1st Edition

Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Film Reel Education

Edited By Daniel P. Liston, Ian Renga Copyright 2015
    276 Pages
    by Routledge

    276 Pages
    by Routledge

    Films about education provide many of the most popular interpretations of what teaching and learning mean in schools. An analysis of this medium reveals much about the historical, cultural, political, and philosophical dimensions of education. Timely and engaging, this book fills a gap for scholarly and informed public commentary on the portrayal of education in film, offering a wide range of conceptual and interpretive perspectives.

    Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Film explores several key questions, including: What does it mean to be a good teacher? How do these good teachers instruct? When is and what makes teaching complex? What constitutes learning? Do educational reforms work? The book’s interdisciplinary group of contributors answers these important questions in essays highlighting Hollywood, independent, and documentary films. Prospective and practicing teachers will engage with the thought-provoking educational issues raised in this book and gain insight into the complexities of teaching and learning portrayed in film.

    Acknowledgements

    Introduction: An Invitation to Read and View

    Section 1: Teaching

    Section 1 Introduction: On Teaching in Film

    1. The Teacher Archetype in the Movies
    2. James Rhem

    3. From Blackboard To Smartboard: Hollywood’s Perennially Misleading Teacher Heroes
    4. Avram Barlowe and Ann Cook

    5. Exploring the Heroic Teacher Narrative with Help From the Trickster
    6. Ian Parker Renga

    7. Contending Views of Teaching in Film
    8. Daniel P. Liston

    9. Monsieur Lazhar: The Subversive Dance of Relationship and the "Fierce Urgency of Now"
    10. Linda Irwin-DeVitis and Joseph L. DeVitis

      Section 2: Learning

      Section 2: Introduction: On Learning in Film

    11. Pastry, Practice, and the Pursuit of Excellence: A Commentary on Kings of Pastry
    12. Jennie Whitcomb

    13. Dilemmas of Becoming in Searching for Bobby Fischer
    14. Kevin O’Connor, Lisa Comparini, Stephen Dine Young, and Anna-Ruth Allen

    15. Whale Rider: Culture, Cosmopolitanism, and Unofficial Schooling
    16. Steven Weiland

    17. The History Boys and Cosmopolitanism
    18. Daniel P. Liston and Ian Parker Renga

    19. A Poetics of Moral Education: Insights from Lee Chang-Dong’s Poetry
    20. David T. Hansen and Kyung Hwa Jung

      Section 3: Schooling

      Section 3 Introduction: On Schooling in Film

    21. Creating Classroom Civility
    22. Megan J. Laverty

    23. White Supremacy, Neo/Colonial Education, and the Struggle for Precious Knowledge
    24. José García, Luis Urrieta, Jr., and Eric Ruiz Bybee

    25. Dropout Nation: The School to Prison Pipeline, Educational Reform and Caring for African American and Latino Students
    26. Courtney S. Robinson, Luis Urrieta, Jr., and Nydia A. Counts

    27. The Dialectical Progression:  From The First Year and Waiting for "Superman" to TEACH
    28. James Trier

    29. Waiting for "Superman", The Inconvenient Truth Behind "Waiting for ‘Superman’", and Taking Sides in Debates About Public Schools

    Katy M. Swalwell and Michael W. Apple

    Contributors

    Biography

    Daniel P. Liston is Professor of Education at University of Colorado, Boulder

    Ian Parker Renga is a Doctoral Candidate in Education at University of Colorado, Boulder

    "Films about schooling provide many of the most popular interpretations of what teaching and learning mean in schools. Here, the reader will find a host of alternative interpretations. Combined, these films and their critics allow us to look at ourselves as teachers and learners and decide on our own what it all means."

    Jim Garrison, Virginia Tech, USA

    "Movies about education are often stereotypic and trite, featuring heroic teachers and bored students in classrooms with old desks and dusty chalkboards. Daniel Liston and Ian Renga have assembled a wide diversity of noted scholars to consider the subtle and complex ways the acts of teaching and learning have been depicted in a variety of international films. We can see here how cinema, arguably the most important art form created in the last century, can not only entertain, but also help us envision a better world through imaginative depictions of teaching and learning. I will use this volume in my own teaching and scholarship."

    AG Rud, Washington State University, USA