Popular Culture

"The editors have brought together leading radical sociologists, educators, and others to discuss working-class popular culture, critical pedagogy, and the possibilities of school-related social reconstruction. Whether the book succeeds in providing the pedagogical grounds for radicalizing the emancipatory possibilities of teaching and learning, ' is a discourse that represents a political as well as a pedagogical project.' The overall tone is thoughtfully restrained, yet urgent--not stridently polemical as in conventional neo-Marxist tracts. This is a contribution to critical, normative, and interpretive educational scholarship. Interpretations of rock 'n' roll (e.g., Springsteen's work), television situation comedies (The Honeymooners'), and, especially, Hollywood movies (Dirty Dancing) are most helpful in demonstrating the efficacy of popular culture. Quality of the writing ranges from jargonized critical theorizing to trenchant analyses of popular art' (Paul Willis), televangelism (Peter McLaren and Richard Smith), romance' programs on TV (Mimi White), and working-class life-style (Stanley Aronowitz). E.D. Hirsch Jr. (Cultural Literacy) and Allan Bloom (The Closing of the American Mind) may have met their match in this strategically crafted case for the expansion of social democracy in post industrial society. Copious chapter references and occasional photographs, and an index. Graduate level."-Choice ?The editors have brought together leading radical sociologists, educators, and others to discuss working-class popular culture, critical pedagogy, and the possibilities of school-related social reconstruction. Whether the book succeeds in providing the pedagogical grounds for radicalizing the emancipatory possibilities of teaching and learning, ' is a discourse that represents a political as well as a pedagogical project.' The overall tone is thoughtfully restrained, yet urgent--not stridently polemical as in conventional neo-Marxist tracts. This is a contribution to critical, normative, and interpretive educational scholarship. Interpretations of rock 'n' roll (e.g., Springsteen's work), television situation comedies (The Honeymooners'), and, especially, Hollywood movies (Dirty Dancing) are most helpful in demonstrating the efficacy of popular culture. Quality of the writing ranges from jargonized critical theorizing to trenchant analyses of popular art' (Paul Willis), televangelism (Peter McLaren and Richard Smith), romance' programs on TV (Mimi White), and working-class life-style (Stanley Aronowitz). E.D. Hirsch Jr. (Cultural Literacy) and Allan Bloom (The Closing of the American Mind) may have met their match in this strategically crafted case for the expansion of social democracy in post industrial society. Copious chapter references and occasional photographs, and an index. Graduate level.?-Choice

HENRY GIROUX, Professor and Scholar in Residence in the School of Education at Miami University, Ohio, is known internationally for his work in critical pedagogy and has published eleven books on the subject. ROGER SIMON is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He is currently working on his next book, Teaching Against the Grain: A Pedagogy of Possibility.

Pedagogy, Popular Culture, and Public Life: An Introduction by Paulo Freire and Henry A. Giroux Popular Culture as a Pedagogy of Pleasure and Meaning by Henry A. Giroux and Roger I. Simon Pedagogy and the Popular-Cultural-Commodity-Text by Paul Smith Educational Media, Ideology, and the Presentation of Knowledge through Popular Cultural Forms by Elizabeth Ellsworth Playing ... Contra/Dictions, Empowerment, and Embodiment: Punk, Pedagogy, and Popular Cultural Forms by Philip Corrigan Pedagogy in the Present: Politics, Postmodernity, and the Popular by Lawrence Grossberg Curriculum Politics, Hegemony, and Strategies of Social Change by R.W. Connell Art or Culture? An Inquiry by Paul Willis Televangelism as Pedagogy and Cultural Politics by Peter McLaren and Richard Smith Engendering Couples: The Subject of Daytime Television by Mimi White Working-Class Identity and Celluloid Fantasies in the Electronic Age by Stanley Aronowitz Schooling, Popular Culture, and A Pedagogy of Possibility by Henry A. Giroux and Roger I. Simon Index