Cirrus@Austlit

In the diverse terrain of popular culture, youth find the resources and means for identity formation, social relations, and pleasure, as well as develop a range of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes. To make learning meaningful and relevant to the lives of students, you need to understand the ways popular cultural texts (literary, mass media, computer-based and digital) form the cultural capital of youth and give meaning to their lived experiences. You also need to develop new knowledges and skills of textual analysis that will enable them to critique, select, and use various cultural texts for specific pedagogical purposes and learning contexts. This unit has an emphasis on new contexts and new knowledge and has particular significance for teacher-librarianship as it provides you with the opportunity to engage with contemporary texts that capture the experiences, knowledge, and desires of youth, which invariably impact on their cultural, economic, social, political, and ethical lives.

Aims

The aim of the unit is to provide:

1.opportunities to gain new knowledge in the substantive fields of youth culture and popular texts and their implications for curriculum, resourcing, library/ information services, and pedagogical practices;

2. opportunites to consider new contexts (informal and formal) through which learning can occur in the lives of young people as they engage with global commodities;

3. development of your capacities for critical thinking and independent research through a process of 'supported autonomy';

4. enhanced skills and knowledge development through narrative, genre and textual analysis and engagement with new and older media drawn from the 'cultural flows' of globalisation and popular culture.

Objectives

On successful completion of the unit, you should be able to:

1. Understand the role of popular culture in constructing textual and social worlds for youth, which are significant for identity formation and social relations; GC: A, B, D

2. Draw on a range of relevant theoretical tools and perspectives in order to examine popular cultural texts for youth in critical and creative ways; GC: A, B, C, D, E

3. Develop a critically informed and research-based understanding of selected cultural texts and practices relevant for youth; GC: A, B, C, D

4. Contextualise and apply the acquired knowledge and skills of the unit to a particular professional context; GC: A, B, C, D

5. Adopt a self-reflexive approach to pedagogical/professional practices with a view to transformation. GC: A, B, C, D, F

Content

This unit includes the following topics to encompass a broad array of both global and local cultural practices and texts (film, literature, television, music, computer games) suitable for children and young people from preschool to post-secondary.

Topics cover:

1. key concepts, issues, and emerging trends relevant to popular culture and youth;

2. theoretical and conceptual tools for applying to the analysis of texts; and

3. self-reflexive activities to enhance existing knowledge, skills and learning.

Your learning will be enhanced by weekly reading as specified in the unit materials, and through online forums and contributions with your colleagues and lecturer.