Teacher Reflexivity When Using Pop Culture in the Classroom

The purpose of the research was to explore what teacher reflexivity looks like when considering pop culture texts for classroom use or planning media education lessons. We build on Margaret Archer’s work, defining reflexivity as ongoing inner dialogue that precedes, attends, and reflects upon our actions. We theorize reflexive interrogation across five key dimensions: personal, emotional, analytical, political, and ethical. We discuss the types of questions teachers might ask themselves to hone their sensitivity in these areas and develop particular habits of thinking and acting. We then illustrate how these five domains of potential learning, in turn, can inform teaching strategies, using stories from our multiple case-study research into teaching media literacy for social justice.