Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Film

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

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: An Invitation to Read and ViewSection 1: TeachingSection 1 Introduction: On Teaching in Film The Teacher Archetype in the MoviesJames Rhem From Blackboard To Smartboard: Hollywood’s Perennially Misleading Teacher HeroesAvram Barlowe and Ann Cook Exploring the Heroic Teacher Narrative with Help From the TricksterIan Parker Renga Contending Views of Teaching in FilmDaniel P. Liston Monsieur Lazhar: The Subversive Dance of Relationship and the "Fierce Urgency of Now"Linda Irwin-DeVitis and Joseph L. DeVitisSection 2: LearningSection 2: Introduction: On Learning in Film Pastry, Practice, and the Pursuit of Excellence: A Commentary on Kings of Pastry Jennie Whitcomb Dilemmas of Becoming in Searching for Bobby Fischer Kevin O’Connor, Lisa Comparini, Stephen Dine Young, and Anna-Ruth Allen Whale Rider: Culture, Cosmopolitanism, and Unofficial SchoolingSteven Weiland The History Boys and CosmopolitanismDaniel P. Liston and Ian Parker Renga A Poetics of Moral Education: Insights from Lee Chang-Dong’s Poetry David T. Hansen and Kyung Hwa JungSection 3: SchoolingSection 3 Introduction: On Schooling in Film Creating Classroom CivilityMegan J. Laverty White Supremacy, Neo/Colonial Education, and the Struggle for Precious Knowledge José García, Luis Urrieta, Jr., and Eric Ruiz Bybee Dropout Nation: The School to Prison Pipeline, Educational Reform and Caring for African American and Latino StudentsCourtney S. Robinson, Luis Urrieta, Jr., and Nydia A. Counts The Dialectical Progression: From The First Year and Waiting for "Superman" to TEACH James Trier Waiting for "Superman", The Inconvenient Truth Behind "Waiting for ‘Superman’", and Taking Sides in Debates About Public SchoolsKaty M. Swalwell and Michael W. AppleContributors