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RE teachers

Andrew Jones

debates on the role of pop culture in teaching and learning

"A strong culture is the self-consciousness of a society," writes Roger Scruton last year in The Guardian. "It contains works of art, literature, scholarship and philosophy to establish a common frame of reference among the educated people. "

As a teacher, the last part of this statement interests me because one of the goals of the school should encourage "educated". It is important to Scruton, the absence of "high culture is replaced by a culture of counterfeiting." This "culture of counterfeiting" consists of many things, including false ideologies, opinions and knowledge but to my dismay, Scruton does not really identify what a "popular culture" might be.

With regard to teaching, learning and curriculum, my dilemma is relatively simple, but significant, should strive to refer to high culture in my classes so that students can appreciate the culture at its best, or so to motivate students and make learning fun, I litter my classes with references that might be perceived as popular culture, it is probably best defined as "pop culture" in the context of youth.

Pop Culture

not understand that popular culture is easy to understand and fun to most young people. For example, pop music, romantic comedies of Hollywood operas and soap. High culture, on the other hand, may include renaissance art, classical music and opera. The latter is certainly more sophisticated, intellectually stimulating and rewarding in itself.

To help get my head around it, I turned to philosophical debate between high and low pleasures order to see if I'm really in the creation of "educated" or simply dumbing down the program.

Furthermore, this distinction is fundamental in religious studies and the lessons I learned in both the moral philosophy of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill Jeremy Bentham approach interesting and enjoyable lessons could with references to pop culture and make learning more enjoyable. Bentham basic idea is that pleasure is good in itself and that the increase of pleasure is what you need to do. However, Mill argues that most pleasures are superior orders. It is based on his vision delayed gratification pleasure consecutive benefit of the individual over the long term, because they develop an appreciation of things in life, like poetry and classical music. What Scruton considered "high culture"

believe that the infusion of pop culture in RE lessons sober brought alive and relevant. For example, my classes have incorporated the music of Alicia Keyes (Karma), a unit of medical ethics and clips included readings Keeper (savior siblings) Weird Al and I think I'm a clone now (genetic engineering ) and lessons on wealth and poverty have included games Supermarket Sweep base to assess the extent to which students are truly altruistic, if given the opportunity to take what they want.

Christianity relate to pop culture may be more successful, especially as Christianity is evident in hip-hop (Kanye West Jesus Walks, for example), novels like The Da Vinci Code and followed by a host of celebrities.


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