, respected, and enduring.

Songwriting pedagogy is in its infancy in music education. This article presents a new way to think about pedagogy that utilizes student workgroups that more closely align with the ways songs are written in the real world. Implications for music education's connections to the world of contemporary commercial music are provided.

This paper explored the relationship between graffiti arts and civic education among young people in Nigeria. A mixed methods approach was employed to generate and synthesize empirical data. The study was guided by Barbara Rogoff's social constructivism theory. Findings indicated that graffiti arts and artists were present in Nigeria, driven by desires for self-expression, financial gain, and training opportunities sponsored by NGOs for up-and-coming artists. Writing styles varied, but drawing, mural painting, and styles uniquely African remained dominant. Despite the difficulty of acceptance of graffiti as an art form due to its earlier association with transgressive activities, its engagement as a method for emancipatory, participatory, cultural literacy, dialectical relations, and creative learning tools in both formal and informal settings demonstrated its educational-supportive capacity for young adults. The values that graffiti express can help reorient young adults in their thinking and social agency. To this end, this paper recommends rethinking the way we view and relate to graffiti arts and writers; incorporating graffiti art education into school curriculum reforms in Nigeria; and using an interactive approach, including new media, to understanding graffiti art produced and displayed by young adults.

Both personalization and utility value (UV) interventions have emerged in educational psychology as ways to increase students' interest in learning an academic subject, and potentially improve learning outcomes. However, empirical results for each approach have been mixed and these approaches have worked differently for different groups of students. In the present study, we combined the affordances of personalization with those of UV interventions to create novel activities where students posed mathematics problems based on their career and popular culture interests. While problem-posing has been identified as a powerful approach in the mathematics education literature, it is an effortful activity for learners, inducing demands described by theories related to desirable difficulties. We conducted a randomized control study with 458 middle school, high school, and college students enrolled in algebra courses with overlapping content to examine the impact of the personalized problem-posing intervention. Results showed that when controlling for dosage the intervention had statistically significant positive effects on algebra learning compared to a business-as-usual condition where students solved typical story problems in the same online platform. Posing problems based on popular culture interests was especially effective for learning for college students. However, for secondary school students, posing popular culture problems had significantly negative effects on their feelings of mathematics enjoyment. In addition, there was evidence that a subset of learners who completed a small dosage of the intervention had negative effects on their valuing of mathematics. Implications for interest development theory, personalized and UV interventions, and mathematical problem-posing designs are discussed.

With a runtime of 47 years, Saturday Night Live has long served as a societal mirror that captures and creates popular culture. In recent years the show has been criticized for its lack of diverse hosts, cast and staff. Out of 930 episodes only seven episodes have been hosted by an Asian host, four of whom identify as Chinese. This research examined those four episodes through quantitative analysis, finding that the qualities of each of the hosts' characters range from just below neutral to moderately positive. The use of stereotypes and satirical racial humor varied. Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu's episodes had the highest concentration of both overt and covert stereotypes, while Awkwafina had a similar number with a lower concentration. The infrequency of Chinese representation on the show is a social issue. Such a small sample size does not allow for conclusions to be drawn. Rather, this research paints a picture of how the four Chinese hosts are portrayed on SNL as influenced by their own unique identities and the year of their appearance. In addition, the insights this case study offers has implications for shows performed in colleges and K-12 schools. Directors and sponsors of school based shows can learn from this case study how to avoid perpetuating stereotypes and how to advance diversity, equity and inclusion at their institutions.

Playing video games is one of the most popular leisure activities across the world. Video game music (VGM) is a musical art form prevalent in popular culture, and there is potential to use it for the music education of students. Using informal music learning (Green, 2002) and online participatory culture (Jenkins, 1992/2013) theories as grounds for inquiry, this multicase study explored how musicians used the music of "Undertale"--a popular 2015 independent video game created by Toby Fox--to inspire music making by publishing YouTube videos. Twelve case studies were conducted using methods outlined by Robert E. Stake (1995; 2006), each centered around a YouTube channel managed by creators who published "Undertale" music video covers. Data were analyzed around three themes: learning how to create for YouTube, creating covers of "Undertale" for publication, and interacting with others within the VGM community. By exploring the processes of VGM cover artists who published on YouTube, music educators may be able to better guide students to develop skills for publishing content on the internet and connecting with others in meaningful ways online.

The aim of this research is to create an inclusive reading and writing learning environment in a class of 8 people, including students with different learning levels, and even learning difficulties. While associating the inclusive approach with the reading and writing process, the researchers prepared an action plan consisting of popular culture texts. In the study, action research method was adopted. The participants were composed of 8 middle school students who were selected using criterion sampling method. Data were collected via a semi-structured interview form, a semi-structured observation form, a diary form and activity files. The results revealed that as a result of the research, lower, middle and upper-level students' interest and willingness were increased. The students with learning disabilities participated in the lesson more actively and willingly. Therefore, it can be said that the research process provided an inclusive learning environment for the participating students.

Superhero themes have been increasingly used in the teaching of a range of topics including business, humanities and science in recent years. Typically, characters from existing popular media are adopted for the teaching activities. On the other hand, customised characters that are developed from scratch allow the educator to have more control of the characters' features so that the learning objectives can be achieved more effectively. In this work, new fictitious characters have been created as cases for students to perform their engineering materials selection assignment. The motivation for using the superhero theme was to increase the students' excitement in the assignment. This paper shares the approach taken and the teaching experience after running the superhero theme with two cohorts of students.

Movies have long been used for teaching in undergraduate science courses. However, embedding movie references (EMR) in science videos is a new trend. This study explored how EMR in YouTube science videos might affect the nature of comments and the process of learning science. Using constructivist grounded theory, we compared comments on two videos. "Up and Atom's" (UA) video presented quantum tunneling conventionally, while "Because Science"'s (BS) video used "Harry Potter" to illustrate the same concept. Content analysis revealed that comments on UA's video are more formal and focused on specific scientific concepts, while comments on BS's video are more casual and diverse, engaging more broadly with the science and video topic. Although conventional science videos may facilitate knowledge exchange and collaborative learning in the comments, these comments may spread misinformation when they lack context, authority, and expertise. Yet, science videos EMR connect scientific concepts with popular culture, and offer unique learning opportunities, including critique, creative thinking, and self-reflection. We argue, however, that EMR in science videos risks diverting attention away from the science content.

The aim of this paper is to determine both the influence of musical compositions' genres on the students' musical literacy formed using artificial intelligence technologies and the musical literacy skills among music and non-music major students. Accordingly, the method of analysis was used to identify the most common musical genres in the Chinese music education system. The genres prevailed in the following order: folk music, Western classical music, Chinese opera music, Qi genre, vocal chamber music, and pop music. Identifying genres of music was necessary to examine the impact of each on the development literacy skills in music. The development of music teaching approaches was based on the use of online technology. The technology contributed to the improvement of melodic skills with SwiftScales; articulation skills with Learn Singing; and expressive performance with Singscope. The research findings suggested that students of music majors were more likely to recognize the genres of musical composition (24%) after training, whereas students pursuing non-music majors developed linguistic abilities (27%). The study also revealed that minimal musical knowledge among music students contributes to the improvement of literacy skills in music (k = 0.82). Non-music students primarily develop memory (k = 0.84), with improved musical literacy skills as a result of knowledge accumulation.

Memes have emerged as a prevalent and influential aspect of contemporary culture and their use is a significant feature of social and relational communications. Yet scant research exists within Higher Education on the use of memes to assist in the research of reactions, emotions, and perceptions. The use of meme-making as a qualitative research tool is grounded in visual research methods. This paper explores a framework for using meme-making as a research tool within Higher Education and considers two case studies that demonstrate how meme-making can been used to capture and communicate the experiences of students. Through these case studies, meme-making was revealed to introduce an element of levity and humour whilst being versatile, flexible, and easily dovetailed to other qualitative approaches. Familiarity with the medium and construction process drew upon an instilled sense of ownership revealing the method to be accessible across a diverse participant base.

Recent studies explore youth and children language brokering at the interface of caregiving for their migrant families and frame this conceptualisation as interactionally mediated practicing of care with the overall purpose of family sustainability during the family's coping process within the migration context. From this joint perspective, youth and children brokers appear to provide actively care through language while conducting everyday brokering practices to fill interactional gaps between their families and the wider society, and enable the interactional parties involved to express themselves. During this mediation, interactional strategies are crucial because language brokering is beyond translating and interpreting. Drawing on ethnographic data, the paper shows the unique ability of linguistic ethnography to scrutinise interactional strategies in relation to care and applies this approach to examine a number of strategies that Sima, the main young language broker of an Afghan family in Denmark, employs during her within-family brokering. Whereas previous studies have shown that language and culture brokers in their brokering practices act from the perspectives and experiences of their families and the wider society, this paper demonstrates how Sima's awareness of multiple competing perspectives within family interactions facilitates her mediation in caring for the family's parent-child relationships and reconciliation.

The story of American superheroes cannot be told without the publisher DC and its evolving audience. During the latter 1930s and early 1940s, DC Comics assembled a catalog of superheroes that became the archetype of the genre itself: Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. As DC Comics' audience and market grew throughout the decades, the company's understanding of its readership expanded to include readers of color. Originally conceived as DC Zoom in 2018, the imprint was meant to create superhero narratives written for young audiences. In 2020, DC Zoom reorganized and bifurcated its products into two streams: DC Graphic Novels for Kids and DC Graphic Novels for Young Adults. The former is geared toward upper elementary students, while the latter is geared toward middle and high school audiences. The DC Graphic Novels for Kids imprint redresses the original narrative exclusion of DC Comics by centering new, young heroes of color alongside white superheroes. Importantly, these younger heroes of color are written by comic writers of color, which marks a departure from the historical origins of some of the most popular superheroes of color. In this article, the authors construct a critical race content analysis of DC Graphic Novels for Kids that feature characters of color to engage in that inquiry. Tensions and changes within superhero comic books frequently mirror larger sociopolitical shifts in the United States. Similar to reading children's literature, the consumption and engagement with graphic novels cannot be severed from the sociopolitical contexts in which such actions take place. This tradition of engagement continues to the modern day with DC Comics. A tension exists between narratives that ignore discussions of race and racism and literary moves that work as racialized characterization.

Historically, across U.S. education systems, traditional teaching strategies and school curricular practices have been anchored in Western views and Eurocentric frameworks that position whiteness as the center of legitimate knowledge and, as a result, other knowledge as peripheral and insignificant. In this article, we offer practical considerations for educators and researchers who seek to disrupt systems of oppression through the implementation of hip-hop based education. As an extension of culturally relevant pedagogy, we contend that the critical implementation of hip-hop based education must include an interrogation of educator and researcher positionality as it relates to hip-hop culture.

Basic medical sciences education is characterized by the provision of large amounts of theoretical information that leaves little opportunity for promoting student creativity or motivation. In response, the authors investigated meme-related project-based learning (PBL). Memes are humorous media that are widely exchanged online. 1477 students were requested to create memes on the scientific material they were studying in a pathology course. The project was implemented in two learning contexts (face-to-face and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic) over two batches of first-year medical students. The students created memes in greater numbers than requested by a mean of 5.8 per group. Students' satisfaction and narrative perceptions were analyzed, with 66.9% reponse rate: 91.4% of students were satisfied with the PBL; 93.3% rated the learning benefit gained from creating memes as excellent and/or good, and 85.9% rated the learning benefit from their colleagues' memes at the same level. Five themes were extracted: positive students' attitude toward the meme PBL, better development of students' skills, the feasibility of creating and sharing the project results, additional advantages and Challenges reported by students enrolled in meme PBL. The authors concluded that adopting meme PBL promotes students' creativity and boosts their motivation to learn.

Since first airing on HBO in 2011, "Game of Thrones" (GOT) has proven to be a fruitful text for teaching and studying politics. In 2022 the prequal to GOT-House of The Dragon (HOTD) debuted on HBO. This paper conducts discourse analysis on the entire first season with two goals in mind. First, we demonstrate how pop culture is impacted by real world politics by examining the change in gender and racial representation in HOTD compared to GOT and argue that this change was a product of cultural backlash that GOT received and a result of changing political attitudes over the time of both shows airing. Second, we use the show's content as text to teach American and Comparative politics concepts. In the appendix we provide three examples of low, mid, and high-stake assignments that use show content in teaching political science courses.

Purpose: This paper aims to address weight-based bullying as a persistent issue among adolescents. Fat phobia, rooted in societal biases against overweight individuals, leads to social exclusion and discrimination, negatively impacting mental health and equality. Educational settings suffer from the profound effects of fat phobia, creating a toxic atmosphere that distracts from learning and marginalizes students who don't conform to traditional physical norms. Design/methodology/approach: This paper combines historical analysis, literature review and critical discourse analysis. It examines the historical roots of fat phobia, explores the impact of societal influences, analyzes contemporary educational practices and the use of popular culture as a innovative tool. Findings: Leveraging popular culture in anti-fat phobia education effectively challenges stereotypes. Educators empower students to critically analyze media depictions, encouraging empathy and inclusivity. Current events serve as critical teaching tools, sparking discussions on intersecting discrimination forms and equity. Practical implications: This paper emphasizes the urgent need to comprehensively address fat phobia in education, advocating for a shift in societal attitudes toward body diversity. Popular culture can serve as an educational tool to create inclusive classrooms where all students are valued and free from weight-based discrimination. Social implications: This paper emphasizes the urgent need to comprehensively address fat phobia in education, advocating for a shift in societal attitudes toward body diversity. Popular culture can serve as an educational tool to create inclusive classrooms where all students are valued and free from weight-based discrimination. Originality/value: The originality and value of this paper lie in its multi-faceted approach to examining weight-based discrimination, its historical context, practical educational strategies, and the innovative use of popular culture as a tool for promoting inclusivity and empathy.

While films are popular as teaching tools in social work education, to critique social inequalities, horror films have not been the conventional genre. This teaching note describes the creation and deployment of a course that uses horror films to address social justice issues as part of different critical reflection, which is linked to practice wisdom. The author describes the structure of course, readings, activities, and reflections for expanding the use of this genre and well as limitations. The use of horror films can be a useful and salient tool to engage students to draw upon social constructions of what it means to be fearful or scared, and teach about infractions to human nature from a social work perspective. Broad implications are discussed, including other genres and the availability of resources to replicate this course in other settings.

HBO's "Lovecraft Country" is a model resource for developing speculative civic literacies, which are forms of meaning making aimed at helping students conceive of a more equitable democratic society. Speculative civic literacies and "Lovecraft Country" both center the tension between Afrofuturism and Afropessimism in the Afrocentric restorying of historic narratives to more accurately reflect the experiences of a wider range of people. By studying how "Lovecraft Country" portrays historic events, in particular the violent enforcement of the color line, students can gain an enriched understanding of how colonial knowledge production and necropower shapes their world. By engaging with subversive art, students learn to openly question dominant assumptions, including the sacred liberal assumption that democratic reform is sufficient to achieve genuine equity as a society. Finally, seeing how "Lovecraft Country" restories events with empowered Black protagonists, students can learn to engage in their own restorying, and thereby envision futures of equitable flourishing, while taking seriously the persistent challenges of social death in the present. By honing their narrative tools through engagement with rich speculative fiction, students learn to create spaces where the possible can permeate into our democratic reality.

This article explores the dynamics of inter-generational conversations between queer and trans youth and queer and trans adults through an analysis of a routine segment on the reality show, RuPaul's Drag Race. At the end of each season, the drag queen contestants are asked to give a piece of advice to photos of their younger selves and, by proxy, the young people who may be watching the show from home. This article positions this segment as a pedagogical moment where the queens are forced into the role of teacher. However, like the categories of child and youth, RuPaul's request of the queens is not as innocent as it appears. In turning to address children directly, the queens must reckon with cis-heteronormative expectations of how adults can speak to children, about what topics can be discussed, and the tones such conversation must take. To explore these issues, the article examines this segment alongside scholarship about drag and ballroom cultures to place the show within larger contexts of queer and trans kinship structures. Then, turning to queer and trans studies in education and queer and trans childhood and youth studies, the essay examines the factors impacting how and when queer and trans youth and adults are allowed to be in conversation with youth, if at all.

This article explores the integration of hip-hop with Islamic themes in the religious education (RE) classroom, with a focus on transcending the constraints of traditional narratives and creating a dynamic and wide-ranging understanding of Islamic traditions of interpretations. Drawing inspiration from Richard Bulliet's book Islam: A View from the Edge and the creative potential of hip-hop, the article argues that educators can open new avenues for teaching and learning about Islamic traditions. By incorporating hip-hop based education (HHBE), educators can engage students through contemporary mediums and provide a relatable and engaging stage for the exploration of Islam. The article also highlights the importance of African American Islam and its intersection with hip-hop in understanding the worldview of many Muslims (and non-Muslims) worldwide. The article suggests strategies such as exploring Islam through hip-hop music videos, examining the legacy of Malcolm X in hip-hop, and considering the local context and languages of students to enrich the exploration of Islam.

Twenty-seven years ago, the documentary "Hoop Dreams" solidified a theory--that the world of athletics was one of the few places where adolescent Black males could find success. By the late 1990s, researchers were framing athletics as the next direction in the Civil Rights Movement. In this article, I argue that the historical framing of Black boys in athletics--as a way up, a way out--is similar to the contemporary framing of Black boys in Hip Hop Based Education (HHBE). Using an ethnographic case example of the Homeboys, a group of adolescent Black males experiencing homelessness, I maintain that HHBE, without critical implementation and reflection, limits the possible selves of Black boys in socially reproductive ways. Unlike "Hoop Dreams," which historically created an incentive to stay invested in formal educational settings, HHBE offers little "possible selves" development for young Black men. This research asserts that if HHBE, and the myriad ways Hip Hop is taken up in formal and informal educational settings is not dually paired with the critical process of institutional actors envisioning "all" the possible selves that black boys can become, then it becomes another hegemonic socially reproductive tool wielded by educators.

This article is based on a fieldwork study that explored a 1-year-long process of integrating children's human rights-respecting practice in a preschool through a project with a popular culture theme. Drawing on John Dewey's educational theory, educative participatory experience is suggested as a useful concept to further understand and develop different forms of participation practices. The twofold aim of the article is to demonstrate the children's educative participatory experiences and relate these to the teacher's acknowledgement of both children's collective agency and their individual capacity to participate. The methods used are semi-structured interviews and video-documented and participatory observations. The data mainly consists of field notes, video recordings, photographs and transcripts. The results show that the teachers are viewing the children, and providing possibilities for them to act, as knowledgeable experts, competent conflict-solvers and reflective and caring practitioners. Furthermore, they consider both the children's individual and collective rights and responsibilities when creating a rights-respecting preschool environment.

Teaching public administration theory and linking it to practice can be challenging; yet are central goals to MPA programs. Using relevant examples that students can relate to is instrumental in achieving the pedagogical goals of linking theory to practice and achieving the NASPAA competencies. "New Amsterdam" is used as a case study for MPA students to achieve the above mentioned goals. In this work, I provide a list of episodes accompanied by themes of the episode and core public administration areas each apply to such as budgeting, human resources, decision making, as well as discussion questions used. This work contributes to our pedagogical toolbox by adding relevant examples in a healthcare administration setting that helps students master the NASPAA competencies while linking theory to practice.