Having addressed some of the theoretical foundations of education, both from within the familiar modernist paradigm – though with some ground given to the logic of postmodernity – and also from within a Foucault-inspired governmental approach, the next part examines some of the cultural issues, concerns and contexts impacting upon contemporary education. While there is no direct, correlative link between the culture of a society, and the kind of schools it contains – where the latter is simply a function of the former – it would be a mistake to think that there are not important connections between the two. Indeed, a better approach might be to not consider them as discrete entities at all.

Chapter 7 The media addresses the relationship between education and the news media. It questions the assertions that ‘media studies’ is not a serious subject, and doesn't belong in the school curriculum; that media messages need an education to decode properly; and that the media is not responsible for whipping up moral panics, whether to further specific political ends, or to simply sell papers and gain viewers.

Chapter 8 Popular culture investigates recent concerns over the increasing presence of popular culture in the classroom. It questions the common view that all popular culture is rubbish, unlike ‘high culture’; that teachers need to be popular culture experts if they are going to connect with their students; and that the classroom is no place for popular culture, as it has absolutely no educational value.