Postmodernism and Students Today

Taylor, Mark L. (2006). Meeting Generation NeXt: Today’s Postmodern College Student. In J. J. Hirschbuhl and D. Bishop (eds), Computers in Education, 12th ed. (pp. 112-126). Chicago, Illinois: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.

Responding to Textbook Unit One: Introduction

Summary
This article explores “Generation NeXt,” the current twenty-first century population of college-aged students, suggesting that better understanding these students will enable teachers to tailor instruction and increase Generation NeXt student success. Taylor uses postmodern literary theory to unpack the shifting, permeable and wide-ranging identity of this generation, drawing distinct parallels between the formation of identity, media and technology. Major changes in industry, commercialization and disintegration of the traditional “nuclear family” as well as an increased tendency toward American consumerism have all played heavy roles in shaping this generation of late adolescents. An increased emphasis on pluralism, multiculturalism and democratic values in education in the early 1990s influenced these students (elementary aged at the time), causing them to reject absolute truths and believe in multiple worldviews, a continuum of “right answers” and reliance on self-discovery rather than traditional “top-down” learning models. As such, many Generation NeXters have strong distaste for authority and engaging, encouraging and supporting such a diverse, creative and tech-savvy group of students poses a major problem for many educators today. Taylor concludes his article with a list of practical suggestions for educators today to help motivate and manage Generation NeXt students. Such suggestions include connecting classroom experiences to the real world, deemphasizing the authoritarian role of the instructor, inviting technology into the classroom frequently and encouraging the validity of multiple viewpoints in all classroom discussions and subjects.

Reaction
Taylor’s discussion of Generation NeXt students informs and confirms my own experience in the classroom. As a member of Generation NeXt myself, I embody a potential bridge for educators. I grew up with many of the same “wired” experiences as my tech-savvy students, but I also must strive to keep up with the ever-shifting field of technology, the importance of popular culture and media in teen life and the desire for constant multimedia entertainment of today’s students. Each time I enter a classroom, I am reminded at the constant social network that (wirelessly) unites students today. As class begins, I watch students hurry to switch off their cells, tuck their Ipods in their bags, and hide their videogames. Conversations about last night’s episode of Lost, what movies they’ll see this weekend, and what’s in at the local mall’s retail stores come to a quiet murmur as class officially starts. Ipods, myspace, facebook, blogging, instant messaging, text messaging, internet gaming, cell phones, television and popular films are just a few examples of how students today are constantly “wired” to popular culture. In a recent Newsweek survey, researchers found that 90% of college-age and high school kids are “connected” to some virtual social network for over 85% of their day. In the midst of this connectedness is seated popular culture. Popular films and television shows such as American Idol, Cribs and Grey’s Anatomy are buzzwords amongst many of these virtual conversations. Pop culture is a major ongoing conversation amongst high school students and serves as an already-existing network of communication. I see this as an opportunity for high school teachers. Rather than draw students into the classics, why not draw the classics toward pop culture? Why not merge these conversations?

I like the suggestions posed by Taylor. As a long-time advocate of Paolo Freire and his student-centered teaching philosophy, I agree strongly with Taylor’s suggested de-emphasis of the teacher as authoritarian and the emphasis of student-driven curricula punctuated with increased opportunities for interpersonal communication in the classroom. Emphasizing diverse viewpoints and emphasizing the upper echelons of Bloom’s taxonomy are essential aspects of any literature class that seeks textual understanding through critical inquiry and examination. Taylor’s article reinforces my own belief that that popular culture has a definite place in English courses. Artifacts of pop culture serve as advanced organizers for students, who can then connect new material (prominent and persistent themes in American literature) to their own experiences with literature (television, movies, blogging, music, etc). Once they see that songwriters, performers, directors, and photographers develop themes in the various forms of art that students already enjoy, discovering those themes (and, of course, others) in literature new to them seems suddenly not such a big leap. From my experience, popular culture has an important place in the English classroom, as an object worthy of study and as a means for students to access and study literature successfully. Through analyzing themes in television sitcoms, rhetorical devices in essays and advertisements, and psychology in contemporary film, students improve their skills in critical thinking and writing.

An important part of popular culture as a valid school subject is the increased role of technology in the classroom and the dissolution of the traditional textbook. If teachers today want to connect with Generation NeXt students, we have to be flexible in our idea of what counts as a “text”. In addition to literature, poetry, photography and architecture, such nontraditional texts as film, television, hypertexts, web pages, graphic novels and music need to be incorporated into classroom reading. Pop culture and technological texts have a variety of attributes that make them particularly useful as educational tools. They are accessible, they tell us something about everyday life and they are almost inevitably postmodern. Taylor suggests that teachers need to increase student “ownership” of the curricula, activities and learning. Pop culture and technological texts are intensely personal for many Generation NeXt students. Referring again to Freire and his argument for using familiar material to promote learning. Popular culture and technological texts are genres about which students are highly conscious and may have many well-formed opinions. Their use in education, therefore, increases the probability that students will feel empowered to comment, that they will have something intelligent to say, and that they will feel gratified (and that much more empowered) at having contributed something useful to a real conversation.

It is generally accepted that teachers value the merit of literacy and community. Increasing the writing practices and habits of literacy both in the classroom and in other aspects of students’ lives can tap into students’ postmodern and collective identities and making space for such “knowledge” and discovery within the classroom. I believe that Taylor opens up an important conversation and rightly highlights the connection between today’s secondary/post-secondary student and postmodernism. Taking his argument one step further, I suggest that a successful Generation NeXt classroom must connect to students and their existing social networks. Because these networks are formed through widespread student familiarity with popular culture and technology, the two genres serve as major resources for teaching approaches and should take a front-row seat in the (post) modern classroom.