ABSTRACT
This book about teachers as characters in popular media examines what can be learned from fictional teachers for the purposes of educating real teachers. Its aim is twofold: to examine the constructed figure of the teacher in film, television and text and to apply that examination in the context of teacher education. By exploring the teacher construct, readers are able to consider how popular fiction and film have influenced society’s understandings and views of classroom teachers.
Organized around four main themes—Identifying with the Teacher Image; Constructing the Teacher with Content; Imaging the Teacher as Savior; The Teacher Construct as Commentary—the chapters examine the complicated mixture of fact, stereotype and misrepresentation that create the image of the teacher in the public eye today. This examination, in turn, allows teacher educators to use popular culture as curriculum. Using the fictional teacher as a text, preservice—and practicing—teachers can examine positive and negative (and often misleading) representations of teachers in order to develop as teachers themselves.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |66 pages
Identifying With the Teacher Image
chapter |11 pages
Looking Into the Mirror of Erised
chapter |9 pages
Coming of Age in the Classroom
chapter |9 pages
From Content Literate to Pedagogically Content Literate
chapter |12 pages
(Re)Imagining Life in the Classroom
part |58 pages
Constructing the Teacher With Content
chapter |11 pages
Teacher Images in Young Adult Literature
chapter |16 pages
What Does It Mean to Be Literate?
chapter |11 pages
The Hidden Curriculum in Room 10
part |46 pages
Imaging the Teacher as Savior
chapter |12 pages
Moving Beyond the Teacher Savior
part |45 pages
The Teacher Construct as Commentary