The School of Change: Filming Alternative Teaching Methods
Lockdown and the complexity of returning to school with health protocols remind us, if we needed reminding, of the importance of the exchanges and human bonds that develop between teachers and children.
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
While there is much speculation about the "world after," calls for a renewal of teaching methods and school spaces are flourishing—one notable example is the opinion piece published in Le Monde calling for classes to be held outdoors.
However, this need for new horizons did not suddenly arise with lockdown. It is an ambition of alternative teaching methods that emerged at the beginning ofthe 20th century and continue to enjoy widespread success, as evidenced by the popularity of Montessori education.
How can we move beyond utopian ideals and view this ferment of ideas as real prospects for the future? What if cinema could help us chart concrete paths to explore? Here is a selection of documentaries that can help us see school from a different angle.
The School of Change
In 2018, a documentary by Anne Schiffmann and Chergui Kharroubi, L’école du changement focuses on two new secondary schools in Brussels that have opted for active teaching methods—that is, methods that go beyond the traditional lecture format, where students are simply listeners, to give them an active role in their own learning. This choice is reflected in the words of a teacher who appears in the film:
“What we want to do now is an activity where we will talk in groups. We are not going to go to the board where there would be the knowledge that I, a priori, am going to give you. We are going to look at each other because knowledge is within each of us.”
The filmmakers spent a year immersed in the schools, observing the students' daily lives and bringing these teaching methods to life. One of the film's strengths is that it does not limit itself to a didactic understanding of these teaching methods, which in reality form a galaxy composed of multiple schools of thought (Freinet, Montessori, Decroly, and Steiner), each with their own specific characteristics.
Here, the filmmakers observe the transformations of an educational community, the hesitations and doubts of the teaching staff, but above all their commitment and enthusiasm. Far from being a rigid institution, the school thus appears as an adventure.
Playing hooky
Still very much in the minority today, all alternative teaching methods have been keen to raise their profile. From the beginning ofthe 20th century, they understood the importance of cinema. But it was initially fiction films that introduced the general public to these teaching methods.
In 1949, L’école buissonnière, directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois, is a fictional account of the early days of educator Célestin Freinet, played on screen by Bernard Blier. The screenplay was supervised by Elise Freinet herself, who was keen to spread Freinet's innovative educational ideas.
More recently, in 2016, Captain Fantastic, starring Viggo Mortensen, highlighted homeschooling in a much more Hollywood-style film.
Showing school in a different light
Recently rediscovered, Vittorio de Seta's Italian film The Diary of a Schoolmaster, released in 1973, was a pioneer in its skillful approach to letting children play, work, and create, while offering a glimpse into the caring educational relationship between the teacher and his class, which alternative teaching methods seek to develop.
Filming teaching methods in action is complex. How can you show children playing, thinking, or marveling? However, there is a successful educational documentary genre. Nicolas Philibert's film, To Be and to Have, details the adventure of a single rural class in Auvergne in 2002.
Over the past decade, we have witnessed a revival of this genre. Each alternative teaching method recognizes the importance of demonstrating the characteristics of its experiments. The perspective chosen is generally that of the promoters of the teaching method in question, rather than that of critical analysis.
On Montessori, Freinet, or homeschooling methods, we can cite, for example Being and Becoming by Clara Bellar, published in 2014, L’école en vie (School in Life) by Mathilde Syre, published in 2016, Le maître est l’enfant by Alexandre Mourot, and Une idée folleby Judith Grumbach, in 2017, Being Rather Than Having by Agnès Fouilleux, in 2018.
Creativity and autonomy
These films all aim to convey the enthusiasm, dedication, and desire to teach through alternative teaching methods.
Returning to The School of Change, whose title is itself a manifesto, the filmmakers have succeeded in showing that rethinking school requires a multitude of small gestures, a benevolent and confident attitude on the part of adults, and a joy in teaching that fuels children's boundless curiosity.
The film crew's immersion in the school environment allows them to capture scenes of school life that highlight important concepts such as independence and creativity by following children and adults as they grow together at their own pace.
The difficulty with all these films is showing the invisible part of the mental construction of learning. By observing children and teenagers reflecting, thinking, working in groups, and on projects, we see this other school envisioned by alternative teaching methods taking shape.
Contrary to certain preconceived notions, these films show the importance of adults, educational relationships, parents, respect for commonly agreed rules, as well as high standards and rigor in work, which are not incompatible with enjoyment and well-being.
An educational and political project
Of course, these films portray these educational experiences in a positive light. The pitfall would be to fall into an idealized vision and blind activism. Criticisms exist and must be taken into account by alternative teaching methods.
Some studies highlight the difficulties and inequalities that active methods can create for certain students. Then there is the question of social diversity and the risk of social "cliquishness" in such schools. These films obviously do not answer all these questions, and understanding the intentions and aims of education beyond mere rhetoric is a challenge.
See also:
Alternative teaching methods: a galaxy with varied political aims
Nevertheless, observing the pleasure of learning and teaching reflects the gap that exists between teaching based on the omnipotence of disciplinary knowledge and teaching in search of meaning. This should not prevent alternative pedagogies as a whole from clarifying their social and political project in order to determine whether it will contribute to at the start to think about a new kind of education.
Sylvain Wagnon, Professor of Education Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.