This article discusses findings from an ongoing qualitative studies about the incorporation of popular culture in university-based professional education. The focus is on how popular culture can become a curricular resource to support learning about theory or concepts and contentious or sensitive issues, at a time when neoliberal trends of…

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…

This narrative inquiry research study explores the ways in which hip-hop culture functions as a form of resistance to the oppressive and traditional spaces that constitute predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education. Despite the prevalence and power of hip-hop among Black collegians, little is known about how hip-hop can assist…

Throwing as much fun and pop culture into an international relations class as possible, with the goal of improving student learning (and the likelihood of the course running again). Games proved most effective, while movies were less useful in increasing student learning on international relations.

Race for the Red Planet was designed by Daphne Fauber to teach engineering design principles through the contextualization of popular culture, science fiction, and the current race for Mars. The goal of the lesson was for students to learn how people may be living on Mars in the future through a variety of interdisciplinary sources and various…

The topic of human-animal studies (HAS) remains largely ignored within the sociology classroom. While a few sociologists have encouraged teaching about animals, none has assessed whether incorporating nonhuman animals into the curriculum is effective. In this study, three instructors at two universities incorporated animal-related materials in…

Entertainment media and popular culture often overdramatize the college experience. An honors colloquium engages students in scholarly research and discourse involving thematic elements of academic life in popular culture. An interdisciplinary approach to race, class, the professoriate, Greek life, and foreign experience is espoused. Through a…

To a growing student population for whom smartphone and Internet use started in their early childhood, social media and popular culture can be effective tools to mitigate potential anxiety and alienation students may feel when taking a theory course. This paper offers strategies and insight on the endeavor of utilizing both popular and social…

This paper focuses on an advanced Spanish literature seminar I taught at Kansas State University dedicated entirely to Cervantes's "Don Quijote de la Mancha." In an effort to appeal to twenty-first-century students in rural Kansas, I designed my seminar to explore traditional questions of authorship, translation and reading, metafiction,…

We language educators are constant learners of teaching, not only of up-to-date pedagogy and technology but also the social context of target and native culture within which teaching occurs. Beyond my formal education, integral to my knowledge base are the range of student populations I have served and the variety of language teaching contexts I…

Courses: Small group communication or any courses with units on group/team work. Objective: In this single-class activity, students will use reality TV to identify Tuckman's five phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Students analyze how phases of group development manifest through group interaction…

This article offers a situation, with several examples, where confidential settlements can be used to combine the business school case study method with the law school use of legal disputes to bridge the learning activities from the mid-level application of principles to the higher level activity of critiquing judicial work. Confidential…

When the author began teaching in Paraguay, he ran into a series of classroom challenges familiar to English teachers around the world: a classroom overflowing with students, a large range of English abilities, and insufficient textbooks and traditional teaching resources. The activity described in this article is a one-size-fits-all activity that…

In an effort to address some of the issues of justice and equity within Hong Kong, this chapter looks at developments with curriculum and pedagogy in the SAR with an emphasis on the years after the 'handover' of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom (UK) to mainland China in 1997. Not meant to be an exhaustive study, this chapter focuses on specific…

This article explores the interaction between popular culture, community-based education, and the establishment of a critically literate debate community, using the case of City Debate as one example of how critical literacy is embedded and taught through curriculum. Debate has historically been conceptualized as a structurally rigid space for…