Education Commons^™

The Attack On Social Studies Teachers And Teaching In 1970s And 1980s Hollywood Movies, Robert Dahlgren

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This proposed article explores the dramatic shift in the image of social studies teachers, as represented in popular films of the 1970s and 1980s. It is based on a survey of 40 movies created during this period that feature significant interactions between social studies teachers and their students. This study employed a textual analysis method involving viewing the films alongside original script material, which reveals that the narratives involving public high schools during the 1970s and 1980s are distinct from those involving other types of schools or eras. Rather than the romantic figures of earlier portraits, such as Eve Arden’s …