Popular Culture In Early Childhood Education Essay

Introduction Popular culture is a necessity nowadays because if people do not follow the trends in the society, they might be marginalized from the mainstream culture and it would be difficult for them to reconnect with others. Although there is no accurate definition to describe what popular culture is, it is seen as a form of communication that has a connection with the mainstream culture which subdivides into mass culture and folklore and folk culture (Buhmann, Hellmueller, & Bosshart, 2015). Similarly, in the field of early childhood education, it is no doubt that popular culture exists in children’s lives and they experience it through everyday interactions. With this in mind, sometimes the existence of popular culture makes people wonder …show more content…
Moreover, advertisements and marketers tend to exaggerate elements in popular culture that lead people to find it unacceptable to welcome the presence of popular culture in early childhood literacy (Dunn, Niens, & McMillan, 2014). In spite of its negativity, it is claimed that popular culture should be inclusive as a part of the educational curriculum because its relation to multimodality in the culture is valuable for children’s learning (Dickie, & Shuker, 2014; Parry, 2014; Urbach, & Eckhoff, 2012). It is also described as a vehicle toward “children’s creative and cognitive endeavor” (Urbach, & Eckhoff, 2012). With the expression of seeing popular culture as a vehicle toward literacy, it not only introduces the idea of popular culture to children but also provides opportunities to them in order to create their personal meaningful stories (Urbach, & Eckhoff, 2012). Likewise, popular culture is viewed as a place where children build their theories while deepening their critical thinking (Urbach, & Eckhoff, 2012). Meanwhile, the development of cognition in popular culture extends understandings to children and strengthens children’s thoughts of diverse