Pop Culture as a Social Literacy Practice

Popular culture is an important aspect of literacy development for young children as it saturates many texts and informs children about what it means to be a person in today’s world (Ivanschkevich, 2009). While many may agree that children’s popular culture is heavily intertwined with commercialism and capitalistic aims, it has the power and capacity to facilitate children’s literacy practices in the early years. This literature review aims to highlight the significance of pop culture as a social literacy practice by first looking at the infusion of popular culture across texts; children’s utilisation of, and engagement, with popular culture; and finally, the impact of including children’s pop culture as a social literacy practice.