If media literacy is to become part of the K-12 school experience, enabling transformation in both curriculum and teaching, then teachers need to become literate first. Teachers cannot teach what they have not learned, and learned to value, themselves. Although more American teachers are becoming knowledgeable about media literacy, much remains to…

Media literacy education is being explored by scholars in many different fields (including education, literature, media studies, psychology, and public health), but there is less evidence of implementations occurring in K-12 settings. With more than 1.3 million teachers in U.S. public schools, it is impossible to estimate the extent to which the…

This chapter will explore the "shadow curriculum" (a term used by those who question the assumption that direct selling to students who are compelled to attend school is questionable on several levels--ethical, moral, and democratic) and its connection to media literacy. The author first summarizes the kinds of marketing in schools that…

Media literacy educators from the United States regularly pay homage to their colleagues in Canada. Canadians have talked about, thought about, taught about, and written about media literacy for many years. Canada first hosted a World Conference in media literacy in Guelph, Ontario, in 1990, and all provinces in Canada now include media literacy…

In this chapter, the author presents arguments to support a school curriculum that might forge a life of justice as well as develop a rational, analytical, and critical understanding of media texts that students use in classrooms and in out-of-school contexts. First, he begins by laying out the rationale for why media literacy matters in schools.…