Abstract
Current film pedagogies strive to incorporate student interest in film analysis and production. Unfortunately, these pedagogies often ignore students' experiences, cultures, and media consumption habits. This chapter creates a framework for culturally sustaining film pedagogy (CSFP) to better support students' identities. To do this, this chapter examines film pedagogies, their flaws, and how they can benefit from incorporating elements culturally sustaining pedagogies. Then, this chapter discusses how two classrooms successfully incorporated CSFP and how students benefitted using interviews, examples, and analysis.
TopExamining Asset-Based Pedagogies
Before educators examine what they teach students, they must consider how they teach their students. The two most common pedagogies are asset-based pedagogies and deficit pedagogies. Deficit pedagogies, like Teach Like a Champion, use strict behavioral rules, teach the canon without reference to the present, and focus on student data to foster learning. In these pedagogies, cultural dominance and assimilation are necessary to properly educate students, even if it means reducing and replacing the identities of minority students. CSP and other asset-based pedagogies instead cultivate and celebrate students’ skills and experiences. Coined by Paris and Alim (2017), “CSP seeks to perpetuate and foster-to sustain-linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of schooling for positive social transformation” (p. 1). To do this, CSP practitioners support students’ diverse identities, communities, and relationships in their curriculums by teaching various histories and identities while supporting and celebrating diverse forms of expression. Effective CSP makes schools places that develop their identities and humanistic beliefs, as well as academic skills and knowledge.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Criticality: analysis to better understand something’s power and meaning.
Auteur Theory: theory of filmmaking in which the directors are considered the main creator of a film.
Film Production: the development, production, and distribution of film.
Heritage Language: minority languages learned and spoken in homes or communities.
Film Analysis: the study of film for their artistic, literary, and thematic merits.
Lived Experiences: knowledge or values gained through direct interaction in their daily lives.
Culturally Sustaining Film Pedagogy: a framework that seeks to use/incorporate film production and analysis to sustain linguistic, literate, cultural, and cinematic pluralism to support student and social development.
Asset-Based Pedagogy: pedagogical belief that the student diversity strengthens learning.