View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository POP CULTURE AND PEDAGOGY: TAKING UP SCHOOL DOCUMENTARIES IN TEACHER EDUCATION Reid L. Adams A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education. Chapel Hill 2011 Approved by: James Trier, Ph.D. Cheryl Mason Bolick, Ph.D. Heather Coffey, Ph.D. Deborah Eaker-Rich, Ph.D. George Noblit, Ph.D. © 2011 Reid L. Adams ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Reid L. Adams: Pop Culture and Pedagogy: Taking Up School Documentaries in Teacher Education (Under the direction of James Trier) In the forward to Reading Television , Fiske and Hartley (2003) write that television programs ”constitute a gigantic empirical archive of human sense-making, there for the taking, twenty-four/seven” (p.xviii). In addition, this “gigantic empirical archive” also includes fiction films, video games, documentary films, commercials, news media, radio, Internet, and many other forms of mass-produced visual media found in popular culture. In this dissertation I explore a particular piece of this contemporary archive. I suggest pedagogical projects based on a cultural studies analysis of “school docs,” a particular genre of documentary films that I have defined and catalogued. This genre includes such documentary films as: Hoop Dreams (1994) , Mad Hot Ballroom (2004), OT: Our Town (2002) , Stupid in America (2006), Waiting for Superman (2010), and The War on Kids (2009). The pedagogical projects that I conceptualize are intended to explore issues and topics relevant to teacher education coursework; specifically issues and topics associated with the teaching of Social Foundations of Education. In this dissertation I: (1) discuss how I have become interested in the intersection of popular culture and teacher education; (2) define and discuss the “school docs” genre; (3) discuss how documentary films and fiction films have been taken up pedagogically by academics; (4) describe the iii context for which the projects in this dissertation have been conceptualized; (5) discuss a theoretical framework for analyzing school docs; (6) Describe the processes and procedures for collecting and analyzing school docs; and (7) suggest pedagogical projects based on my analysis of selected school docs. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My name stands alone as the author of this dissertation, but there are many who have invested in my work over the past five years to make sure it has come to fruition. Collectively, they are teachers, friends, co-conspirators, confidants, and family. Throughout this process, you have all made me a better person. I would first like to thank Jim Trier, my advisor, for sparking my interest in school docs and persevering with me over the time it has taken to complete this dissertation. Your support and guidance has been instrumental in helping me become a better writer and scholar. I am extremely grateful for the time you have given to my writing and the genuine interest you have shown in my research. I am also thankful to the other four members of my committee. Cheryl Mason Bolick, thank you for “adopting” me as an advisee early in my doctoral program of studies and for your continued support as a dissertation committee member. Your generosity and guidance were instrumental to the completion of my coursework and to the program. George Noblit, thank you for the advice, inspiration, and mentorship you have provided over the entirety of my graduate work at UNC-Chapel Hill. Deb Eaker-Rich and Heather Coffey, thank you both for signing on late in the game as committee members and showing a genuine interest in my research. Your generosity of time and willingness to impart wisdom has proved most valuable in the completion of my work. v In addition, I owe a debt of gratitude Mary Ruth Coleman for providing me the initial opportunity to pursue my doctorate at UNC-Chapel Hill. Thank you for opening the doors of academia to me. I would not be here without your support and generosity. I would also like to thank my friends and family for the unwavering support you have all shown over the past five years. I cannot express the gratitude I have for your love, patience, and understanding. HOME TEAM rules! I especially want to thank Lucas and Eliza, the best wife and daughter a guy could ever hope for. Lucas, I cannot begin to express how much your love and support means. Thank you for believing in me. To the moon! vi TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables .............................................................................................................vii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ……….......……………………...........…………..….....1 II. SCHOOL DOCS …………………………..…………………....................8 III. LITERATURE REVIEW …………………...…..…..…………….............38 IV. TEACHER EDUCATION ……………..……..…………………………...64 V. RESEARCH PROCESSES, PROCEDURES, AND ANALYSIS .........76 VI. SPREAD(AGOGY) OF THE OPPRESSED .…………..….…............. 96 VII. TEACHERS, WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE? ..………….........132 VIII. CONCLUSION ………………….………………………………............170 APPENDIX A: School Doc List ..………….……….…………………….....................183 APPENDIX B: School Docs and Corresponding Issue/Topic Taken Up In Film ....185 REFERENCES ….………………….………………………………….........................188 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. School Docs and Corresponding Issues/Topics .................................17 viii Chapter 1: Introduction This dissertation is an inquiry into the pedagogical uses of poplar culture texts. The term popular culture text is in reference to Fiske’s (1989b) notion of the term. Referring to the unlimited source of commodities produced and consumed in the process of culture as” texts,” Fiske (1989b) writes, “[B]y text I mean a signifying construct of potential meanings operating on a number of levels”(p. 43). This includes cultural artifacts like clothing, books, television, film, and video games. In this dissertation, I will mainly use the term in reference to visual (film, television) texts. The primary visual texts taken up in this dissertation are film and television documentaries about schooling and/or education 1; a genre of films I refer to as school docs. The results of my inquiry are illustrated in two detailed chapters, each of which conceptualize and explain a detailed pedagogical project based on my cultural studies analyses of these documentary films and television shows. The pedagogical projects are designed to cover various issues and topics related to teacher education; specifically those covered in Social Foundations of Education courses. My initial interest in the pedagogical uses of film evolved while enrolled in a Cultural Studies of Education course in my doctoral program of studies. More 1 By schooling , I am referring to a wide range of processes that occur in educational institutions (teaching, learning, extracurricular activities) whereas the term education is more in reference to the systems and structures of education (schools, school systems, colleges and universities) that support and maintain these processes. specifically, I became interested in how popular films could be taken up in the work I was doing as a graduate assistant instructor in several pre-service teacher education courses (Social Foundations of Education, Introduction to Teaching, Elementary Social Studies). During the doctoral seminar, popular fiction films were taken up and read as visual texts and used in parity with academic articles and book chapters. Films were chosen based on the professor’s initial reading 2 of the film and its potential articulation of concepts and ideas relevant to weekly seminar discussions. After reading both the written and visual texts, seminar sessions involved articulating various concepts and ideas found in the written texts with scenes from the visual text. Before I explain the activity any further, I will briefly explain what I mean by articulation. I am referring here to what Hall (1986) describes as “the form of the connection that can make a unity of two different elements, under certain conditions” (p. 53). This “linkage” is not necessarily a given, nor is it “absolute and essential for all time.” Furthermore, Hall explains, “The so-called ‘unity’ of a discourse is really the articulation of different, distinct elements which can be rearticulated in different ways because they have no necessary ‘belongingness’” (p. 53). Hall contends that what “matters” in an articulation is “a linkage between the articulated discourse and the social forces with which it can, under certain historical conditions, but need not necessarily, be connected” (p. 53). Our particular method of articulating various ideas, concepts, and theory included referencing particular 2 While the term “reading” is generally used in reference to written texts, I am using it throughout this dissertation in a broad sense to include a variety of “popular culture texts” including films (Fiske, 1989a). Explaining how even a very abstract “popular culture text” can be “read,” Fiske (1989a) writes, “Like all texts, [even] beaches have readers. People use beaches to seek out certain kinds of meaning for themselves, meanings that help them come to terms with their off-beach, normal lifestyle. As with other texts, these meanings are determined partly by the structure of the text itself, partly by the social characteristics and discursive practices of the reader…” (p.43). 2 scenes and