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Call for Papers
TEACHERS, TEACHING, AND THE MOVIES:
Representations and Pedagogy in Film, Television, and New Media
Multi-disciplinary Conference March 26-28, 2009
Saint Mary’s College of California Moraga, CA
This multi-disciplinary conference will focus on two
growing areas in the fields of education and media studies: 1) The
ways in which movies and television represent teachers and teaching,
students and learning and 2) How film, television, and new media
function as pedagogical tools in the classroom. On the one hand, we
are looking for papers that critically examine the cultural
representation of teachers, students, and the educational setting.
At the same time, we are looking for papers that explore the ways
that films, television, and new media open possibilities for new
forms of pedagogy – their power as well as their problems and pitfalls.
Movies and television have a long tradition of taking
school life and teachers as subjects for its stories. These stories
have circulated powerful, though often uncomplicated, representations
of teachers and influenced our sense of what meaningful educational
experiences are supposed to look like and how good teachers teach.
Such representations have also shaped our understanding of the
dynamics of teacher-student relationships and the roles (positive and
negative) that teachers play in the lives of students and the larger
community. In short, the movies have become unlikely authoritative
texts on what counts as good education. But have the stories that
films tell about teachers become so formulaic that other more complex
and realistic stories are unavailable to us in the popular culture?
And have these representations migrated to the web, and, if so, in
what form?
Complementing this emphasis on representations of
teaching, the conference will offer panels that focus on the impact
of film, television, new media (as information, education, and
entertainment) on pedagogy. Can education, at every level, engage –
some would say “resist” – the entertainment culture that dominates
public discourse in contemporary society? How has increased media
literacy affected curricula and what students bring to the
classroom? Panels will explore the use of media and its effect on
pedagogy within historical, cultural, social, and educational
frameworks – from the first uses of radio in the early 1920s to the
most recent experiences with multimedia and the internet.
Conference organizers see issues surrounding the use of
media in education as closely linked to the representations of
teachers on the screen and this conference will be an opportunity for
those who work with the media in the classroom to discuss ideas with
those who write on representations of the classroom in the media.
The conference will take place at Saint Mary’s College
of California (in Moraga – 20 minutes east of Berkeley). The dates
of the conference are March 26-28, 2009. Keynote speakers will be
announced at a later date. Submitted papers will be reviewed by a
multi-disciplinary committee comprised of scholars from relevant fields.
Paper Proposals
The organizers invite paper proposals from a range of
disciplines (education, film studies, media and cultural studies,
sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, English, American
studies, communication, etc.). We are open to a wide variety of
topics and approaches. Some possible questions include:
· How has Hollywood represented white and non-white teachers and
students? How has it treated racial and ethnic issues in education?
How has it represented male and female teachers and students?
· What is the theory and praxis of the role of film in the
curriculum? How should films be used and not used in classrooms?
· Have cultural representations of teachers and teaching changed
over time? Does, for example, the model of the good teacher change
in films from the 50s to the 60s and 70s?
· How are teachers and teaching depicted in film from world
cinema and global media? What can we learn from them?
· In what ways have the cinema’s depiction of teaching and
schools affected our view of the education system and, in particular,
the teaching profession?
Please send proposals of at least 250 words and no more than 500
words to Robert Bulman by October 1, 2008. Acceptance of papers will
be announced in late December.
Robert Bulman
Sociology Department
Saint Mary’s College of California
1928 St. Mary’s Road
Moraga, CA 94575
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Dan Leopard, PhD
Assistant Professor, Communication
School of Liberal Arts
Saint Mary's College of California
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310-779-4908
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925-631-8151
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