Cultural capital and popular culture in Year 11 Standard English: Fostering student choice and synthesis

Hip Hop Based Pedagogy is a significant movement in the United States that uses hip hop texts not as 'gimmicks to entice students to be compliant and cooperate' but for their expression of 'enduring and comprehensive themes' (Ladson-Billings, 2009, p. ix). Texts that draw on students' popular cultures can be used in a manner that makes 'explicit connections between students' everyday knowledge and the demands of subject-matter learning' (Lee, Spencer and Harpalani, 2003, p. 7). Texts that draw on students' cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986) were integrated into a Year 11 Standard English Area of Study in a comprehensive public high school in a low socio-economic area in NSW in an attempt to improve students' skills in independently selecting and analysing texts of their own choosing and in synthesising prescribed and related texts. The strategies used with Eminem's song Stan in particular were found to improve students' engagement, independent inquiry and the quality of their written responses.