A case for including popular culture in literacy education for young adults with Down syndrome.

Moni, Karen B. ; Jobling, Anne

Introduction

Recently there has been much written in support of the assertion that the study of popular culture in literacy classrooms is important (e.g., Duncan-Andrade, 2004; Livingstone, 2002, Marsh & Millard, 2000). The basis for including popular culture has been first, the recognition that a sole focus on book-based print literacy is no longer adequate in a constantly changing media mediated society (Luke, 2002; Evans, 2005), and second, the increasing awareness of the important role that popular culture plays in young adults' lives outside of the classroom (Alvermann & Hagood, 2000; Alvermann, Moon & Hagood, 1999). However, despite its prominence in students' lives, the inclusion of popular culture in literacy curricula has been challenging and characterised by an absence of support from education systems and teachers (Feree, 2001; Fisherkeller, 2002; Hart as cited in Marsh, 2005). For some teachers, popular culture has no place in the 'work' of the classroom (Lambirth, 2003; Marsh, 2006; Nixon, 2002), and even beginning teachers who are often the closest to their students in age may feel out of touch with their students' interests (Callahan & Low, 2004; Williams, 2005). Furthermore, popular culture is constructed as somehow 'dangerous' (Davies, Buckingham & Kelley, 2000; Fisherkeller, 2002), or trivial and manipulative (Kenway & Bullen, 2001), and thus young adults need to be protected from its pernicious influence.

Although the specific role of popular culture and its positioning in literacy education remains contentious, English syllabus documents in Australia acknowledge that popular culture texts should be included as part of the English curriculum (Misson, 2004). However, the issue of the inclusion of popular culture in literacy education programs for young adults with intellectual disabilities such as Down Syndrome has either been marginalised or ignored. There are several reasons for this marginalisation.

First, until recently, the continuation of literacy education beyond the early years of high school and into the post-compulsory years for these young adults has not been a high priority due to low community expectations for their achievement and limited opportunities for them to continue their education in post-compulsory and post-school settings (Bochner, Outhred, & Pieterse, 2001; Katims, 2000). This is despite the growing body of research that suggests that these young adults continue to learn in adolescence and beyond, and that their literacy skills can be improved with reported gains across all literacy domains (Chapman, 1999; Lloyd, 2006; Jobling, 2006; Moni & Jobling, 2001; Morgan, 2005).

Second, historically, across both regular and special school placements for individuals with Down syndrome, the traditional focus of education has been on vocational training with instruction being directed towards functional literacy and community participation (Katims, 2000; Kazemak, 1985). However, policies of inclusion mean that although many teachers believe that withdrawal support or a separate literacy program is more effective than inclusion for these learners (Buell, Hallam, & Gamel-Mccormick, 1999), most spend much of their school day in regular classrooms (Bayetto, 2002; Henning & Mitchell, 2002). Thus, teachers in high schools are increasingly facing the challenges of teaching students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in their regular classrooms although they may feel unsure about how to teach these young adults, what should be included in literacy programs, and how literacy should be taught (Moni, 2006; Jobling & Moni, 2004). These issues are of increasing relevance in the post-compulsory years of schooling as individuals with intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome often remain in school beyond the age of 17 years, and can be older than their peers. However, there has been limited attention paid to considering what might be appropriate in terms of considering their literacy education in these years and beyond.

Third, the lives of these and other young adults with intellectual disabilities have changed. Increasing opportunities for independent and community living, and more challenging life events make the need to develop social support networks stronger particularly as individuals progress into adulthood when family ties may not be as strong (Jobling, Moni and Nolan, 2000). Thus, we argue that there is increasing recognition of the need to adopt a broader definition of literacy in relation to the education of these young adults (Moni & Jobling, 2000, 2001; Morgan, Moni & Jobling, 2006; van Kraayenoord, Moni, Jobling & Ziebarth, 2002).

Using evidence from our work with young adults (aged 18-22) with Down syndrome in the Latch-On program, we demonstrate that these young adults access popular culture in similar ways, and for the same reasons as their peers. This suggests that teaching with and through popular culture in literacy programs for these young adults may be significant given the role it plays in their daily lives.

We also provide examples of specific popular culture texts, teaching strategies and approaches to investigating popular culture that teachers may already use in their senior English and literacy classrooms that may be effective and motivating for students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome.

The Latch-On program

Latch-On (Literacy and Technology-Hands On, Latch-On) is a post-school literacy program for young adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (predominantly Down Syndrome) which was established at the University of Queensland in 1998 (Moni & Jobling, 2000). The young adults attend the program two full days a week for two years. The sequence of modules and activities in the program are framed around a multi-literacies approach that recognises that learners need to engage with print, oral and multi-media texts, in a wide range of contexts, for different purposes in order to understand the world in which they live. The program is based on four resource modules that are taught as a four semester program. The modules are: Semester 1: Starting a journey of self-discovery; Semester 2: Beyond the self and into the community; Semester 3: Reaching out into the world; Semester 4: Taking on the world.

Since the program began, we have been collecting evidence of the engagement of our young adult students with popular culture. For the purposes of this article, Xu's (2005) general definition of popular culture will be adopted as including, but not limited to "popular music, books and magazines, movies, TV, Internet/computer video games, audio recording and commercial advertising" (Xu, 2005, p. 722).

As part of our data collection, we interviewed eight young adults with Down syndrome who had graduated from the Latch-On literacy program about their engagement with popular culture. These young adults were invited back to the university and were interviewed in two focus groups. In addition, we surveyed 14 Latch-On participants about their TV watching habits and collected examples of their writing created during Latch-On activities that illustrated their engagement with popular culture in different ways.

These 22 young adults were aged between 18 years, 2 months and 22 years of age. All of them had Down syndrome associated with mild to moderate intellectual disability. Ten of the twenty two young adults had attended special schools. Two had attended high schools until Year 10 when they transferred into a Special Education Unit. The remainder had attended high schools where they had received a range of support services. Results of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (Dunn & Dunn, 1981) for these young adults indicated a range of expressive language sores from 4 years, 2 months to 13 years, 5 months. Their reading ages, as determined by the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability--3rd edition (Neale, 1999), ranged from 6 years, 8 months to more than 12 years, 6 months for rate, 6 years to 11 years, 2 months for accuracy, and 5 years, 6 months to 10 years, 9 months for comprehension.

In the next part of the article, we discuss popular culture preferences and the levels of engagement of this small sample of young adults with Down syndrome to make a case for the inclusion of popular culture texts in literacy education programs for these learners. In the final part of the article, we provide some examples of the kinds of learning activities based on popular culture that we have found to be effective in a classroom of young adult learners with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities.

The popularity of television

It was evident from the 22 young adults we surveyed and interviewed that they had independent and frequent access to popular culture, particularly TV and videos:

R: Do you have a video player at home?

Beth: I've got one at my house and one at the centre (the supported accommodation where Beth lived independently during the week).

R: Lisa, how many TV's do you have at home?

Lisa: I've got one in my room.

Television plays a major role in the lives and leisure practices of young people (Davies & Dickinson, 2004; Nixon, 2002). There is research evidence to indicate that this is also true for young adults with Down syndrome. For example, in a study conducted by Jobling, Cuskelly and Rutherford (2006), which asked young adults and their siblings (who were either two years older or two years younger) to recall their daily TV viewing, it was reported that the young adults with Down syndrome watched almost twice as much TV as their siblings (3.5 hours as opposed to 1.45 hours) with a significant proportion of viewing alone. However, while this figure appears high, a more appropriate comparison is with figures reported for teenagers' and young adults' average daily television viewing in metropolitan areas in Australia. This comparison shows that the amount of time watching TV spent by young adults with intellectual disabilities is closer to that of teens in the 13-17 years age group who were watching 2hrs 20 mins daily, and young adults in the 16-24 years age group were watching 2 hr and 4 mins daily (Sternberg, 2005).

Table 1 reports the data gathered from the survey of 14 young adults who were attending the Latch-On literacy program. Eight of the 14 young adults surveyed, indicated they had more than one television set in their homes, with three of the young adults reporting that they had their own TVs in their bedrooms. For 11 of the young adults, watching TV was a social activity that took place in a shared, public space in the home (lounge or family room), with only three reporting that they watched TV alone in their bedrooms. Nine of the young adults perceived that they were making the decisions about what they and the family watched. In terms of the range of programs watched, these young adults listed 30 different favourite programs with the categories of Soap operas and Comedy/cartoons being the most popular type of program.

More specific information was then obtained from one male and one female student who attended Latch-On. These two young adults, with the assistance of the authors, kept a diary of their TV watching over 1 week.

Felicity's (1) TV watching over 1 week

Felicity was 20 years of age at the time of data collection, and Table 2 shows her TV watching diary kept over one week. In this diary, Felicity reported both the free -to-air and cable TV she watched during the week. The programs listed were current at the time of data collection. The table shows that on free-to-air TV Felicity watched 29 different programs in six general categories of which the most popular was Information/Lifestyle (9) followed by Comedy/Cartoons (6). The number of Drama programs (4), Soap operas (3) and Sports (3) were similar, while she watched Reality TV programs (2) and News/current affairs (1) on few occasions. Her patterns of watching TV on cable also varied. During the week, Felicity watched 27 different programs in 8 categories. Of these categories, Sport was the most frequently watched type of program (9) followed by Comedy/cartoons (7), Children's programs (4) and Drama (4). Felicity also reported watching two movies, and one each of a celebrity and Reality TV program.

Ian's TV watching over 1 week

Table 3 shows Ian's TV watching diary kept over one week. At the time of keeping the diary Ian was 22 years of age. In his diary, he has reported both the free -to-air and cable TV he watched during this week. The programs listed were current at the time of data collection. The table shows that on free-to-air, Ian watched nine different programs in four general categories of which the most popular was Drama (4) followed by Comedy/cartoons (2) and one each of Special Event program and a Lifestyle show. His choice of viewing on cable also varied but in some instances Ian was watching one program on free-to-air and then repeats on cable, for example, of X-Files and Law and Order. During the week, Ian watched 15 different programs in five categories. Of these categories, Sport was the most frequently watched type of program.

The data from the surveys, interviews and the two TV diaries, although collected from a small group of young adults (n=22), reveal that their TV viewing is similar to that of teenagers and young adults in the general population. For example, the two most popular categories identified here support the findings of other studies that have reported that these are also the favourites of 14-24 year olds in general (Davies & Dickinson, 2004; Sternberg, 2005). Sternberg (2005), for example, cites data from 2004 revealing that the top 10 TV programs in Australia for adolescents and young adults aged from 14-24 included Reality TV as the favourite type followed by Comedy/cartoons, Soap operas, Drama and Lifestyle programs. These popular forms of entertainment are often studied in mainstream English classes in high schools across all year levels, and teaching suggestions and materials related to them are widely available (see e.g., Jetnikoff, 2006; Pickering & Painter, 2005; Turnbull, 2005). These categories of program resonate closely with the preferences reported by the young adults with Down syndrome we surveyed and interviewed, and given the amount of time these young adults spend watching TV, it would seem equally important that they also have opportunities to study TV programs.

Diverse interests

In understanding how these young adults with Down syndrome engage with popular culture, it is important to recognise that, similar to others, who are not "mindless dupes" in their interactions with popular culture, (Doecke & MClenaghan, 1998, p. 47) these young adults also make deliberate choices about what they value and how they navigate through popular culture. The comments of the Latch-On students reveal that while they are immersed in popular culture, they express distinct preferences and are able to give reasons for their choices:

R: Do you buy any magazines?

Beth: I buy them myself, all the time.

R: So what's good about a magazine?

Beth: It's good to know what's happening in the TV shows you are watching and catch up on the gossip.

Furthermore, these young people can distinguish between what happens on the screen and the actors who portray particular characters. For example, below are two texts written by Rob and Caroline about the movie Gladiator and the popular TV drama series All Saints.

 My favourite Movie star

 M favourite movie star is Russell Crowe. He was born in New
 Zealand. He has blue eyes and brown hair. In the movie
 [Gladiator] he is wearing armour. The character he plays is
 called Maximus. If I met him, I would ask--Will you teach me to
 swordfight? How did you feel when you fought in the colosseum? Why
 did you have to wear armour? (Rob)

 All Saints

 My favourite TV show is All Saints. It is on Channel 7. It is on
 Tuesday night at 8.30 pm ... All Saints is about sick people in
 hospital and the doctors and nurses who look after them. Terry
 Sullivan is my favourite character. I give it five stars. I like it
 because the show has lots of action and they are good actors.
 (Caroline)

The young adults with Down syndrome we spoke to talked about their popular culture interests across all mediums. For example, the excerpts below reveal that they buy videos, magazines, CDs, they go to the movies and search the internet for their favourite actors' web pages and music stars.

Ben: I've got 7 Human Nature albums and I'm getting my 8th one.

Julie: I know Backstreet Boys, Human Nature and So Fresh CD.

Ben: I see a CD; I just buy it and listen to it.

R: Do any of you have your own videos?

Ben: Yes, I do. I've got Liar Liar.

Mandy: I've got millions of videos. I watch them in the family room.

R: Julie, have you got a video? What do you watch?

Julie: Home Alone 2.

Ben: I watch Coyote Ugly, World is not Enough, Friends, Liar Liar and Moulin Rouge.

Beth: I listen to my CDs all the time.

Julie: I listen on the ferry and train and in bed.

These are interests, and resources that can be used to enhance their understandings of, and engagement with a broad range of texts.

The important consideration is not that young adults are consuming more or less popular culture than their peers. Nor is it about their engagement with genres that others in the community enjoy, or conversely do not find value in, or that their preferences in popular culture are somehow 'limited' or 'bad' or 'dated'. As Faulkner (2003) argues, the 'quality' of popular culture texts as determined by teachers (or others in the community) is not the point. The important consideration is the value young adults themselves place on such texts, and how they use them for their own purposes. This is explored in the next section of the article with regard to these young adults with Down syndrome.

Constructing identities

In the past identity was tied to class differences, a stable future in terms of work and family. These are now seen as weakening with peers, the media and social groups as exerting stronger influences (Hill & Tisdall, 1997). For young adults in general, identity is created from outside in, and constructions of identity are linked to the consumption of goods, sports, ethnic and cultural affiliation, and peer groups (Bean & Moni, 2003). In terms of the role of popular culture in the construction of identity, Davies, Buckingham and Kelley (2000) have argued that when adolescents express preferences for watching particular kinds of TV program, for example, they are engaged in 'identity work' calibrating their identities and using the public discourses of television to construct their identities as 'adult' or 'cool'. For example, in a poem called 'I wish', Chloe, a young adult with Down syndrome, wrote

 I wish I could be Buffy in the movies
 I wish I could have been Sandy in Grease
 I wish John Travolta was my boyfriend
 I wish I could be a dancer.

She ended her poem with a comment--"I had a dream I was wearing a beautiful dress, it was great and John Travolta was dancing with me".

Another student, Rob, was asked to give a speech about himself at a local conference. He included information about his family, his favourite rugby league football club, the Brisbane Broncos, and his favourite hobby, drag-racing. However, as the following excerpts reveal, he also used popular culture to construct his identity:

 My pride of joy [sic] is listening to the Spice Girls and finding
 out about them. I'd really like to be DJ, and I really want to see,
 and I really want to meet the Spice Girls in person. I have a big
 collection of magazines and newspaper cuttings all about the Spice
 Girls. I am a good dancer. I also like dancing to the music of the
 Spice Girls with my girlfriend ...

 I like all different types of music. I like Elvis Presley. I
 like him because I like his voice, the way he moves and his music.
 I also like to dance like him. I also like The Beatles. They are my
 greatest favourite. Their style is the greatest. I like Grease and
 I am going to be in a production of Grease at the end of the year.
 I am going to try for the part of Danny. ...

 I use the web to look for news on every site. I found websites
 about music that I like and movies on different pages. ... My
 friend and I search the Web for the movie Titanic and also Kate
 Winslett.

Many of the programs these young adults watch TV programs that deal with issues of that are pertinent to their lives (Davies & Dickinson, 2004). For another student who was often hospitalised because of a chronic physical condition, her connection to the characters of a favourite show was very personal:

R: Tell me about All Saints

Dana: I like the nurses. Kate's my favourite.

R: Why?

Dana: I'd like her to look after me

If these young adults are not encouraged to engage critically with these popular culture texts, opportunities are limited for them to understand how their identities may be shaped by popular culture and the media (Gainer, 2007). In this way, literacy programs for young adults with intellectual disabilities that do not, in some way, acknowledge the role of this kind of identity building, and identification with characters and events in TV shows and movies, are limited in their ability to support these young adults in trying to develop a sense of belonging and connection with their peers who do not have intellectual disabilities (Ashman, 2005).

The pleasure factor

The pleasure that students take in popular culture is often cited as important grounds for using popular culture texts in literacy programs (Callahan & Low, 2004; Kenway and Bullen, 2001; Williams, 2005), and it is evident that the young adults we have worked derived great pleasure from their popular culture choices.

Mandy: It's Shrek. It's very good, Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy and a donkey. He's very funny.

R: What did you like about Shrek?

Mandy: Shrek was the ugly ogre.

R: Have you seen Shrek, Julie?

Julie: Yes I did. I saw it at the movies. I like Shrek.

Mandy: Lord Farquhar, He's a mean dude.

R: What do you like about your favourite TV programs?

Beth: I still love Home & Away. For 14 years I have been watching it, and I am watching it again. I watch Home & Away. It's my favourite program. I watch Neighbours, Friends and Always Greener, Day of our Lives and Passions (during the day), All Saints, Blue Heelers. I watch Dawson's Creek, but it's not on any more. I watch Sabrina, ER, Seventh Heaven, Dharma and Greg, Will and Grace and videos.

Beth's choices, in particular, reveal that she has enjoyed a range of programs and could talk about them confidently. Williams (2003; 2005) argues that students like Beth, who have hours of experience in watching programs, many of which are series, develop competence and control when watching TV and can talk about programs with confidence and pleasure. This confidence and competence are strengths that need to be drawn on in literacy education for young adults with Down syndrome who, because of their difficulties with traditional print-based literacies, have often been characterised by what they cannot do, rather than by what they can (O'Brien, 2003). Pleasure has not been a priority of the basic literacy courses (that are often the only courses) offered to adolescents with intellectual disabilities (Williams, 2005). Courses have primarily focused on developing skills for employment, and the development of a broader range of literacy skills, such as literacy for recreation that may enhance quality of life, has been neglected (Ashman & Suttie, 1995; Hedrick, Katims & Carr, 1999).

Building social and cultural capital

Popular culture contributes to students' socialising at school (Fisherkeller, 2002) in that teenagers watch TV to develop common frames of reference through which they can socialise (Davies & Dickinson, 2004). Duff (2002) writing about ESL students and their difficulties in making friends comments on how young adults discuss popular culture in terms of establishing in-group membership, and the pervasiveness of intertextual references to popular culture in classroom discussions. Knowing about certain musicians, movies, actors and watching TV programs is important cultural capital (Marsh & Millard, 2000). Those students without these referents have difficulty in being included in new social groups. For example, students moving from special school environments to inclusive classrooms may lack social and cultural capital of this form. The young adults that we spoke to had limited opportunities to talk to others about what they saw on TV. Conversations were limited to family members, or did not take place at all, either because they watched TV alone, or did not share the same interests as family members.

R: Where do you watch TV?

Mandy: I watch in the family room by myself. I watch Channel 10, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Nanny and at night I watch The Bill.

Ben: It's in my room. I watch by myself. I watch Neighbours, Home & Away and M.A.S.H.

R: Who do you talk with about TV at home? If you are watching Home & Away, who do you talk to?

Beth: My sisters watch another show and I hate it. I don't talk to them about Home & Away.

R: Who do you watch videos with?

Beth: By myself, I choose the videos.

However, during a daily oral language activity in the Latch-On literacy program, we found that the most popular topics for sharing were related to popular culture. Hot Seat was a voluntary activity that occurred at the start of every day in which the young adults shared their experiences with their classmates (Moni & Jobling, 2000). Over a period of 16 weeks (one semester), all of the young adults who were attending Latch-On at the time, participated in Hot Seat. Fifty-eight Hot Seat sessions were recorded and popular culture featured in 25 of these sessions. Students spoke about 143 different topics in 12 categories. The three most popular categories were popular culture (35 topics), special events, including birthdays (22 topics), and literacy activities, for example, reading a self-composed written text to the group (18 topics). This evidence suggests that these young people have the referents and similar cultural capital as their peers, and that when they are given opportunities to talk about their interests, and share their knowledge about popular culture in educational settings, they are able to do so.

Motivation and engagement for literacy

Much of the literature on popular culture in the literacy curriculum has focused on the potential for using popular culture texts with students with learning difficulties, for students at-risk, and for students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds (Forell, 2006; Lountain & Cormack, 2003; Marsh & Millard, 2000). The potential is attributed to the connections that can be made between these students' out-of-school literacy practices and the expertise they have developed in popular culture and the types of literacies required in schools (Evans, 2004; Morell, 2002). A further connection is that motivation and engagement are enhanced when these, often resistant learners, are allowed to bring their popular culture into the classroom (Bitz, 2004; Feree, 2001; Leard & Lashua, 2006).

At Latch-On the young adults with Down syndrome were highly motivated to talk, read, and write about popular culture. Each month they were asked to identify their favourite piece of writing and to indicate topics that they would like to write about during the following month. Favourite pieces of writing included writing about The Lion King, movies, the Oscars, Wesley Snipes, favourite movie stars, The Backstreet Boys, Buffy, the Spice Girls, The Mummy Returns. Topics for future writing included Michael Jackson, Human Nature, Charlie's Angels, sport on Foxtel, Angel, car magazines, and See Spot Run. They also wanted to learn how to use the internet more effectively to search for information about their favourite TV shows, movie stars and singers.

The challenge for literacy educators lies in how to incorporate popular culture into a balanced literacy program that meets the needs of older adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome and builds on their interests and competence in popular culture to develop their abilities to engage with a broad a range of texts. As learners, young adults with Down syndrome need pleasurable repetition and practice in the context of meaningful activities, genuine outcomes for their learning and texts that meet both their literacy needs and interests (Katims, 2000). Using popular culture texts as part of a balanced literacy program allows teachers to draw on their expert knowledge, to assist in achieving success and makes literacy activities more relevant to these learners' lives.

Incorporating popular culture into literacy programs

In this section, based on our experiences with the Latch-On program, we provide specific examples of how popular culture can be integrated effectively in balanced literacy programs for young adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities such as Down syndrome.

First, popular culture texts can be used to motivate these learners. For example, they can expand their knowledge of different kinds of texts through reading and writing texts in a range of genres where popular culture is the content, for example, biographies of movie stars, singers, scripts of scenes for TV shows and advertisements, constructing interviews with their favourite movie stars, singers, TV stars etc, and then videotaping these, creating their own PowerPoint presentations and websites for sharing with others.

Second, many students with Down syndrome are withdrawn from regular high school classroom activities during English. However, media and film studies in English provide opportunities for these students to remain in the classroom and to participate in the same kinds of activities as their peers with differentiated instruction and well-scaffolded activities. For example, we have undertaken studies of the movie Titanic where the participants in Latch-On were able to study, the plot, characters and themes. A group of pre-service English teachers studied Clueless with the participants in Latch-On (see Jobling and Moni (2004) for the context of this study), where the young adults explored representations of adolescence in the movie and in the marketing of the movie, language features and the relationships among the characters. They completed imaginative re-creations of scenes and re-wrote others and also produced a review of the movie.

Third, popular culture texts can also provide a way into investigating a broader range of texts. For example, we used the participants' familiarity with the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team, and enjoyment of the Footy Show (Channel 9) to introduce them to documentaries /biographies through the Australian Story (ABC) program on the coach Wayne Bennett. In addition, using films and TV versions of novels can support these learners and allow them to participate in activities based on studying novels and drama. Conversely, as Helen Nixon (2002) points out, many of the popular TV series for young adults such as Home and Away, Neighbours, The Simpsons, and Buffy, have developed novels, graphic novels, and websites which provide ample reading material and opportunities for a range of speaking, reading and writing activities.

Finally, these young adults can be assisted to developing critical understanding of popular culture. For example, one of the teaching teams at Latch-On developed a unit investigating the meaning of fandom that focused on identifying the characteristics, behaviours, and fantasises of fans, as well as the kinds of texts that are produced for and by fans.

It should be noted that while we advocate teaching literacy through, with and by popular culture is motivating and indeed essential, for young adults with Down syndrome, we recognise that there are challenges in bringing these texts into literacy programs. Popular culture texts are everywhere, and these young adults buy them, view them, listen and play with them. However, when teaching with popular culture texts it is evident that there are limited written texts that are age, interest and skills appropriate for these young adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. For example, Ben, who liked movies and performers suited to adolescent and adult audiences, found that there were many texts about these performers that were easily available through magazines and the Internet where many of the sites had appealing graphics, however, he did not have sufficient literacy skills to read material once he had found it. An important consideration therefore, is the need to assist teachers to develop their expertise in adapting and modifying resources to develop meaningful activities which do not reduce engagement with popular culture to drill and skill exercises.

Conclusion

The aim of this article was to show that young adults with Down syndrome may be immersed in, and engaged with popular culture in similar ways to their peers without intellectual disabilities. To ignore this engagement when developing the literacy skills of these young adults, is to do these learners a disservice socially, and in terms of their identity construction by not building on knowledge and competence that makes them more similar to their peers than different. This lack of engagement with popular culture in literacy programs has the potential to further disenfranchise an already marginalised group of young adults from a pleasurable, broad-based and relevant literacy education. At the very least, by not including popular culture texts in balanced literacy programs, we deny ourselves, as teachers, opportunities to create motivating and engaging learning activities around texts that these students enjoy and feel are important in their lives.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank other members of the Latch-On team, Jan Lloyd, Michelle Morgan, and Dr Louise Young for their contributions to teaching popular culture in the program.

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Karen B. Moni & Anne Jobling

University of Queensland

(1) All names are pseudonyms

Table 1. Latch-On Students' engagement with television.

Name Room TVs Who
 decides?

Fran Lounge 2 Fran

Rob Lounge 3 Rob

Oliver Lounge 1 Mum

Caroline Lounge 3 Mum
Ian Lounge 3 Ian
Kevin Bedroom 2 Kevin

Berenice Lounge 1 Mum &
 Dad
Will Bedroom 2 Will
Jeffrey Family 1 Dad
Ben Bedroom 2 Ben

Lucy Lounge with Mum 1 Lucy
 and sister

Julie Lounge 1 Mum, Dad
 and me
Harry Lounge with Mum 1 Harry

Leo On the couch with 2 Leo
 Mum and Dad

Name Favourite programs

Fran Changing rooms, Location,
 Location
Rob Extra, News at 6, Burkes
 Backyard
Oliver High Five, Play School,
 Neighbours
Caroline All Saints, Star ate
Ian Room for improvement, Stargate
Kevin Bold and the Beautiful, Blue
 Heelers
Berenice Jaws, Madeleine, Out of the Box

Will Videos, Shrek, soccer
Jeffrey Wrestling, the Bill, sport
Ben Home and Away, Neighbours,
 Full House
Lucy Brady Bunch, The Simpsons,
 Neighbours, Home and Away,
 Sabrina, Days of our Lives
Julie Home and Away, Neighbours

Harry Home and Away, The Simpsons,
 Batman, Friends, Veronicas
 Closet
Leo Home and Away, Neighbours,
 The Simpsons

Table 2. Felicity Watching TV

Daytime TV watched Midday movie, The Loony Tunes show, Bold and the
every day Beautiful, Jerry Springer, Beauty and the Beast
 Cable: Lifestyle Channel--Foxtel, Wrestling,
 Foxtel

Sunday The Simpsons, Changing Rooms, Location, Location,
 The Great South East
 Cable: Basketball, Tennis, soccer

Monday Animal Hospital, 7.30 Report, Malcolm in the
 Middle, Always Greener
 Cable: Cricket, Men in Black, Athletics, Cow and
 chicken (cartoon)

Tuesday Judging Amy, Frasier, Better Homes and Gardens,
 The Great Outdoors
 Cable: WWF kickboxing, just a Kid, Pokemon

Wed Just Shoot Me, rugby league, The Bold and the
 Beautiful, Night and Day
 Cable: 3rd Rock from the Sun, Baywatch Hawaii,
 The Nanny, Beverly Hills 9120

Thurs Law and Order, Getaway, Jerry Springer, Beauty
 and the Beast Cable: The Bill, The stand up
 comedy show, Parkinson, Seinfeld, Cops

Friday Rolf Harris Animal Hospital, Gardening Australia,
 Days of Our Lives, Home Improvement
 Cable: A Father's Choice, Double Bill, X-treme
 Teens, The Jazz Singer

Saturday Rugby League, Bowls, Netball, Seventh Heaven
 Cable: Boxing, WWF, soccer, lawn bowls

Table 3. Ian Watching TV

Daytime TV Cable: Wrestling X-Files, Bad Boys, Fox and Music channel
Sunday Everybody Loves Raymond, Afterburner
 Cable: Ruby Union, soccer, WWF
Monday X-Files, Law and Order, Friends
 Cable: Clueless, Fox sorts news
Tuesday The Bill
 Cable: WWF,
Wed Max Factor fashions, Blue Heelers
 Cable: WWF Raw, X-Files, Law and Order, Get Smart
Thurs Cable: The Bill, Parkinson, Frasier
Friday Burke's Backyard
 Cable: Double Bill, Rocket wars
Saturday Cable: WWF Raw