Toward Structural Attribution: Using Détournement With Preservice Teachers to Challenge the Teacher Savior Myth

• In Event: Media Creation and Use in Learning

Abstract

This paper explores how détournement, a short film consisting of juxtapositions of existing media, can be used in teacher education to challenge dominant myths in popular educational discourse. The authors describe how the pairing of clips from contrasting documentaries affected students’ perspectives. Data from students’ writing pre and post viewing were analyzed through layers of initial, deductive, and focused coding. Findings include students’ shifts from stances of teacher savior to perspectives on structural responsibility, from reliance on meritocratic ideals to awareness of broader inequity, and from uncritical acceptance of appeal to emotion in media to the articulation of cinematographic choices. Authors believe that this self-study informs efforts in teacher education for drawing upon media studies to facilitate critique.

Authors

• Ashley Summer Boyd, Washington State University - Pullman

• Amy Hahn Senta, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill