Contesting Culture

In this closing article, Cameron McCarthy, Michael Giardina, Susan Harewood, and Jin-Kyung Park draw on the preceding articles of this Special Issue to develop the argument that educators need to pay special attention to developments associated with human immigration, cultural globalization, and the rapid migration of cultural and economic capital and electronically mediated images. In the plurality of social and cultural sites of practice reflected in these articles, McCarthy et al. find implications for pedagogical practice and the educational preparation of school youth. They specifically address questions concerning the reproduction of culture, identity, and community as they relate to contemporary educational debates. Given this range of cultural practices, how should we address the topic of culture and identity in the organization of school knowledge? McCarthy et al. suggest that pedagogical interventions that privilege popular culture as a site of legitimate critique can open up new avenues of exploration and investigation to a radical, progressive democracy premised on the basic values of love, care, and equality for all humanity.
In this review article, the authors proposed that educators should pay attention to issues such as human immigration, globalization, electronic media, and cultural and economic capital and their implications for school youth. They argued that questions about the reproduction of culture, identity, and community are central to contemporary educational debates. The authors suggested the legitimate critique of popular culture in classroom instruction could open up new ways for students to explore and evaluate the values of universal love, care, and equality embedded in progressive democracy.