Green Dragons 8

This is our blog for our What's the Point in Education group project. We have decided to explore teacher perceptions in the media, and their effects on teachers, teaching and pupils.

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Our thoughts.

No we are at the end of our project for ‘What’s the Point in Education’, we thought it’d be worthwhile collaborating our own thoughts on the topic, and reflecting on how we have been influenced by it.

Stuart:

Through studying the portrayal of teachers in the media I have developed a deeper understanding of the degree of control which the media have over how we think. I've been made aware of the influence of the media and how important it is that they do not abuse this power. As somebody who considers themselves more than just an avid television watcher I have never really taken notice of the influence which television has over me. I've always thought of it as a self-contained bubble whose portrayals and events would only affect the show itself. I never actually stopped to consider the social effect these characters would have on me. The development that I've gone through in studying this is made evident by my piece on Stand By Me. I consider it my favourite movie, but have never thought of the real life parallels that could be drawn from it nor that it could have any influence upon my approach to teaching. This topic has allowed me to appreciate that while the medias portrayal of teachers can have negative consequences in society, from a teachers stand point it can act as a basis for development and further reflection as TV can provide benchmarks of both bad teachers and good teachers.

Kezia:

Before this course and before doing this blog, I was very unreflective when it came to the image that the public is given of teachers in the media and films. I just didn’t think much about it, or read too much into it. The teacher types that exist in films were very easy to recognise, but it never occurred to me how big the influence it has on pupils and how they react to real teachers can be.

I wasn’t very aware of how teachers were talked about in the media either, and how they were demonized as the source of any problems with young people. I somehow assumed everyone knew how much work and input goes into being a teacher. I’ve however had conversations with friends and acquaintances and heard them say things about teaching like ‘there’s not much work to do’ and ‘how can it even be a job?´ Through some of the conversations I’ve been able to draw ideas I’ve learned doing this blog, and realised how some of the ideas my friends’ have are widely influenced by the media and films they’ve seen, without perhaps them having realised it.

Making this blog has helped me be more critical towards the way teachers are seen in the popular culture and media, but also helped me see how it could be utilised to promote positive images about education and teaching.

Alexis:

Before our WTP in Education group had decided to base our submission on how the media influences pupils perceptions on teachers the media had made an impression my perception of teachers to a certain extent. From having parents who are teachers I think I was influenced by them more than I was the media about what a teacher should be like but some of the ways in which particular teachers in my school acted I most definitely wanted to alter or altogether change. When I was younger I would have wished some of my teachers to be more like Miss Honey from Matilda for her calm demeanour,the teachers in ‘Arthur’ because of their constant happiness and positive attitude and the headteacher from Home and away Miss Sally Fletcher for her fair approach to learning.

However since researching for our group submission I have come to realise that television programmes heavily influence many pupils perception of teachers. Especially The Simpsons-something that I didn’t watch when I was younger.I had never thought of the various associations that children could make between reality and the programme. I also had not realised the diversity of teachers and issues that Glee illustrates either,even though I have watched the show for years. I had never given any thought to how there could be inspirational teachers like Mr Schuester in society and how so many teachers can teach in different ways that are both successful and unsuccessful.

Another aspect of the media that I had not taken into consideration is the dangerous effect the news can have on adults. If there is a story ran about education and it is suggesting that something is wrong in our education system this can potentially send shockwaves of worry through parents and can result in parts of education being changed and adapted to improve what the newspapers declared as wrong and ineffective. Which therefore has a serious effect on education systems.

Overall the group task has made me aware of the dangerous amount of influence the media can have on the perceptions of teachers and the effect it can have on education in both a positive and negative way.

 Lucy: 

After studying this course, I have come to realise just how influential the media can be when it comes to creating stereotypes and myths surrounding schools and teachers. The media has the power to change people’s attitudes and opinions towards certain topics and yet, more often than not, it creates negative images of the world in which we live. Schools and teachers have been presented in extreme ways both positively and negatively by the media in children’s cartoons such as ‘The Simpsons’, children’s literature such as the classic novel ‘Matilda’ and even in television shows aimed at teenagers such as ‘Glee’. Although I was fairly familiar with these shows and novel, I never realised the powerful messages that these teacher personas could send out to children, young people and the general public. I have also become more aware of the effects that myths can have on school pupils. They can influence pupils’ attitudes towards school and the way a pupil thinks they have to behave at school which can have a negative impact on their learning. Personally, I do not feel that the media has influenced my approach to teachers and school but I understand that in a world that is becoming more dominated by the media it can pose as a challenge to teachers and future teacher like myself.    

Imogen:

Throughout my childhood, films, television and movies were hugely important, and a very prominent part in my education. I became very closely immersed in fictitious worlds and it is only now that I realise how much of an impact they had on my education and general values.

In particular I can vividly remember having a teacher who reminded me very strongly of Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter. I feel this probably had a large impact on my liking of this teacher, and had I not been so influenced by the character of Professor Umbridge, probably wouldn’t have found the teacher so unbearable!

I have only recently become aware of how exaggerated some depictions of teachers in film and T.V are. There are so many stereotypes within fiction that it is easy to accept that this is the way teachers are. I feel this can be slightly damaging to pupils and aspiring teacher in giving an unrealistic example of school life.

However I do think that fiction has had a more positive than negative influence on my own education and there many teachers in fiction I have adored. This has given me a positive outlook and motivation within school.

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Media distortion of the teacher image.

We’ve talked about some of the positive influences of teacher portrayals in the media, but there are clearly several problems that arise as well. Leslie A. Swetnam wrote about these in her article ‘Media Distortion of the Teacher Image’. The article dates back to 1992, but still over 20 years later, many of the points she makes are still valid, and still in need of looking into. She argued that even though many professions can be given a dramatic and unrealistic spin in fictional television and film, portrayals of teachers can have an effect on the public support for schools.

One of these is the notion that ‘anyone can teach’. If you look at the film Bad Teacher, the character played by Cameron Diaz just decides she could go into teaching, without having any qualifications, and in the beginning does indeed do a pretty horrible job. Teachers also always seem to have an antagonistic relationship with their principal, which often leads to pupils seeing head teachers as scary and demanding.

Swetnam added that the things that are not portrayed can be equally as harmful as those that are. Classroom sizes are usually very small in films or tv shows, and the planning, paper grading, meetings and extra duties that take a lot of a teacher’s time are not shown. This reinforces the idea that teaching is easy, and anyone could do it.

Swetnam also argued that the portrayals of the ‘perfect and enthusiastic’ teacher and the incompetent and mean teacher only create problems. On the one hand the negative representations can have a bad effect in garnering support for teachers, while on the other hand the portrayal of the perfect teacher can create unrealistic expectations towards teachers. Swetnam quoted R. Raphael (1985) in her article, who said that ‘teachers who internalize these unrealistic expectations are being set up for disappointment. They start making demands upon themselves which they cannot possibly achieve. Unsuccessful, they become frustrated and they tend to blame themselves for failing to attain impossible goals.’

By having accurate and realistic portrayals of teachers, Swetnam argued we could contribute to better perceptions of teachers, resulting in public understanding and support, the attraction of more qualified teachers and an enhanced school and community cooperation.

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REFERENCES:

Swetnam L.A. (1992) ’Media Distortion of the Teacher Image’ in The Clearing House 66(1) pp. 30-32 accessed via http://www.jstor.org/stable/30188962 (last accessed 29.11.15)

Raphael, R. (1985) The teacher's voice: A sense of who we are. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann

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Carla Meskill on “The Simpsons”.

From looking back at the course work for WTP in Education we found an article that had been posted called “Through the Screen,into the school: Education,subversion,ourselves in The Simpsons” by Carla Meskill. The article, which we all found incredibly interesting, was easy to relate to after starting our group presentation. It highlights the many stereotypes that evolve out of ‘primetime television’ and how society watches these particular shows daily but continues to not believe the message and image the programme is portraying in a school environment.

Following on from our previous points about the different types of media that are affecting viewers in many ways, the article re iterates that television shows can have a bad influence on teenagers. Many think this is because of the disruptive behaviour that characters convey could be seen as acceptable and ‘cool’ from a teenagers point of view and they may start to copy the behaviour of the character in society. For example if teenagers see Bart from The Simpsons acting out in a normal family situation or in a similar education system to them then they might view his behaviour as ‘normal’ and acceptable in reality. Which is a scary prospect for parents who are allowing their children to watch prime-time television shows like The Simpsons.

Another point that Meskill makes is the attitude of the teachers and their relationship with the pupils. In other points of our blog we have also mentioned the teacher/pupils relationships in shows such as Glee and again,in The Simpsons. The portrayal of teachers being afraid to teach the class,have a lack of motivation towards their teaching methods and lack creativity and enthusiasm in The Simpsons creates some harsh truths viewers believe as unrealistic. Some parents believe that teachers can act in a careless,uncreative and unenthusiastic way all day and everyday and this can be because of tv shows perceptions having an influence on them but also for many other reasons such as community gossip and forums. Meskill points out that The Simpsons cleverly manages to show that even though the teachers of Springfield elementary can be illustrated as un-enthusiastic;they still have their pupils best interest at heart and the show is merely just drawing attention to pressing matters in education but in a humorous and lighthearted way. The majority of the programmes tend to show the teacher in a positive and slightly influential light by the end of the episode.

Overall Meskill’s article describes many points our group has made throughout our blog by relating to Imogen’s post about teacher representations in films,my post about the history of education and how influential the changes have been on the media’s changing portrayal of education. The article has also highlighted similar points to David’s view on how the media can create solid and positive views of education and teachers, it manages to clear up many of Lucy’s myths that she has also mentioned in our blog through examples of what the media’s portrayals can mean and finally goes into a lot of depth about Kezia’s portrayal of teachers through television and the constant effect it can have on society. The article manages to grasp the basic idea behind our blog and links to many of our posts that effectively further emphasise many points we mentioned.

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Chris Chambers - Stand By Me

Stand By Me (1986) centres around the journey of four young boys on the brink of middle school as they venture into the woods to catch glimpse of the corpse of a missing boy. The main protagonist of the movie is Gordie LaChance, however the character we’re going to look at is Chris Chamber as portrayed by River Phoenix. Stand By Me is set in 1960, a period rife with youth rebellion and subcultures.

 Chris Chambers comes from the small town of Castle Rock, and his family is known for being a group of thugs- and this is a box into which Chris is put by his community, his friends, his teachers and himself. This is a theme that is rife throughout the movie, as we see Chris is constantly underestimated. Despite being from a family of criminals, Chris himself is kind natured and exceedingly intelligent.  However, because of the stigma he was born under Chris is mistreated. One example of this is in the “milk money” scene, where Chris admits to Gordie that he stole money from school, but he was crippled with guilt and decided to give the money back along with a full confession. 

However, despite his redemption and remorse he finds himself still being punished for stealing the money, because it never shows up. He tells Gordie that the teacher he returned the money to- Miss Simons- decided to take it for herself and spend it on herself- yet still blame Chris the criminal for it. Chris admits that he wishes to leave Castle Rock so that he can escape the stigma his name gives him, but he believes himself to be too stupid to do so. This is a portrayal of a typical bad-boy, but with a more emotional core. 

Watching Stand By Me from a teachers perspective, one might resolve to never make assumptions about a child, or to never underestimate a child as they will simply conform to your expectations. In Stand By Me, Chris manages to ascend above societal expectations, and he leaves Castle Rock to become a lawyer. Chris manages to do this because his fried Gordie- a smart kid who is constantly hounded for his relationship with Christ- refuses to give up on him. The two push one another to their maximum potential and in the end both achieve their dream. The message sent here is that all it could take to inspire a child is one person who believes in them- and that this person could come in any form. 

A teacher watching Stand By Me might develop more of an understanding of the depth and complexity of their pupils- instead of treating the troubled ones as lost causes the teachers might view them with more layers and potential. Therefore, a teaching watching this would perhaps aspire to be the Gordie Lachance in their pupils lives, and not the Miss Simons.  

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Humans of New York

While this seems a bit off-topic, we felt it would be interesting to include this example of the media and how teachers are portrayed. This is because we came across a picture posted on the ‘Humans of New York’ Facebook page, and it got us thinking about how the media can also be a platform for teachers to express their views. 

The Humans of New York project basically entails creator Brandon attempting to document the variety of inhabitants of New York, and give them the opportunity to say something about their life. It is a truly fascinating collection of images and stories.

We came across this post and felt it relevant to our topic:

"I used to be a preschool teacher, but I got fired." "What happened?" "Well, I decided that I wanted to have a socially conscious class. So we learned about apartheid in South Africa. Then we learned about homelessness. Then we made mother's day cards for Trayvon Martin's mom. And I think the principal decided that it was too much for three and four year olds, because she told me I wasn't a 'good fit.' But honestly, I was just shining too bright for them. And now she's going to see me on Humans of New York, and she'll be sorry!"

(Link to original post)

What is interesting about this is that it gives the teacher the voice to speak up and let others know of her situation and show what happens within the education system; good or bad. It shows the teacher in an informal situation, yet we know more about her as an individual and a teacher than we would in a newspaper article or through a formal interview. This shows the media can be a positive platform for teachers to speak up.

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Myths the media creates about schools.

In the 21st Century, the media is primarily responsible for creating stereotypes and myths and bombarding the public with them. These myths can have negative impacts on teachers and pupils alike as they create dishonest images of schools and how pupils and teachers behave within them. Here, we will discuss two prominent myths perceived by the media and the possible problems they create within the classroom.

In recent years, many blockbusters have decided to use older actors and actresses for teenage roles. For example, in ‘The Hunger Games’ sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen is played by twenty two year old Jennifer Lawrence and, in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, Andrew Garfield was twenty eight when he played seventeen year old Peter Parker. Although it could be argued that the intense storylines in these films detracts from the fact that older actors are playing teenagers, filmmakers cannot deny the messages that it can send out to, their target audience, young people. Even in classic films such as ‘Grease’, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John were twenty three and twenty eight, respectively, when they played eighteen year olds Danny and Sandy. Teenagers are at an age when they are very self-conscious about the way they look and so when they watch films that portray ‘adult-looking’ teenagers with spot-free skin it can cause them to think negatively about themselves. This, in turn, can cause them to become demotivated and distracted in school.  

School is usually perceived as boring in the media. In most films and television shows the scene of pupils sitting in class yawning or fidgeting whilst the teacher rambles on in a boring, unenthusiastic tone is very familiar. Not only is this evident in films and television shows but also in music videos. For example, in the beginning of Britney Spears’ music video for ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’, the singer is observed in a classroom with her head resting on her hand whilst she taps her pencil impatiently on the desk as she stares at the clock. This gives the impression to young people that school is unimportant and that more exciting things lie ahead outside of the classroom. The teacher in this video is dressed in an old-fashioned, grey suit and is wearing glasses attached to a chain, giving the impression that teachers are unenthusiastic and unpopular. At the end of the video, the teacher can be seen dancing in a goofy way which reinforces the idea that teachers are not seen to be ‘cool’ or exciting. Because of this myth, teachers can feel under pressure to make their lessons as enticing and vibrant as possible especially with younger pupils who can become distracted easily. Children may, in a sense, expect school to be boring and treat it as a chore and so they come to school prepared to do little work and ignore the teacher as the media has, to an extent, brainwashed its viewers into thinking that this is the norm.        

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Positive effects of teachers in the media.

As established, teachers are seemingly omnipresent on film and television- and this is especially the case in media accessed by children. This can be an issue because the media in influential on the way that society thinks, and even more so in children who’s opinions and point of views are still being shaped. If an idea is put on Television enough times, and watched by enough people, then this idea will be adopted by the mass public. Therefore, if a teacher is portrayed as a demonic purveyor of child abuse then children will automatically associate any teacher they meet with this image. For example, studies carried out by GLAAD- a media monitoring organisation who are devoted to giving the LGBT community proper representation on Television and Film- suggest that exposure increases understanding, and have attributed the advances made by the LGBT movement can be attributed to the increase in gay representation on television. This has normalised the idea of homosexuality, and increased understanding. This is an example of the effects of television, as they took a pre established ideology of homophobia that was rife in society and- through exposure and representation- replaced it with a more openminded consensus. From a teachers perspective, this can be a good thing. It is part of a teachers job to influence children and send them on the right path to becoming a better person, however teachers can face external competition from parents and now from media. However, it is a lot easier to engage with media than it is to engage with a parent. If we, as teachers, can understand that children are shaped by the media then we can make it part of our jobs to engage with this media and to gain an understanding of what else is shaping our children. We can incorporate this media into our teaching or try to model ourselves against the lessons our children learn in their shows. For example, if a child is an enthusiastic fan of Harry Potter a teacher might try to form a connection with the pupil by acquainting themselves with Harry Potter. A teacher then might look at the teachers presented in Harry Potter and try to mould themselves on the more favourable teachers- become a Lupin or a McGonagall instead of an Umbridge or Lockhart. Additionally, if a teacher sees their pupils favour a television show where teachers are presented as villains then the teacher could try their best to expose children to media more favourable towards teachers. For example, Horrid Henry’s Miss Battleaxe is presented as an irrational bitch- even though we all know it Henry who’s the villain. A teacher could move a pupil on from Miss Battleaxe and encourage them to look for some more Miss Honey’s in their literature.

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Positive influences of teacher portrayals in Film/TV.

It’s easy to go about saying how teacher portrayals in the media and television are all wrong. The majority of them are, and do give a false sense of what teaching is all about. There are also multiple problems in popular media depictions, such as female teachers being often valued just for their caring nature, and men often being in positions with more authority. However, we would argue there is a silver lining everywhere, and it has positive effects as well.

Looking back at some of the movies and tv-shows we’ve covered, Harry Potter has given us some good examples about teachers. As seen, you can find all the stereotypes of teachers, but they’ve also gone beyond these, with the likes of Professor Lupin who is shown as a human being who had his weak moments due to his condition (being a werewolf). Despite this, he is a gentle and caring teacher, who will do what he can for his students. He also knows he has to take care of himself most of all, and that is one of the reasons he leaves Hogwarts after teaching there for just a year, despite his students wanting him to stay.

Glee has given us many great representations of teachers of a diverse range. With Coach Beiste whose transition into a man was handled so well in the tv-show, it is bound to have a positive influence on the people who watch Glee. These things show the human side of teachers, and how teachers will have their own personal problems that will affect them. For teachers watching these movies or shows, it can also make them see how you can’t always be the hero, you need to make sure you yourself are fine.

Glee also represents a modern era of active learning. The lessons the teenagers learn always happen through their own experiences, and through the songs they are singing. Most of them are life lessons having to do with tolerance and kindness, which in this changing global world we know to be an important aspect of what we teach the children.

Mr Schuester from Glee is constantly putting his all into campaigning for having arts in schools, which shows the level of determination and passion some teachers have, and it can encourage teachers to ensure they are giving their pupils the best education possible. It is kept realistic however, and even Mr Schuester will sometimes feel helpless, wanting to just give up. And although often the portrayal of the teacher who will go beyond what’s expected of them can be quite extreme, it does get something right. More often than not, whatever the influence may be, teachers do have a huge impact on the lives of their pupils.

Even the bad types of teachers in film/tv can give us a positive outlook, which is what we don’t want to be as teachers or don’t want to have as teachers. Having a teacher who constantly puts you down or insults you like Sue Sylvester and Severus Snape, is something no one wants to experience. No one wants to resemble ‘the horrible teacher from tv’, so maybe if we keep seeing bad and mean teacher portrayals, it ensures we won’t have them in real life.

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We thought this was a really good and insightful video that sums up a range of our ideas about how TV and film influence many pupils perspectives on teachers.The clip focuses on how teachers personalities and role in the classroom can be over exaggerated and far from the reality of the average everyday act. As well as highlighting other key points from our blog:)

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Pupil representations in Harry Potter

Within the Harry Potter books and movies there is a vast amount of content that explores pupils and teachers, and learning within school and out. For this post we have decided to look at how the pupil characters in Harry Potter could influence children in a positive way, whether it is to do with school or their personal lives.

Harry Potter offers complex representations of children and this could be helpful to young school children as it gives a more realistic representation (despite the somewhat unrealistic setting!) to issues they may be dealing with.

We will start by looking at Hermione Granger as she is often thought of as the most academic of the main characters. When we first meet her in the series, she is described as loud, irritating and a bossy know-it-all. What is positive about this, though, is that she is able to make friends and be successful despite this. Where many children may think these traits undesirable, it shows to young girls especially that succeeding and being assertive while doing so is something to be encouraged rather than discouraged.

In the books, Hermione is also not ever described as incredibly attractive (although yes, the movie adaptation may certainly be the opposite of this) and while this isn’t directly related to school life, it is a reassurance for children’s self-esteem; Hermione is popular and courageous and fosters many more important traits, and is therefore a role model to many children. It is important that girls are not constantly exposed to unrealistic depictions of pupils and children, and the sense of “realistic” about Hermione is hugely important.

Within many fictitious works about schools, it is common that we do not get a realistic depiction of pupils and school life. Too often we don’t get to see pupils actually studying the amount that is common within high schools especially, and this can lead to younger children harbouring unrealistic expectations about academic life. Hermione Granger however is almost constantly studying and enjoying it, which is important as it not only gives a positive view of work, it also means children have a role model who they can emulate in the classroom.

Another inspiring character in this series is Ron Weasley. He is generally seen as the ‘less smart’ one of the main trio. However, while ron doesn’t posess particularly obvious natural talent for academia, his skills lie in other areas. This shows to young children that academic success is not the be-all, end-all of being smart. Ron shows other types of skill throughout the books, usually to do with quick-thinking and problem solving. He is also used to show how valuable friendship is in the face of difficult times; an important message to send to young and impressionable children.

Furthermore, the character of Neville Longbottom can be seen as a very positive influence on young children. This character represents how pupils should be allowed to express themselves however they like regardless of gender stereotypes. This is because Neville is known for his love of “Herbology” - a subject that is not seen as particularly masculine. However Neville defies the social norms and does not hide the fact that this is his best subject. This is a hugely important message to send to children who may have already been influenced by false ideas of gender roles both within school and out.

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Blogs we’ve followed!

One of the reasons we chose to use Tumblr as our platform was that it can be used to explore a wide range of topics, and we could follow and gain ideas and insight from other blogs. So we have chosen to follow a few blogs relating to education.

Think TechEd

This blog explores technology within education, and while this isn’t directly related to our topic, it is useful for the ‘Whats the Point?’ course.

Adventures in Learning

This blog aims to look at questions such as “Why do we educate?” and how the role of a teacher shapes society.

Classroom Chaos

This is a blog from a teacher which we thought could be a useful insight into the job of a modern day teacher.

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Media and the News influencing education.

The headline “All primary teachers should have a post-GCSE maths qualification” is one that symbolises how teachers are treated by the media. The news and newspapers are a tool that greatly influences how pupils, parents and the world view teachers. Education seems to occur frequently in the news and for the majority of the time it is accused of producing under achieving pupils who are not reaching their full potential. This is more often than not blamed on teachers.

The media are constantly criticising a teacher’s ability to teach effectively, usually based on exam or test results. The demonization of teachers creates a negative impact on teachers and results in a moral panic of parents becoming seriously concerned about the quality of education their child is receiving. Moral Panics are often created by those without the right and knowledge to make judgemental remarks about the education system, by people who usually think that just because they went to school they know about the current system and know exactly what the best and worst ways of teaching are. On the whole in England parents tend to worry most after a school’s inspection report has been published. However, one teacher who moved from Australia to the UK was shocked by the strict inspection regulations, pointed out that the inspectors only ever looked for the negatives about the teaching style and classroom, and never the positives which unfortunately doesn’t portray the positives.

The teacher spoke to the Guardian about how taken-aback she was when critically inspected. Her classroom ideas and work that she once loved had now made her feel nervous and uneasy when teaching because she was always worried that she was going to be negatively assessed on her ideas and classroom environment. As a result of her stress, it had a negative affect on her teaching style and her pupils education. Nothing has been done about this issue and so the media continues to publish many negative inspection reports that produce further problems for teachers to deal with.

In conclusion, the news can positively highlight strikes teachers make about pay and other issues but the majority are negative headlines. Most of the time the news portrays education as something that is constantly needing fixed and is engulfed with ongoing problems which fails to point out the positives that schools are bringing to millions of children every day, and instead creates a very pessimistic attitude for parents and others to have about school, and reduces the faith parents have in the UK education system.

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Teacher representations in “The Simpsons”.

The Simpsons is a cartoon comedy of a satirical nature which is well known for its distinctive animation style, sharp wit and for being one of the longest running shows in TV history. It focuses on the eponymous Simpsons family who represent the average American family- an image which has adapted greatly over the years. Initially the show focused solely on the title family, but as it aged the show began to introduce secondary cast members and now boasts one of the largest supporting casts on Television right now. Each character on the Simpsons is created and used as a platform for the writers to make searing statements and backhanded jokes about the state of society at the time. Therefore, the portrayal of each character is not so much a true reflection, but a caricatured statement of stereotypes. One character who represents a very specific breed of teachers is Edna Krabappel.

Mrs Krabappel

Mrs Edna Krabappel from The Simpsons is representative of the disillusionment of teachers in America’s broken system of education. She is in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction and boredom as well as being bitter about life in general. There is a hole in her life which she fills with liquor, men and cigarettes. As a teacher she is generally disinterested in the classroom, quite often allowing the smartest pupil in the class to teach. However, Mrs Krabappel is portrayed as being a by-product of a failing education system. In flashback episodes she is revealed to have being an optimist who looked at teaching as a way to inspire children, however over time she became cynical and realised that she was part of a system that was failing children, and therefore that she herself was failing children. For this reason, the personal aspect of teaching was lost to Edna. Despite this, Edna is still shown as being a caring individual at times. Her relationship with troubled pupil, Bart Simpson, is often the main focus of some episodes and the two of them are shown to make huge differences in each other’s lives- Edna gives Bart a passing D so that he won’t have to repeat fourth grade and Bart provides her with company to remind her that she is not alone.

The character of Mrs Krabappel was sadly retired after the death of her voice actress, Marcia Wallace.

Principal Skinner

Interestingly enough, Seymour Skinner was named after behavioural psychologist, BF Skinner. Unlike Edna, Principal Skinner has not lost his enthusiasm. Instead, Skinner spends the majority of his trying to make the most of a poor budget. The school as a whole is shown as shoddy and ill equipped, which Skinner tries to justify. He is also at odds with his unenthusiastic staffs that are known to strike at times due to their harsh working conditions. Skinner is shown to have a sincere concern for the welfare and education of his students, and is always striving for good reviews from his boss, Superintendent Chalmers, who is very critical of Skinner at all times.

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Teacher representations in “Matilda”.

‘Matilda’ by Roald Dahl is one of the most iconic children’s novels of all time. It tells the story of a very bright five year old girl, Matilda, who escapes the unfair world that she lives in through the magic of reading books. Matilda also has special powers and can move things using the power of telekinesis. In the book, Matilda attends a school which has two main teachers in it, Miss Honey and Miss Trunchbull, who each represent extreme opposite ends of the ‘teacher spectrum’. Here, we will discuss each teacher and consider the images they convey to children.    

Miss Honey is Matilda’s class teacher and represents the kind, caring teacher who goes out of her way to help the children and support them in any way she can. In return, the children present her with kind gestures such as flowers. Matilda even sneaks into Miss Trunchbull’s house to retrieve Miss Honey’s precious doll. She speaks in a soft, gentle tone and very rarely raises her voice. She is young and enthusiastic and tries to make learning as fun as possible for the children. For example, she teaches the children how to spell the word ‘difficulty’ by turning it into a poem. Her classroom is bright and colourful and filled with many art displays. Miss Trunchbull is Miss Honey’s aunt and disapproves of her teaching style. She fails to understand how poetry can teach spelling and the children have to cover up any bright colours with plain, grey sheets before she enters their class. In the novel, Miss Honey is the only person who realises Matilda’s potential and encourages her to achieve it. This character exemplifies a modern teacher’s approach to learning. Miss Honey inspires her pupils to learn and forms close bonds with them in order to make them feel safe within her classroom.  

Miss Trunchbull, on the other hand, is the terrifying headmistress at Matilda’s school and depicts a strict, authoritarian teacher who hates children. Even Miss Honey is afraid of her. Miss Trunchbull takes a more historic, tyrannical approach to school learning.  She dresses in plain, dark clothes and is never seen without her whip. She believes that the only way to gain respect is through harsh discipline. Whenever she enters a room, the children immediately fall silent and sit up straight, almost to attention. Miss Trunchbull takes pleasure in publically humiliating children. At one point in the novel she makes a boy eat a whole chocolate cake in front of the entire school. If any children misbehave she locks them in ‘The Chokey’. This is a dark, claustrophobic cupboard in which the children have to stand for long periods of time. It has sharp nails sticking through the wall and cold water drips from the ceiling. Miss Trunchbull competed in the hammer throw events at the Olympics and, as such, enjoys throwing children out of windows when they challenge her. Although this is an exaggerated and extreme persona of an authoritarian teacher, this character will create an image, and possibly even a stereotype, of head teachers in the minds of children. Because of this, they could learn to fear head teachers instead of considering them as an understanding person who they can turn to for help.

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The changing depictions of teachers in the media.

From watching ‘To Sir with Love’ during week 6 of our “what’s the point in education” course, and having previously watched ‘School of Rock’, ‘Matilda’ and multiple ‘Harry Potter’ films, with teachers as the main characters, we realised that many political changes throughout history have been mirrored in movies. How a teacher, classroom and school is conveyed in the movies changed depending on what time frame they were set in and when they were made. We have chosen to focus on and compare the films ‘To Sir with love’ and ‘Matilda’ to highlight our point.

To Sir with Love

This film illustrates the struggle of a kind, intelligent and compassionate black man (Mr Mark Thackeray) who is desperate to find a job as a mechanic but does not have much luck. To earn money he decides to become a teacher, however is put in charge of a class filled with pupils who are renowned for causing trouble and disruption in the school, and who have appalling behaviour and severe lack of respect for teachers. The majority of the class are from lower class backgrounds with very few motivational role models, a lack of opportunities to help them with their career choices, and few positive influences on how to best live their lives. Mr Thackeray experiences many unfortunate instances of racist comments made towards him by the class, a lack of interest in completing class work and listening to his engaging lessons. The class has very little respect for him and makes no effort to learn or be polite, which frustrates Mr Thackeray. His patient manner, persistence towards giving his class the best possible education, and the considerable amount of effort he puts into turning the classes attitude and respect for him around eventually becomes successful and he is highly praised and respected by the class by the end of the film. His actions and level of success with the class makes him realise his love for teaching and persuades him to leave his job as a mechanic and teach full time.

Matilda

‘Matilda’ is a film that was produced years after ‘To sir with Love’ and tells the story of a little girl who is practically ignored by her working class family but finds love, support and safety in her primary school teacher Miss Honey. Miss Honey is horribly tormented by her Aunt, Miss Trunchbull (the headteacher of the school), and even though she is constantly in fear of her aunt intruding on her classroom and criticising her teaching methods, she manages to maintain a welcoming and engaging classroom environment; something we found very inspirational. Miss Honey’s classroom environment is always friendly, hard-working and consists of engaging, interactive lessons that idyllically portray a stereotypical classroom to audiences.

Comparison

From comparing the portrayals of both teachers in the films, it is clear to see both deal with completely different cultural experiences due to the different periods of time the films were set in. Mr Thackeray must deal with the racial comments made to him by his pupils, because when the film was made, segregation and difference of opinion surrounding people from ethnic backgrounds was still a topic of debate and resulted in much violence and discrimination. Therefore the film was relevant because if conveyed accurately what a classroom filled with white students being taught by a black teacher would have been like. Whereas by the time ‘Matilda’ was made the issue of segregation and racial discrimination had been reduced. It was no longer causing as many problems in society. In ‘Matilda’, the film shows how Miss Honey’s main concern was ensuring every child understands what she is teaching them and how there can be individual children that need extra support or, like Matilda, need discrete help on how to handle their unfortunate home situations. The film emphasises that at that point in time, children’s voices were being ignored, child abandonment the way in which schools were ran had become issues.  One positive culture difference between the two classrooms is that in ‘Matilda’, the majority of the children come from a working/upper-class background, whereas in ‘To Sir with Love’, most of the children are from a lower class background. The rise in social classes shows that throughout the years the amount of people living in poverty and deprivation has reduced and more people were employed and living a more affluent life.

From our brief examples we can see that throughout different periods of time, films and other sources of media highlight changing situations for teachers and schools, as well as changes in how they deal with certain situations and become inspirations for audiences.

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Teacher types in ‘Harry potter’

As a school-based work of fiction, Harry Potter has a vast range of teachers and teaching styles to look at. We have chosen four to discuss: two positive and two negative models.

Beginning with a negative model, Professor Snape is one of the examples used in Dr Britton’s presentation and is a very good representation of the extremely strict and cold teacher stereotype. The way he looks and speaks portrays the teacher’s general attitude and persona, and it was obvious from the start of the novel and films that he was a character we weren’t supposed to like.  He has an unfair bias towards particular pupils (usually characters who we also weren’t supposed to like) and this is shown to adversely affect other pupils in the class. His hatred towards certain pupils is clear and this can be seen through his use of discipline (one incident shown here): 

His intense dislike of Harry potter stems from personal hatred of Harry’s father and he willingly lets this impose on his teaching of Harry and his friends. He is unable or unwilling to separate his personal differences from his classroom and teaching. In addition to this, he purposely ignores and never praises the talents of Hermione Granger due to her muggle-born heritage and association with Harry. This is a good example of discrimination within the classroom, with the teacher letting their views interrupt their teaching.

Conversely, there are two examples of very positive teacher influences in Harry Potter. Professor Minerva McGonagall is shown as a strict but caring teacher throughout the series. At first she seems intimidating, but as the books and movies progress, she shows countless times that she is empathetic towards Harry and his fellow students.  McGonagall encouraged Harry to participate in Quidditch in his first year, breaking the school rule of allowing first years to join the teams. This encouragement served to make Harry feel more comfortable and engaged within the magical community at Hogwarts. She used her initiative rather than sticking to the standards, and showed caring towards her students in doing so. In addition to this she bought Harry his first broomstick, going above and beyond what is normally expected of a teacher. 

Another positive teacher influence in the series was Professor Lupin. He was an eccentric teacher, but who had a caring and free attitude towards learning. His classes were always hands-on and practical, as well as fun, which clearly aided the pupil’s learning and wellbeing. He took interest in the pupils and their learning, which made him a more influential and engaged character. He was well-known in the series for going out of his way to give Harry extra tuition when he needed it. Aside from this, he was also a troubled teacher who experience discrimination first-hand because of the fact that he was a werewolf. He struggled with the ill-effects of the medication used to control his condition, but never let this get in the way of his dedication to the job. 

The last example we will look at is Dolores Umbridge. She is arguably the most negative teacher influence in the series, and is doubly interesting as she represents the governments influence on education (something we will elaborate on in a later blog post). She uses her power to impose ridiculous standards on the pupils and teachers, and distributes punishments which are disproportionate to the extreme, not to mention illegal. She also imposes a kind of dictatorship within the school, and attempts to deny basic truths surrounding the death of a student in order to fit with what the Ministry of Magic would like the public to believe.

 There is a lot that the Harry Potter series has done for representation of education that breaks away from stereotypes (something we may also cover in a later blog post), however there are still many examples of the usual exaggerated teacher types, such as the characters outlined here.

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Teacher types in “Glee”

Glee is an American TV show set in a high school where you can find every stereotypical characteristic of a teenage school drama. The jocks and the cheerleaders are the popular kids who rule the school, while the artistic types get heavily bullied. The teenagers who join the Glee club (the school’s show choir group) are a group of outcasts, who find solace in each other. Despite having the basic characteristics of every high school drama ever made, Glee delves deeper and celebrates diversity. Almost every type of minority is represented in Glee, and many issues are tackled in the show such as bullying, eating disorders, sexuality, racism and being in an abusive relationship.

Set in a high school, Glee obviously has teacher characters within it. These are of course, for the sake of being more interesting, very extreme portrayals. Here are some examples of the teacher types in Glee.

The mean one:

Sue Sylvester is by far one of the cruellest teachers on TV. She doesn’t bother learning her student’s names, but will call them things like “Wheels” (a boy in a wheelchair), “Gay Kid” or “Asian”. She will do terrible things to the students and staff to ensure she wins, and doesn’t care about the well-being of the people around her. However, as the show goes on, she is shown to have a heart, and to sometimes put the needs of the Glee club before hers. She herself, however, never wants to admit to doing something good.

The devoted and inspiring one:

William Schuester, the coach of the Glee club (and Spanish teacher, although this side is rarely shown), gives all his time and energy to the Glee Kids. He inspires the children of the club to be more confident, tolerant and ambitious, and is like a father figure to them. One might argue he is too devoted, as he barely does anything outside of his job at the school, and this would be very demanding of a teacher in real life.

The Strugglers:

Coach Shannon Beiste arrives in season 2 as the new football coach. She is a very manly-looking woman, who gets bullied for her appearence. She has got quite the temper, but a very good heart. in the last season of Glee she comes out as transgender and undergoes a sex-change.

Mr Pillsbury is the guidence counselor with OCD. She manages to help some of the students at the school, but isn’t able to tackle her own personal problems. this is a typical trait of teacher portrayal in film/TV, where it is believed that the personal lives of teachers are a mess or non-existent.