The film The History Boys examines representations of teaching and learning styles through the story of eight students at an all-boys school in 1980s Britain as they prepare for Oxbridge entrance exams. It depicts three different teaching styles: the unconventional Hector focuses on life lessons over exam content; Lintott teaches history directly; and Irwin uses new exam preparation techniques. The film also explores representations of class, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality among the teachers and students as the boys navigate their education.
This session takes as its starting point the evolution of the campus novel as a reflection of changing university life in Britain from the post-war era immediately after the Education Act of 1944 through the parallel growth of “redbrick” institutions and the founding of entirely “new” universities in the 1960s to the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 which abolished the “binary divide” between polytechnics and universities and greatly expanded the sector and on to Tony’s Blair’s 2001 target of sending at least 50% of young people into a mass higher education system by the end of the decade. We shall focus on two key themes from this period of dramatic change as highlighted by the parallel development of the British campus novel: first, how the shifting depiction of administrative and managerial staff allows us to trace the extraordinary transformation that has overtaken British universities since the 1950s; and second, how the portrayal of sex, women and gender in an academic environment has been affected by what has also been a period of wider social upheaval in Britain in which the universities have played their full part. Our attendees will be encouraged to reflect on their own professional experiences as administrators in the context of these two sets of issues which have clearly been central to the development of the contemporary university, and to explore them through a combination of group conversation and plenary debate. Our session will be accessible not only to the many existing fans of the genre who are employed within universities but also to those who may be new to this form of contemporary literature and who are interested in what it might say about the places where we work. It will make particular use of examples drawn from a broad range of well-known campus novels including Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954), Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man (1975), Tom Sharpe’s Porterhouse Blue (1974), David Lodge’s Changing Places (1975), Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988).
This session takes as its starting point the evolution of the campus novel as a reflection of changing university life in Britain from the post-war era immediately after the Education Act of 1944 through the parallel growth of “redbrick” institutions and the founding of entirely “new” universities in the 1960s to the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 which abolished the “binary divide” between polytechnics and universities and greatly expanded the sector and on to Tony’s Blair’s 2001 target of sending at least 50% of young people into a mass higher education system by the end of the decade. We shall focus on two key themes from this period of dramatic change as highlighted by the parallel development of the British campus novel: first, how the shifting depiction of administrative and managerial staff allows us to trace the extraordinary transformation that has overtaken British universities since the 1950s; and second, how the portrayal of sex, women and gender in an academic environment has been affected by what has also been a period of wider social upheaval in Britain in which the universities have played their full part. Our attendees will be encouraged to reflect on their own professional experiences as administrators in the context of these two sets of issues which have clearly been central to the development of the contemporary university, and to explore them through a combination of group conversation and plenary debate. Our session will be accessible not only to the many existing fans of the genre who are employed within universities but also to those who may be new to this form of contemporary literature and who are interested in what it might say about the places where we work. It will make particular use of examples drawn from a broad range of well-known campus novels including Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954), Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man (1975), Tom Sharpe’s Porterhouse Blue (1974), David Lodge’s Changing Places (1975), Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988).
Recent times have seen an explosion of interest in history. Ashton and Hamilton (2007, p. 21) argue that “most people regard film and television, whether fiction or documentary, as a major source of [their] historical knowledge”, and Rosenstone (2006) concurs, asserting that “visual media is the chief conveyer of public history in our culture” (p. 12). For Lorenz (1994) “television and film have replaced the book as the most important media of information” (p. 27). It is in this context that the family history television program Who Do You Think You Are? – initially airing in 2004 and now in its ninth season – had by 2007 become the second most popular non-fiction programme ever shown on British television, its emotional and psychological resonances far exceeding producer expectations (Cannell, 2011). Using a celebrity avatar to ‘stand in’ for the audience, the programme cleverly contextualises family histories within broader social history narratives (De Groot, 2009; Kramer, 2011), supporting through an act of public pedagogy, the avatar and audience to “make sense of their own lives and their connection to the lives of others” (van Dijck, 2004, p. 262). Situated within a growing educational interest in public history and historical consciousness (Seixas, 2004; Straub, 2005), this paper examines what educators can learn from the process of reception involved in the celebrity’s pedagogical encounter with rival, challenging, or unexpected histories.
Its about horrific experiences of a slave woman. how beloves suffered and her mother had to undergo a traumatic experience. eloved is a 1987 novel by American novelist Toni Morrison. Set in the period after the American Civil War, the novel tells the story of a dysfunctional family of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit.
Creative Writing Workshop with Catching LivesAndrew Buller
Author Andrew Buller leads you through the creative writing process, linking specifically with the work he has done with the homeless community within Canterbury, through the charity Catching Lives.
Silence the court in Session Play by Vijay Tendulkar Analysis
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Matt Smith #dash_ab2015 Awkward Bastards presentation Mar Dixon
Matt Smith is an artist and curator. Solo exhibitions include Milk at Aspex (2010) Queering the Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (2010-11) and Other Stories at the University of Leeds (2012). He is currently working on an AHRC-funded practice based PhD in Queer Craft at University of Brighton and co-directs Unravelled Arts.
The great debate took place at Undershaw, the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and featured more than a dozen Sherlock Holmes experts, a visit to The Art of Sherlock Holmes in Florida and a performance from Ben Cardall, The Deductionist.
Shapeshifting - Transformations in Native American Art at PEMJim_Olson
This session will explore the lessons learned in creating an interactive for Shapeshifting at the Peabody Essex Museum. The exhibition included four organizing themes, Changing, Knowing, Locating, and Voicing, that address touchstones in Native art over time: artistic evolution, worldview, identity, and politics. The show's goal was to encourage visitors to rethink their preconceived notions about Native American art and to share their thoughts with the museum and other visitors.
The interactive engaged visitors by asking them to contribute dialogue at iPad stations adjacent to four works in the exhibition. Visitors watched videos of the artists and then answered a question related to each object, with words from their responses projected in the galleries on a large, dynamic word cloud, in a comments section on the iPads, in a summative plasma display at the end of the show, and on our website.
Teleprompter: Where oral history and archival research meet.caronc
Teleprompter slides from my presentation at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia University, Montréal. I presentation the evolution of my field research methodology and my approach to doing research in small, hitherto neglected communities.
2. Objectives
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To examine representations of teaching and learning
styles through The History Boys
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Discuss representations of sexuality in the film
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To consider the extent to which education is 'erotic'
3. The History Boys
•
•
•
•
•
2006
Produced: Kevin Loader,
Damian Jones, Nicholas
Hytner
Directed: Nicholas Hytner
Screenplay: Alan Bennett from
his stage play
Starring: Richard Griffiths,
Frances de la Tour, Stephen
Campbell Moore, Clive
Merrison
4. The History Boys
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“Take it. Feel it. Pass it on…for someone. Somewhere.
One day. Pass it on, boys. Pass it on…”
5. Who are the History Boys?
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Dakin – The Stud
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Scripps – The Conscience
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Posner – The Lover/Poet
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Rudge – The Working Lad
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Akhtar – The Ethnic Minority
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Crowther – The Lip
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Timms - The Class Clown
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Lockwood – The Soldier
6. Where and When?
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Where – Mise-en-Scene:
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Northern
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Urban
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Leafy
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Rural
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“Provincial self-perception”
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1980s (soundtrack)
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Elements of 1970s
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Attitudes of 1990s
9. Representations of Class
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Headmaster’s (BA Hull) snobbery:
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“They’re clever but they’re crass…Culture they can get
from Hector, History they can get from you…”
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“They need polish. Edge…I want to see us up there!”
10. Representations of Teaching Styles
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Mr Hector (General Studies): “Life Lessons”
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Mrs Dorothy Lintott (History): “Subject teaching”
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Mr Irwin (Oxbridge): “Exam boosters”
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The Head Master: “Results”
12. Teaching Styles: Key Question 1
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“All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the
slightest human use”
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AE Houseman
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“We won’t be examined on that, Sir...happiness”
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Question: What is education for?
13. Teaching Style: Irwin
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Modern classroom of glass
and plastic, bare walls,
functional
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“I’d go to Newcastle and be
happy”
Fox, UK
14. Teaching Style: Key Question 2
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“You keep saying ‘Good Point’. Not Good point, Sir.
True” (Scripps)
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“Nothing is appropriate” (Hector)
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Question: Should you teach the Holocaust?
15. Intertextuality as Commentary
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Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter: “Thank you for coming
back to me”
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Drummer Hodge: Thomas Hardy “A saddish life. Though
not unappreciated...Unkissed. Unrejoicing. Unconfessed.
Unembraced”
16. Representation of Gender
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“History’s a commentary on... the continuing
incapabilities of men...” (Lintott)
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“Five centuries of masculine ineptitude” cf “The utter
randomness of things” (Lintott)
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Question: How are the masculine and feminine
represented in The History Boys
17. Education as an erotic act - Fisher et al
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Eros as life force, pervading all human interactions
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Schooling as a process of discipining the body and
suppressing desire
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The inevitability of a dynamic between pupils and
teachers
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The distinction between "pedagogical eroticism and
pedagogical abuse" (McWilliam, 1996)
18. Schools as sexual sites - Fisher et al
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Sites of sexual opportunity, tension and competition
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Reinforced by popular culture, peer support
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Dominance of heteronormativity
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Male environments - homoeroticism of The History Boys
19. Representation of Sexuality 1
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Representation of Male Adult Sexuality:
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“The transmission of knowledge is itself an erotic
act” (Hector)
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“This is a school and it isn’t normal” (The Headmaster)
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“A grope is a grope” (Lintott)
20. Representation of Sexuality 2
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Representation of Male Adolescent Awakening:
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Dakin’s ‘conquest’
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Scripps’ faith
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Posner’s ‘in-love’
21. Representation of Sexuality 3
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Dakin’s proposition of Irwin
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Irwin’s response
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Question: What do you think of the representation of
male (homo)sexuality in The History Boys?
22. Learning Styles
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“Mr. Hector’s stuff’s not meant for the exams. It’s to make us more rounded
human beings” (Timms)
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“We’ve got the most important exam in our lives...We’re just sat here reading
literature...” (Lockwood)
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“Hector produces results but unpredictable and unquantifiable...There’s
inspiration, certainly, but how do I quantify that?” (The Headmaster)
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“Lying works” (Dakin to Irwin)
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“He was a good man. But I don’t think there’s time for his kind of teaching
anymore” (Irwin on Hector)
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“One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of
the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them” (Lintott)