Public pedagogy and representations of higher education in popular film: New ground for the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Abstract

Constructions of teaching, learning, and the university within popular culture can exert an important influence on public understandings of higher education, including those held by faculty and students. As such, they constitute a rich site of inquiry for the scholarship of teaching and learning. Drawing on the notion of film as 'public pedagogy,' this article analyses representations of higher education within 11 top grossing and/or critically acclaimed films released in 2014. We identify three broad themes across these texts-the purpose of higher education, relationships between students and professors, and the creation of academic identities-and consider the implications and functions of these representational patterns for teaching, learning, and SoTL. Particular attention is given to the difference between the framing of science and arts and humanities disciplines, and to how this might resonate with the contemporary 'crisis of the humanities.'

Writing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Articles for Peer-Reviewed Journals

“…Most of the articles published by TLI fit in this genre. Recent examples include an Australian analysis of students' perceptions of their learning outcomes, engagement, and satisfaction with a technology-facilitated flipped approach in a core course in entrepreneurship (Fisher, Ross, LaFerriere, & Maritz, 2017); a New Zealand study that evaluates and compares approaches to learning by a longitudinal cohort of undergraduate students as they progressed from their first to third years of study in science using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (McDonald, Reynolds, Bixley, & Spronken-Smith (2017); and an analysis of the representations of higher education within 11 topgrossing critically acclaimed films released in 2014, co-authored by two students and a member of faculty in a Canadian university (Johnstone, Marquis, & Puri, 2018).…”

Editors' Introduction. In Defense of Microscopes

“…Learning is situated (Green, Eady, & Anderson, 2018), contextualized (Rifenburg & Forester, 2018), socially mediated (Johnstone, Marquis, & Puri, 2018), developmental (Mewis, Dee, Lam, Obradovich, & Cassidy, 2018), and ubiquitous (Johnstone, Marquis, & Puri, 2018). It is often invisible (Shulman, 1999), easily oversimplified (Fallon, 2006), often misunderstood (Skorczewski, 2000).…”

Powerful learning tool or ‘cool factor’? Instructors’ perceptions of using film and video within teaching and learning

“…On one hand, several scholars have argued that popular film and television exert a compelling instructional force within a media-saturated world, functioning as what Giroux (2004Giroux ( , 2008 has called a form of "public pedagogy." By constructing emotionally engaging and persuasive representations, such scholars suggest, film and television texts 1 contribute to shaping understandings of the world and constitute a site at which normative social discourses are (re)produced, negotiated, and sometimes contested (see, for example, Epstein, Mendick & Moreau, 2010;Garcia, 2015;Giroux, 2009;Marquis, 2018;Johnstone, Marquis, & Puri, 2018). At the same time, this educational capacity has also been recognized by educators who consciously deploy film and television as pedagogical tools within their classrooms and courses (Luccasen & Thomas, 2010;Sealey, 2008).…”