Canadá
Acknowledging the increasingly common use of documentary films within postsecondary education(e.g., Swimelar, 2013), and the broader function of film as a form of ‘public pedagogy’ (Giroux,2008), this study examines the ways in which university students learn from and respond to social justicedocumentaries. Whereas much previous research has focused primarily on the representationalpractices of documentary films themselves, we instead concentrate on questions of viewer response,gathering and exploring empirical evidence about students’ perceptions of documentaries and the waysin which such texts might affect their thinking and/or action—in the classroom or beyond it.To explore how students respond to social justice documentaries, and which features of the filmsshape these responses, we conducted 11 focus groups and one interview with students (n = 32) fromacross disciplines at a Canadian university. In each data collection session, participants were shownclips from two documentaries (The Cove and Angry Inuk) and asked to discuss their responses to theseclips, both through group discussion and by responding to a series of prompts individually, in writing.While data analysis is ongoing, we present in this paper a number of preliminary insights arising frominitial examination of eight of the focus group and interview transcripts. Key ideas arising from the datainclude a sense that documentary films have the capacity to begin to broaden, complicate, or solidifyviewers’ awareness and understanding of social justice issues, and that they may prompt students toengage in further research about the topics represented. Participants also suggested several filmic featuresthat might support these responses, including calls to “emotion” and/or “reason”, the establishmentof proximity between the viewer and the film’s subject matter, potential bias in the presentation ofinformation, and the power of being provided with visual evidence of injustice. Nevertheless, the dataalso make clear the important role of contextual features, such as viewers’ pre-existing perspectives andcommitments, and offer mixed indications that the classroom itself may play a significant mediatingrole when documentaries are viewed in formal educational contexts. Further attention to the interplayamongst these factors is thus required.
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