What I discovered

Overall this project was successful and helpful to me as a teacher.  I discovered, first, that using film in the classroom is much more challenging and requires much more preparation than most teachers may assume. I tentatively already knew this since I had taught a film and politics class before, but this view was reinforced through an actual classroom research project on film and teaching.  Film in the classroom goes beyond just ‘show a film in class.’  It requires careful consideration of what films may work for what type of class and for what topic, when to show the film (before or after lecture on the topic), how to couple the film with a written text, how to analyze the film, how to structure class discussions, and most importantly, how to write effective questions that maximize student learning via film.  It also requires being clear with oneself early on in answering the question: “Why am I having them watch this film?”  “What do I expect them to learn from it?”  

In addition to the conclusions in the results section which are highly positive, I also discovered that this project encouraged students to ask many and important questions.  Many of their writing assignments focused on questions that the film raised for them and that they wanted further information about (these were also often used as the basis for in-class discussions).  One of the most important critical skills students can gain is to learn to ask good questions, so I was pleased by this outcome.

The Role of Emotion

I also discovered that films are particularly useful for tapping into students’ and humans’ need for narratives and coherence the importance of emotion in the learning process.  I am just starting to do research on this, but I believe that the emotional dimension of learning should be considered as key to the learning process, especially when the topics have such strong connections to conflict, human consequences, human rights, and global issues.  Even if the topics are war and peace, as is typical in this course, a film like Lord of the Flies which brings these ideas down to the individual, personal, and emotional level, can be a useful illustration and metaphor.  I believe an emotional connection through film for students may:

• Increase student interest and engagement with the topic and material
• Encourage empathy and thus greater openness to an issue
• Be an important link to cognitive learning
• Illustrate, for example, that the challenges to Human Rights protection and solving political problems are not only technical and political, but may be personal and emotional (e.g. a film on mass rape in Bosnia I have used in another class)
• Illustrate the universalization of human suffering/tragedy

The Double-Edged Sword of Images

In this course, I have seen that students have come to believe even more strongly that images within society, and especially as connected to politics, are very important, not only for illustrating, but for telling us what elites think is important and should be focused upon.  I believe my students became more visually perceptive.  However, at the same time that they started to affirm that visuals were significant, they also made important strides in understanding the potential dangers of relying too heavily on visual images.  That is, they started to question the assumption that pictures tell us everything.  This was especially evidence in the class’s analyses of Rashomon and Standard Operating Procedure, where the idea that reality is what we “see” was heavily questioned.  The latter film was particularly useful because the premise of the film itself is that while pictures and images can reveal so much, they also have the potential to hide, distort, and manipulate.  I believe this double-edged sword is the most important lesson that students took away from this project.

Some concerns

Despite what I just noted above, many students still remained in a space that could not see films as something other than entertainment.  Thus, they had a harder time dealing with non-English/non-American and unconventional films, such as Rashomon and Standard Operating Procedure (even though it was in English).  This is likely unavoidable, but could be remedied by adding a bit more course content about film analysis or theory, or by showing parts of many films, instead of films in their entirety.  Also, many students did not like that the films were shown outside of class, even though I did my best to reduce the workload of the course to accommodate this.  However, it was not possible to show all five in class.   Moreover, having an open Blackboard forum meant that students could read the responses of their classmates; while there is a benefit to this, I also believe it contributed to laziness and too many students recycling the ideas of classmates who wrote before them.  I wonder how their responses would have looked different had they not had access to others’ responses.  

Lastly, there is the concern related to “visual ethics.”  That is, there are some disadvantages when it comes to showing images of suffering and violence (the last two films), such as:

• Proliferation of negative images – it could lead to indifference and apathy and

  

  not necessarily increased interest or connection.
• Exploitation and stereotyping of others, e.g. victims: recycling the stereotypes
  of Africa always suffering and in conflict.
• Simplification, de-contexualization, “myth of the image”: fictional films that
  focus on narrative and character run the risk of not providing enough context and oversimplifying a complicated issue or event.
• De-politicization -- diminishing moral/social relations between viewers and subjects: Similar to the above – there is a concern that the “politics” could be left out if students focus too much on personal stories, particularly if the films shows are more Hollywood types (e.g. Wag the Dog).

Book we read on war, nationalism,

and media by Chris Hedges

that helped provide perspective

for the film Wag the Dog.

What to do next and what could I do differently?

I plan to follow up this research in a number of ways.  First, I will go back and analyze some of the data that I did not analyze this time (e.g. Blackboard responses for other films) looking to see if more data will help me answer my main research questions.  I also did not have space to share all of my research findings here.  I will also continue by doing more review of the literature related to visual culture, film, and pedagogy to ground this tentative research and expand upon it.  I will also consider whether doing a similar project in my upper-division class of Human Rights would be useful, especially since my interests lie more within this sub-field of international relations.  

What could I do differently or what could I do next time?  First, I will be more conscientious about the background information and reading that students will do before they watch the film.  The effectiveness of combining the reading and film on the Rwandan genocide illustrates that I should have done this more with the other films.  Although reading Chris Hedges’s War is a Force that Gives us Meaning was a powerful book that affected students, but the film Wag the Dog may not have been the best choice to match with this text.  All films connected to readings, but some were not as directly related and it was not explicitly stated that they had to be read before the film, nor were students asked specific prompts about the reading as related to the film.

I also need to consider how to write more effective questions that will specifically tap into my research questions.  For example, for the film Standard Operating Procedure and the issue of torture, my Blackboard questions were too direct and essentially gave away what I wanted them to explore so that their answers did not seem to be entirely their own.  I am still not sure on whether my questions should specifically ask for how the film helped them to understand or learn x.  

Lastly, some students stated that the post-film class discussions were not as useful as they could be.  It was difficult to strike a balance between too much teacher-directed questions and discussion and student-directed.  Often times, the discussion went from topic to topic based upon student interest.  I will need to find a more effective way to structure these discussions for next time.

Overall, in short, this was a great experience for me as a teacher.  I realized that I’m doing a lot of things to help students learn and I’m using my passion for film in a way that can supplement students’ ability to connect, understand, and interpret meaning from films.  Even though most students, when unprompted, did not use film in their essays does not necessarily mean that film was not useful to them. I also realized that if you give students the opportunity, they can be very perceptive visual learners and teachers.  On a number of occasions in class, students analyzed certain scenes and images in ways I had not thought of.  This, plus all what my results have shown, illustrates for me that I’m on the right track, yet there is much more that I can do to understand how film can be useful in the classroom.