ABSTRACT
This chapter considers informal education about Islam and Muslims in US society: what is taught and learned in the public sphere outside the field of education, of schools and universities. There is another important way that people learn about social issues and diversity in our society today apart from in school settings, however, particularly regarding controversial issues that teachers can be nervous to discuss, such as religion and politics: through the mass media. Indeed, teachers may also learn about contemporary political issues, as students and the general public do, through mass media and popular culture. The chapter elaborates two major approaches to understanding the educational influence of media and popular culture, relating them to the major perspectives on multicultural education. Assimilationist educational groups such as the Fordham Institute and the Common Core State Standards Initiative promote media literacy in terms of evaluating credibility and accuracy of sources.
