Essay About Economic Advancement And Social Justice

To Sir with Love: Discourses, Positions and RelationshipsEssay title: To Sir with Love: Discourses, Positions and RelationshipsResearch PaperIdentify and discuss professional issues in education evident in a film or a piece of young people’s literature in which a teacher plays a fairly cental role.

This essay will critically analyse the discourses, positions and relationships, as well as certain individuals habitus’ (after Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992, cited in Gale & Densmore, 2000), which influence the classroom of Mark Thackeray (Sidney Potier) in the film To Sir with Love (Clavell, 1966). Via this analysis, I argue that the film portrays a simplistic, commercial palatable rather than a realistic image of the challenges of teaching, leading the viewer to a distorted perception of the implications of the various discourses employed.

In order to clarify this point, I compare several incidents depicted in the film, with the same incidents as they are described in the autobiographical book by E.R. Braithwaite(Braithwaite, 1959), upon which the film is based. In doing so, I will evaluate the pedagogy of the films teacher (Thackeray) against the standards set for graduates and teachers respectively by the Queensland Board of Teacher Registration (hereafter BTR) and Education Queensland (hereafter EQ). Identifying the faulty conclusions which an uncritical viewing of the film may lead to, with regard to the availability of equal opportunity and social justice, I will make specific recommendations for reconstructed teaching practice, drawing on literature on social justice and democratic schooling.

The film To Sir, with Love (hereafter ‘the film’), centres around three interlinked individualist assumptions: that social and economic advancement is sure if one tries hard enough (meritocracy), that race and class are no barrier to social and economic advancement (‘equal playing-field’), and that innate talent rather than learnt skill, plays the most crucial role in a person’s success (giftedness). These will be referred to in turn below.

In contrast to this individualist stance, E.R.Braithwaite describes early in his book To Sir, With Love (hereafter ‘the book’) how his race had mitigated against his acquiring an engineering position for several years, despite excellent qualifications. He reacts to these difficulties by presenting his students with many examples of the interdependency of humanity: the brotherhood of Man.

In the film, Mark Thackeray too, continues to apply for engineering positions while teaching at North Quay Secondary.. Only at the end of the film is he finally offered the lowly post of ‘Third Assistant Engineer’ by a firm outside of London, despite his ‘astounding qualifications’, but paradoxically it seems this event is meant to emphasise the recurrent theme of the cinematic retelling of this story: that ‘Anything’ is possible with enough persistence and effort.

Commercial film- making is driven by economic interests, which aim to reinforce certain dominant worldviews to ensure box office success. Perhaps for this reason, this film emphasises the popular ‘myth of meritocracy’ (Mills, 2004) at the expense of taking up the more problematic framing of issues offered in Braithwaites own account.

The character of the film school’s Head, Mr Florian, for example, is cast in almost direct opposition to that of the actual Alexander Florian, Head of Greenslade Secondary School, who was in fact determinedly democratic. For reasons of dramatic effect however, the film casts Mr Florian (of North Quay Secondary) as a well meaning but confused man, lacking the courage of his conviction. During his initial interview with Thackeray, he points out that

Most of our children are rejects from other schools. We have to help them as best we can. We have to teach them what we can and as much as we can.He does not seem to have any particular philosophy about how this might be achieved as he continues:From the moment you accept this appointment, you’ll be entirely on your own.[…] Success or failure will depend entirely on you.It seems that this Head extends the idea of meritocracy to teachers’ success in the classroom.While Greenslades Head also uses these latter words, the context in which he uses them makes his philosophical position unmistakably clear: rather than calling his students ‘rejects’, he explains that “the majority of our children could be generally classified as difficult’, and that this difficulty seems based on the “many pressures and tensions” which they face daily and “which tend to inhibit their spiritual, moral and physical growth”(p.30). His comment that ‘success or failure depend entirely on you’ needs to be interpreted

n, as though I am explaining his understanding of what that is. I will now address a second part of his view of what has transpired in the education process:On the grounds of a lack of understanding, Greenslades Head makes the following proposition:In all their suffering, the majority of our children are rejected from a teacher’s classroom’ (p.21). We have also lost our minds. As Greenslades Head said, ‐they all are different from what he has said.’ So he, for instance, has proposed a five-point plan for school improvement (in the form of improving student’s quality of life’)’, and the two ideas that we may have a problem with are, first, that all children should have at least four years of community care’, and then, second, that we should offer a special education program for our children’, and third, that we provide a special education program to all but the most severely impacted.The principal has only just been appointed, as he is still very much on the books of the Greenslade School. His appointment is only being confirmed through an election, not by the Greenslades head. I will address the reasons behind his change of position as well.<[i]It seems clear from the comments here that this was not an attempt to put forth a coherent line of reasoning, nor to convince a student that there is the slightest shred of truth within his reasoning. Even if this is meant to be helpful, it still doesn't explain exactly what went wrong in his eyes and made him choose instead to run for Head of School, the Education Minister. Nor does it actually address the problem of the lack of knowledge and experience of our students and teachers. When that happens, what is left to do? Is it teach us what is right and wrong․ or, more precisely, what might be better, and is it teaching us something? Is it even possible to ask him to address those things because it is all we can offer his students? In addition, does anyone want to talk about why he should change his mind or not? That is, does any person on the council seem to want to leave their child in a place of weakness due to the lack of education, the lack of involvement and trust that could sustain they with the whole schooling process?The problem is that as we approach the end of the school year on January 1st, 2015, an additional 40-50% of our students should be required or approved to attend K-12 Mathematics to begin with. This represents a significant decrease in the number of students who can go on to be enrolled in the school. The reason for such a drastic change is the fact that the numbers are at a high point now, with roughly 50-55% of our students able to go on to take a Certificate on GCSEs‗, according to the government at the end of the school year. This is very concerning. The government does not seem to have any choice but to raise their expectations. Instead, the government seems unable to care as much about the short-term needs of their student population as they are about the longer-term interests of our children. At least one source claims the government has decided not to support the adoption of such a measure.The government seems to be doing nothing at all to address the situation. How can it have any credibility if students, who have been forced to learn in a way of the state school system, have only ever been able to finish high school in a state school – with the government saying it will not change the requirements of it?If I were a schoolgirl, I'd go see this. I don't think there is much I can do but watch out for that.