{"id":24009,"date":"2026-05-24T17:29:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T21:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=24009"},"modified":"2026-05-24T17:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T21:29:22","slug":"yippy-ki-yay-morphin-culture-teaching-holiday-traditions-and-cultural-change-using-die-hard","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/event\/yippy-ki-yay-morphin-culture-teaching-holiday-traditions-and-cultural-change-using-die-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Yippy-Ki-Yay, Morphin\u2019 Culture!: Teaching Holiday Traditions and Cultural Change Using Die Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/h4>\n

The \u201cDie Hard as a Christmas movie\u201d debate offers an entry point for engaging students in learning about culture and its interpretation. [JE1.1]As classroom practice shifts toward an emphasis on human geography and the use of geo-literacy skills, understanding how to engage students with complexity of geography is increasingly important. Because social studies teachers do not receive adequate geography education in their preservice education programs (Bednarz et al., 2013), we developed and taught a series of mini-lessons focused on cultural change to preservice teachers in a social studies methods course. Using Die Hard as a throughline, we developed lessons on (1) elements of culture, (2) folk and pop culture, (3) the impact of technology (e.g. film, home video, internet, etc.) and diffusion on culture, and (4) how virtual spaces are a cultural landscape. Though developed for preservice teachers, this session will address how the lessons can be easily adapted for middle and secondary classrooms. While the Die Hard debate is fun to have, we concluded with discussions about how cultural change is a normal, yet invisible, process.<\/p>\n

Session Focus<\/h4>\n

Secondary\/High School<\/span> | Human and Cultural Geography<\/span> | Inquiry<\/span><\/p>\n

Conference Room<\/h4>\n

Robins Family Forum Theater<\/p>\n

Meet the Presenter<\/h4>\n

\"\"Jeff\u00a0Eargle\u00a0<\/strong>is a clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina where he serves as the Secondary Social Studies Program Coordinator in the College of Education. He is the coeditor of the forthcoming two-volume book\u00a0Teaching Holocaust Geographies in Middle and High School\u00a0from Palgrave Macmillan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Vernon Turner<\/strong> is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches social studies methods in the Department of Teacher Education. His work focuses on social studies education and teacher preparation, with particular attention to inquiry-based instruction and classroom practice. Prior to joining USC, he taught high school geography, including Advanced Placement Human Geography.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Bethany M. Sanders<\/strong> is a doctoral student in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina and a high school social studies teacher in the South Carolina public school system. She received NCGE\u2019s K\u201312 Distinguished Teaching Award in 2024, and her doctoral studies focus on teaching geo-literacy in the secondary classroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary The \u201cDie Hard as a Christmas movie\u201d debate offers an entry point for engaging students in learning about culture and its interpretation. [JE1.1]As classroom practice shifts toward an emphasis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":23317,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[89,114],"tribe_events_cat":[107],"class_list":["post-24009","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-annual-conference","tag-saturday-morning-session","tribe_events_cat-conference-sessions","cat_conference-sessions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/24009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/24009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24011,"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/24009\/revisions\/24011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24009"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncge.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=24009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}