Why are educators and their profession the focus of so much film and theater? In this volume, Diane Conrad and Monica Prendergast bring together scholars and practitioners in education to answer this very question. Films such as Freedom Writers, Bad Teacher, and School of Rock, to name a few, intentionally or inadvertently comment on education and influence the opinions and, ultimately, the experiences of anyone who has taught or been taught. The essays compiled in this collection critique the Hollywood “good teacher” repertoire, delve into satiric parodies and alternative representations, and explore issues through analyses of independent and popular films and plays from around the world. By examining teacher–student relationships, institutional cultures, societal influences, and much more, Teachers and Teaching on Stage and on Screen addresses these media’s varied fascinations with the educator like no collection has before.
Table of Contents:
Part I: Teacher Reflections/Reflections on Teachers
Chapter 1: Three Perspectives on Freedom Writers: Considering Teaching Across the Career Span by Jaime L. Beck
Chapter 2: Characteristics of a Successful Learner Applied to Why Shoot The Teacher? by Phil Duchene
Chapter 3: The Roles We 'Were Born to Fill': Thinking about Performing Teaching with Mona Lisa Smile by Dorothy Morrissey
Chapter 4: A Curriculum of Diversity in Monsieur Lazhar by Jenny Osorio
Chapter 5: Laughing to Learn: Irony in Election by Carl Leggo and Claire Ahn
Part II: Teachers as Heroes or Antiheros
Chapter 6: The Light and Dark Archetypes of Teachers: What Can Matilda Tell us about Teacher Identity? by Angelina Ambrosetti
Chapter 7: The Problem with Mr. Holland: The Portrayal of Music Teachers in Film – Mr. Holland’s Opus by Nancy Curry and Jeffrey Curry
Chapter 8: The Politics of Representation of Pedagogues in Nollywood: A Critical Analysis of Somewhere in Africa: The Cries of Humanity by Taiwo Afolabi and Stephen Okpadah
Chapter 9: An Unlikely Revolution: Portrayals of Teaching in Strictly Ballroom by Anita Hallewas
Chapter 10: Good Teacher/Bad Teacher…Is that all we are? by Patricia Jagger
Part III: Pedagogies/Pedagogical Moments
Chapter 11: O Brave New World? The Role of Arts Education as presented in the film Hunky Dory by Claire Coleman and Jane Luton
Chapter 12: “You’re not Hardcore, unless you Live Hardcore”: Exploring Pedagogical Encounters in School of Rock by Mitchell McLarnon
Chapter 13: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the Pedagogy of Misdirection by Matthew Krehl Edward Thomas and Bernadette Walker-Gibbs
Chapter 14: Playfulness, Relationships, and Worldviews: Indigenous Pedagogy and Conrack by Matthew “Gus” Gusul
Chapter 15: Bill and Ted’s Assessable Adventure: A Frame Analysis of Assessment Representations in Popular Culture – Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure by Rachael Jacobs
Part IV: Ethics and Desire in Teaching
Chapter 16: Teaching as a Moral Act: Reflections on Five Plays Featuring Teachers and Students (Shaw’s Pygmalion, Kanin’s Born Yesterday, Riml’s RAGE, Mamet’s Oleanna, and Russell’s Educating Rita) by Monica Prendergast
Chapter 17: Granting “the Wherewithal to Resist”: The Erotic as Pedagogical Supplement in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys by Ian Tan Xing Long
Chapter 18: Why are You Doing This? Negotiating the Gift of Education in Development Work in Nepal: Kathmandu – A Mirror in the Sky by Ruth Hol Mjanger, in dialogue with Bibek Shakya, Reiny de Witt and Meena Subba Karki
Chapter 19: Learning with Brecht: Exploring the Learning-to-Read-and-Write-Scene in The Mother by Stig A. Eriksson
Chapter 20: Teaching, Fantasy and Desire: Me and Mona Lisa Smile by Kate Bride and edited by Elizabeth Yeoman
Part V: Destabilising Perspectives of Teachers and Teaching
Chapter 21: Wrestling with Vulnerabilities & the Potential for Difference: The Pedagogy of Drug Use in Half Nelson by Diane Conrad
Chapter 22: The Seductress in the Classroom: Female Teacher as Erotic Object and Fantasy in The Piano Teacher by Melissa Tamporello
Chapter 23: Knowing Where We Came From: An Examination of the One-act play Education is Our Right by Carmen Rodríguez de France
Chapter 24: Art School Confidential: Profound Offence or Just Good Fun? by Anita Sinner and Thibault Zimmer
Chapter 25: Emancipatory Reaggregation of the Irrational Man: (Im)moral Possibilities of an Existential, Lived-Curriculum by Sean Wiebe and Pauline Sameshima
About the Author :
Diane Conrad is professor of drama and theatre education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Monica Prendergast is professor of drama and theatre education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.
