Notes on Marsh 2006, Pop Culture in the Literacy Curriculum

Popular culture in the literacy curriculum: A Bourdieuan analysis
Jackie Marsh
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England

Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun. 2006), pp. 160-174
Published by International Reading Association
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/pss/4151728 on 9/14/08.
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1. Research Questions
1) "What are the beliefs and practices
of preservice teachers with regard to the use of popular-culture and media texts in the primary literacy curriculum?"
2) "How do structural and agentic elements shape the dynamic between these beliefs and practices?"

2. Subjects, Setting, Context
This longitudinal study looked at the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of preservice teachers in regards to the inclusion of pop culture in the literacy curriculum. Marsh uses a theoretical lens based on the work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to examine how the agency of the teachers was limited by the institutional stance on pop culture.
18 teacher education students were interviewed over the course of their 3 year program. Responses of 3 students were analyzed.

3. Procedures (briefly)
Group and individual interviews were conducted. Transcripts were coded using inductive coding. Validity was enhanced by having dyads of students independently code samples. The coded data were then organized into concepts.

4. Findings
1) Student teachers may be excited about the idea of incorporating popular culture texts into the classroom, but they are pressured to conform to norms of the school structure and not include these texts.
2) Teachers capitulate to the values of the structure that has become habitus for them and that is reinforced throughout.

5. Strengths and Weaknesses of Study
All of the data are based on self-report from the participants. Although member checks were performed, this remains the strongest limitation of the study.

6. Implications
More work needs to be done on the inclusion of popular culture texts in the classroom. There seems to be a disconnect between the vision the field of education has about what are appropriate texts for children and the actual texts that are present in the lives of children outside of school today.

7. Other Comments
Bourdieu believed that structures, such as a school curriculum, impose the sociocultural values of one unfairly advantaged group over all other groups in a society and that individuals within such a system can comply (passively or actively) or resist the reconstruction of the dominant value system.

In Marsh's section titled "Restricted beliefs and practices", the author discusses teacher concerns about the inclusion of popular culture texts in the classroom because of what is perceived as non-age-appropriate content. That section also discusses teacher anxiety over technological innovation and invokes the Freudian concept of the "uncanny" to explain this unease. This section applies to the tension that the counselors and I experience during the summer camp because of the inclusion of popular culture texts.