Exploring Teachers in Fiction and Film Saviors, Scapegoats and Schoolmarms [Paperback]

This book about teachers as characters in popular media examines what can be learned from fictional teachers for the purposes of educating real teachers. Its aim is twofold: to examine the constructed figure of the teacher in film, television and text and to apply that examination in the context of teacher education. By exploring the teacher construct, readers are able to consider how popular fiction and film have influenced societys understandings and views of classroom teachers.

Organized around four main themesIdentifying with the Teacher Image; Constructing the Teacher with Content; Imaging the Teacher as Savior; The Teacher Construct as Commentarythe chapters examine the complicated mixture of fact, stereotype and misrepresentation that create the image of the teacher in the public eye today. This examination, in turn, allows teacher educators to use popular culture as curriculum. Using the fictional teacher as a text, preserviceand practicingteachers can examine positive and negative (and often misleading) representations of teachers in order to develop as teachers themselves.

Contents

Robert Bulman

Part I: Introduction

Melanie Shoffner

1. Looking into the mirror of erised: Transacting with Representations of Hogwarts Teachers and Pedagogy

Dawan Coombs

Jonathan Ostenson

2. Playing the role of teacher: Using film to explore teacher identities

Sheryl Long

Carol A. Pope

3. The Role of the Teacher, Real and Imagined

Jason Whitney

4. Coming of age in the classroom: Representationlãµ