Teacher Films: Examining Hollywood Representations of our Practice

Authors

Amy Mungur, Michigan State UniversityFollow
Scott Wylie, Chaminade University of Honolulu

Document Type

Article

Abstract

What does it mean to teach and be taught? How have we come to know what schooling is? And, how can engagement with these pervasive, and oftentimes troubling representations of schooling, teaching, and students with our preservice teachers in/form their teacher identities? Taking Hollywood "feature film" as our inquiry into education, schooling, and social studies (teacher) education, this paper reflects upon the course Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets, and Democratic Education on the Silver Screen, a course the authors first developed as graduate students and have since offered variations of at their respective institutions. While course content has been relatively constant (using Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society, and Blackboard Jungle), additions of Clueless, School of Rock, Mean Girls, and Fist Fight have allowed for more intentional discussions of race, class, and gender, particularly as they relate to dominant tropes of representation for those in targeted identity groups.

Recommended Citation

Mungur, Amy and Wylie, Scott (2021) "Teacher Films: Examining Hollywood Representations of our Practice," The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies: Vol. 0: No. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/the_councilor/vol0/iss1/6