#negative portrayals

[greendragons8-blog]

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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[greendragons8-blog]

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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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.

[iggymogo]

you know i don't see many asian people on tv, so when this asian kid shows up in this toyota tundra commercial even for a split second, i notice. and of course he's the kid that gives up the homerun to the white kid. whities always win. BULLSHIT!

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Social workers should use social media to challenge public perceptions | Social Care Network | Guardian Professional

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