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.

As popular music education programs become more common, it is essential to determine what kinds of professional development experiences that are designed to help teachers include popular music into their music education classrooms are effective--keeping in mind that the inclusion of popular music in K-12 classrooms requires a change not only in…

In this paper, six adult allies (comprised of four academic scholars, one in-service teacher, and one community-based teaching artist) reflect on what it meant for them to learn from the wisdom of eight years of intergenerational inquiry led by youth. The authors examine how youth researcher-activists make meaning of their realities within this…

Drawing from transnational feminism, we describe the interplay of multiple identities influencing teaching and research. By exploring our stories of border crossing as first/second-generation immigrant women, we highlight the importance of building communities of care in collaborative relationships. We explore the reciprocal relationship between…

In this New York City, New York-based study, we made use of a Critical Cycle of Mixtape Creation (CCMC) intervention to examine a Bangladeshi high school student's understanding of justice, and the impact of injustice on his well-being, through his creation of and reflection on original hip-hop song lyrics. The student participated in the CCMC…

This article uses the translingual turn in composition/rhetoric studies as a springboard to argue for the development of students' meta-linguistic and meta-rhetorical awareness as it took place for first-year college writers in the local context of a SEEK classroom at a branch college of the City University of New York. I theorize and describe a…

Music education research on popular music can be characterized by its emphasis on adolescent experiences and performance practice. In contrast, this study explored the ways in which popular music listening fostered deliberation and dialogue within a group of New York City elementary school children. Recognizing that popular music listening is a…

Historically rooted in Black and Latino youth subcultures of New York City, Hip-Hop emerged as a form of sociocultural expression by which young people, particularly those socially and culturally marginalized by race and class, voice their discontent, anger, and struggles, make sense of their social realities, and exercise resistance. In a White,…

Black and brown people are being murdered by police officers at an alarming rate, and nothing is being done about it.

Hip-hop music has been embraced worldwide by youth, pummeled in the media for supposedly increasing social misery and hailed as a significant musical breakthrough. Hip-hop culture has transcended musical boundaries and now impacts speech, clothing, mannerisms, movies, websites, television programming, magazines, and energy drinks (Dyson, 2007;…

Discusses the cultural identity and experiences of Puerto Ricans residing in New York City. Explores, through excerpts of poetry by "Nuyoricans," the themes of assimilation, attachment to the island of Puerto Rico, relations with Black and White New Yorkers, and bilingualism. (GC)

New York City as a subject has fascinated generations of artists, writers, and musicians. However, the glamorous image of the city has changed over the years, and in the 1960s, popular music, in particular, began to reflect a utopia/dystopia dichotomy in relation to New York. During the past twenty years, six popular singer-songwriters who have…

In 1927 the Brazilian modernist writer, Jose Bento Monteiro Lobato, traveled to New York City with his family, where he took up a position as economic attache at the Brazilian Consulate. For 4 years he and his family lived in Jackson Heights, while he worked and observed the feverish activity that was making the United States the foremost and most…

This social history of the post-World War II Puerto Rican community in the United States focuses mainly on New York City. Each of the following chapters can be read separately: (1) "The Colonial Relationship: Migration and History" examines the factors leading to the migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States and their choice of…

This curriculum unit for Grades 3-4 (adaptable for higher or lower grades) introduces students to Harlem, starting with black migration from Africa and from the American South to the North, to the Harlem Renaissance (including jazz musicians, visual artists, writers, and poets), and on to aspects of daily Harlem life (then and now), such as family…