This article links the connection between music and leadership, exploring ways to connect musical icons to teaching leadership theory and concepts. The authors utilize the relationship leadership model (RLM) and the leadership identity development (LID) model through case studies of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Taylor Swift. We provide questions to…

This article analyzes how TikTok can be situated as a space for learning and analyzing critical leadership skills in the classroom and beyond. While the platform has earned criticism from a variety of angles (including fears over media effects and the pervasiveness of the algorithm), I argue the popularity of the app positions it as one of the…

This article explores the transformative potential of "Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)" in leadership learning, tracing the game's evolution from the 1980s satanic panic to its current mainstream popularity. We highlight practical applications in educational settings and address critiques related to game mechanics and historical biases.…

Historically, films and television centered men, but there has recently been a shift toward focusing on women and people of color (and women of color) in leading roles. Films and shows like "Black Panther," "Barbie," and "Ashoka" reflect this trend, offering more complex stories and diverse representation. Despite…

How can music educators explore the intersections of spirituality, relationships, and music education? The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Pixar film, "Soul," models the transformation that can occur when a music teacher embraces spirituality and the preciousness of everyday life both in and out of the classroom through…

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…

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…

Megan Thee Stallion is revolutionizing the representation of Black women in Hip-Hop by occupying polarizing positions in Hip-Hop culture. Megan represents the multiplicity of the Black girl/women's identities by navigating the confines of ratchet respectability, sexuality, and education. Her movements #HotGirlSummer and #HotNerdFall demonstrate…

Stanley Cavell was the first to account for the transformation of theory and criticism brought about by reflection on popular culture and its 'ordinary' objects, such as so-called mainstream cinema. However, Cavell is less concerned with reversing artistic hierarchies than with the self-transformation required by our encounters with new…

This article explores leadership lessons that can be drawn from popular sport icons. These lessons reveal how athletes leverage their status to drive social change or how they inspire others through performance-based practices that align with effective modern-day leadership skills. We present four cases to illustrate key leadership competencies…

This paper focuses on Vietnamese PhD students' imaginative geographies of their destination countries. Using the data collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 Vietnamese PhD students, the study examines the participants' preparation for their sojourn before their departure, as well as their first multi-sensory experiences of the…

This article explores the pedagogical considerations of using pop-culture podcasts as an instructional strategy in leadership development. We clarify key concepts, evaluate podcasts as an instructional tool, and provide recommendations and implications for their integration into leadership learning experiences. While an important consideration for…

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…

In this article, we consider the notion of entangled stories to account for ways that young people assemble stories in generative ways. We draw on Tim Ingold's theorising of lines, movement, and storied knowledge to account for the visible/material and invisible/immaterial entanglements that happen when young people design multimodal storied…

In this conceptual paper, we argue that many episodes of the so-called culture wars of the 1990s in the U.S. can be better understood as attacks on Blackness, a contention that critical race theory illuminates. To substantiate this claim, we recast key societal episodes through a Black perspective that unfolded in both formal and informal…