Promises and problems of teaching with popular culture: A linguistic ethnographic analysis of discourse genre mixing in a literacy lesson

This article problematises a broad consensus in favour of importing popular culture into classrooms as a means of engaging pupils, transforming interactional norms and facilitating pupil understanding. A literacy lesson in which an English primary school teacher invoked the televised talent show, X-factor, in organising the class to provide feedback on pupil writing, was video-recorded and subjected to detailed linguistic ethnographic analyses. The ways in which teacher and pupils drew upon and managed the possibilities and constraints posed by the mixing of X-factor and classroom feedback discourse genres are investigated. While the incorporation of X-factor led to heightened pupil involvement and significant changes in classroom interactional patterns, its overall effect on opportunities for pupil learning was mixed. The article offers a conceptual framework for contrasting discourse genres and for examining the realisation of these genres in classroom interaction.