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Dr Roger Saul on why we should pay attention to Hollywood s portrayal of schooling

Author: Communications

Posted on Mar 7, 2016

Category: UNB Fredericton

The UNB faculty of education is proud to present Dr. Roger Saul as part of its colloquium series.

Dr. Saul will present his talk The Hollywood Syllabus: How Popular Movies Depict Schooling, and Why Paying Attention to Them Matters, on Wednesday, March 16, at 7 pm in room 356 at Marshall d’Avray Hall on UNB’s Fredericton campus.

The lecture’s central premise is that popular films are pedagogical – they are cultural and historical artifacts that can be mined for the meanings they infer about what the society that produces and consumes them values most about education.

As a principal vehicle for disseminating discourses and stories about schooling, Hollywood can be thought of as an important social teacher, or as an important purveyor of the social and cultural frames of reference that help construct our pleasures, fears, conflicts, values, meanings and ideologies about education.

What kinds of pictures of school life has Hollywood provided us with? What continuities have existed in its depictions of schools, and of those subjects who occupy them, over time? Why are we drawn to the repetition of particular depictions, even when seemingly misguided? And how have these depictions helped to frame popular perceptions of life in modern schools?

Roger Saul, PhD, is an assistant professor in the faculty of education at the University of New Brunswick, where he writes and teaches about educational foundations, cultural studies, critical theory, and socio-cultural influences on teaching and learning.

This is a free public event that will be followed by a reception.

The lecture will also be live streamed.

Contact: Dr. José Domene, Professor, Faculty of Education, jfdomene@unb.ca or 506-453-517

Media Contact: Hannah Classen