LFU:online

Role model, fosterer, drill sergeant, buddy, pedant or coach? Haggard-looking, power broker, factotum, crammer, colleague, conveyor of knowledge, vacationist, learning guide, unionist?  Today’s public image of teachers is hazy.

Two questions guide the discussions in the seminar:

What is the state of play with regard to the portrayal in media, the prejudice and the scientific findings in literary texts, pictures, films, music and the public discourse juxtaposed against the increasing professionalization of teaching?

In This seminar we describe the images of teachers as constructs of a public interested in education and schools and interpret the portrayal of teachers as productive impulses to reflect on what the professionalization of teaching practice in schools and classrooms could imply, in particular focusing on the characteristics of accomplished teachers and poor teachers.

In literature, film and in lyrics, in caricatures and comics and in advertising teachers and schools are typically represented in a negative manner. In particular, literature and schools appear to exhibit a negative interdependence, while education sciences have a more moderate, systematic and consequently less aggressive and offensive approach to teachers and schools. The novelists’ perspective is often distorted, which education scholars replace with a more balanced, less aggressive portrayal.

Inputs and discussions

Material: novels, films, music, caricatures, publications in educational sciences

Assessment on the basis of student presentationsw and written summaries

A list will be put on the server platform, distributed and commented in the seminar.