5. Conclusion
5.4. Educational Implication
I already assumed, before the interview, that the students would have a lot to say as I know from teaching for 17 years, that they amaze me time and again by their very mature reflections. Nevertheless, I still wanted to see to what extent they were able to reflect, and I partly also wanted to draw attention to and contradict the idea that young people do not reflect on such issues or are incapable of it because of their young age. In comparison, I think I was a lot more naïve at the age of 18.
I hope the participants will experience that they have benefitted from participating in this study, in that they have become more conscious of how power works, conscious of how they use their own power, and perhaps they will not be so easily manipulated in the future. If this is the case, which it seems to be judging from the answers from both the questionnaires and the interview, then this study ultimately shows how the subject English may be used as a means to meet both culture and language aims and the aims of the Core Curriculum as well.
Through interviews and questionnaires I have studied how a group of young upper secondary school students relate to questions about power, GOT, and to the use of popular culture on troubling topics in the classroom. Though popular culture may not have the strongest foothold in Norwegian classrooms, is it right to uphold this bias in favour of the classics when popular culture is exactly the kind of culture which is mostly consumed by our students?
I will argue that popular culture should be given a heightened status exactly because of its influence on our youth, and thus be made useful to us in our teaching. This is even pointed out by the group of students I have interviewed for the study: the fact that so many watch and discuss this is a strong argument for its position in the classroom — and in no other subject is this as relevant as it is for English, as most of the popular culture consumed by youth today is
produced in an English-speaking context. The challenge, however, is obviously the risk we run of ruining the students’ favourite literature through analysis. There is a fine balance between enhancing the joy of reading by enabling the students to see beyond the surface of what they read, and plucking it to pieces.
Nevertheless, through these methods, the interview and questionnaires, I can draw two very clear conclusions: the participants heartily welcome popular culture into their classrooms, and they are rather conscious of the use of power, once they have been asked to look into the matter. Several of the students admitted to not having given this a thought before, but were still surprisingly good at seeing when and to what purpose power was used in GOT.
This makes me suppose that the use of power is registered subconsciously and will determine how we act and behave around each other, but that the game itself is not consciously reflected on or even registered in our daily lives. Neither do I think that it is common to reflect on what gives someone power. It is perhaps easier to notice when we exercise power over others, when we plan how we are going to achieve something, or when we very clearly are subjected to someone else’s extensive power use. It seems like the more subtle types of power use are easily overlooked.
This is where popular culture enters the picture, because if we look to the Core Curriculum, which has as its ultimate aim to educate a whole and complete human, and teach youth about democracy and equality, a series like GOT may serve as a valuable tool. The series may be used to show students how power may be exercised in a morally sound manner, and also how the students can avoid being manipulated and exploited by others. Not all students are highly motivated for Hamlet or Animal Farm, but a popular series like GOT could be an invaluable resource for a teacher who struggles to make the classroom a place which matters. Popular culture may even contribute to reading fluency and to the widening of perspectives, and may, in the long run, actually make the classics more palatable to unmotivated students. If I am to believe the participants of my study, popular culture is a goldmine ready to be explored.
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