Dahlgren From Martyrs to Murderers

Images of Teachers and Teaching in Hollywood Films
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-94-6300-965-2
Verlag: Sense Publishers
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 228 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Constructing Knowledge: Curriculum Studies in Action

In From Martyrs to Murderers, the author explores the connections between the dark, unflattering representations of public schools, teachers and teaching in popular Hollywood films and the conservative attacks on public education that have culminated in a generation of neo-liberal standards reform measures. The author’s analysis is based on a survey of 60 movies that feature significant interactions between public school teachers and their students. This study employed a textual analysis method involving viewing the films alongside original script material, which reveals that the narratives involving public schools during the late 20th century and early 21st century are distinct from those involving other types of schools or eras. Rather than the romantic figures of earlier portraits, such as Eve Arden’s beloved Our Miss Brooks in the 1940s and 1950s radio and television serial, these teachers are consistently portrayed as negative archetypes, thus providing a rationale for the school reform agenda of the 1980s. The sheer repetition of these damaging images in Hollywood products of the period made the American public more susceptible to the deceptive arguments outlined in A Nation at Risk, the seminal 1983 report that provided the blueprint for the standards reform movement that has dominated education policy for the past generation. This work thus develops upon the critical perspectives of educational historians and social studies educators who have probed this turning point in the history of American schooling. It also offers an alternative means of viewing the reality of life in the nation’s public institutions.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dahlgren, Robert L.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction: Teachers as the Enemy within; Neo-Liberalism and the Art of Blaming Teachers; ‘Bad Teachers’ and Public Antipathy toward Public Schools; Education and Popular Culture Narratives; Fear of a Media Planet; Media Exposure V. Protection; Toward a New Media Literacy; Education and Popular Culture Narratives; Conclusions; The Shift: Teacher Film Narratives in the Post-War Period; From Martyrs to Murderers; Juvenile Delinquency and the “Blackboard Jungle”; Urban Education and Up the Down Staircase; Conclusions; The “Crisis” in America’s Public Schools; A Nation at Risk – A Blueprint for Standards Reform; Hollywood and the “Crisis” in America’s Schools; Conclusions; Classroom Management in Hollywood Schools; “Ditto” and the Barely Conscious Teacher; Behaviorism in the Celluloid Classroom; “Mr. Hand” and Authoritarianism in the Classroom; Conclusions; Instructional Practices in Hollywood’s Imagination; The Revolution in Instructional Techniques; Hollywood and Direct Instruction Fantasies; Anyone…Anyone…Anyone? Ferris Bueller and the Escape from High School; Conclusions; Teacher/Student Interactions on the Silver Screen; Teachers and the Philosophy of Caring; The Toxic Public School Teacher in 1970s and 1980s Movies; Sex and the Single Teacher; Mr. Ryan and Teacher Expectations of Students; Conclusions; The Mavericks: Inner City Schools and White Saviors; Urban Education and the “At Risk” Student; Of Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers; Revolting Parents on Film; Conclusions; Myth, Reality and America’s Public Schools; America’s Schools through the Hollywood Looking Glass; “America’s Report Card”; Education Reform Falls on Its Face; Conclusions; Conclusions: Toward a New Media Paradigm on Education; Where We Are; Where We Could Be; Appendix 1: Filmography.