Matthew S. Monahan
2.1 Special Issues
Winter's Bone received an R rating from the MPAA (Motion Picture Society of America) for its portrayals of drug use and violence, more specifically violence against women. I do forewarn students when required texts do contain disturbing images. My film classes are only open to high school juniors and seniors; students participating in the course are given permission slips at the onset.
Students in my school usually study Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing in junior English after reading the speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Some may argue that it is more appropriate for a college audience. Taking into consideration that most of my students have seen Do the Right Thing in the context of the English classroom I opt for the softer Crooklyn (its vivid depictions of seventies Fort Greene, Brooklyn and the music on its soundtrack as documentary evidence of shared feelings and values).
Although not discussed at length within this unit of study, I recommend teaching Lee's biopic of Malcolm X in either February, Black History Month, or May (Malcolm X Day is May 15). Malcolm X received a PG-13 rating from the MPAA; it contains drug use, sexual references, and violence including actual footage of the Rodney King Beating from 1991.
2.2 Aims: Objectives and Goals
Regardless of which texts students encounter (i.e. the more accessible Crooklyn or the more challenging Killer of Sheep) the objectives and goals of this unit remain the same. Although Introduction to Film Studies at MBA is an "elective," some students have had it plugged into their schedules without choice or consent. This has the potential to divide the classroom community. One of my goals is to have all students be stakeholders and observer-participant researchers.
One way in which I have attempted to build and strengthen community in the past is through the creation of a class blog. I have had occasion to question whether or not Google's Blogger application is the best way to go about this; however, a more lengthy discussion of social media and appropriate use may be found in section 3.1 Texts and Methods.
Students need to have a basic understanding of the following: the common good, community, neoliberalism, the social contract, philanthrocapitalism, and venture philanthropy. All of the works contained herein are distinctly American and explore communities that are marginalized.
Most communities discussed in seminar center on work, i.e. farmers and autoworkers; here struggles for power and capital revolve around the means of production. Having read Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith does it become increasingly clear that structural inequities are universal. The idea of "natural disaster" as pretext for social and economic experimentation is a salient one. It is difficult to avoid the parallels between crises real and manufactured and current trends in education especially with regards to "reform."
Section 2.3 A Model for Qualitative Research
The Lay Study:
Who am I?
Although I am a fan-boy of existentialist cinema, ontology based on my predilection for muscle car films of the sixties and seventies may prove less than useful. Hence, I am a forty-one year old teacher of English, a father of two New Haven Public School students (K and 2). I am extending an invitation to all community members to participate in an action research ethnography.
This research study aims to increase understanding of how the Metropolitan Business Academy Inter-district Magnet High School functions as a community, identify its subgroups, and what may be done to maximize support across groups in service of "the common good."
I have been teaching for nine years, across two states, and two urban districts. I studied education at City College, CUNY (City University of New York), student taught in Washington Heights and in the Bronx. I spent my first year teaching at the soon to be defunct Choir Academy of Harlem (Madison Avenue between 126
th
and 127
th
Streets) before relocating permanently to New Haven, Connecticut.
Since settling in the East Rock section of the city, I have taught in three schools (two of which might be more precisely classified as programs). My first teaching position in New Haven was at Wilbur Cross Annex High School (WCAHS), a satellite of one of two comprehensive high schools in the district that serviced truants and behaviorally challenging students. The program underwent structural changes as a result of its parent school's accreditation process; it merged with the Hillhouse Armory (housed in the New Haven Armory on Goffe Street in the Newhallville section).
This new program referred to as Gateway Learning Academy Downtown (GLAD) was located in the Prince Street School building in Church Street South (bordering "the Jungle" and the Hill) was managed by Alternative Opportunities LLC (Limited Liability Corporation), a private for-profit entity. There were approximately six New Haven Federation of Teachers (NHFT) members in employment; the rest of the staff was at-will employees, without collective bargaining rights and job protections.
Before the management contract was non-renewed and the program rebranded as New Horizons, currently located in the former Micro-society Magnet School site in the Hill/Long Wharf area, I applied for and accepted a position at Metropolitan Business Academy High School, then located at 495 Blake Street (proposed site of the Booker T. Washington Charter School). I taught at this Westville campus for one year before being moved to a swing-space on Leeder Hill Drive in Hamden, Connecticut for approximately eight months. We finally landed in our "permanent" home at 115 Water Street in April of 2010.
Why do I provide such detail?
I believe it is important to think about the MBA (Metropolitan Business Academy) community as one whose "reality is socially constructed, complex, and ever changing." Additionally, I have been an active member of the MBA community of seven of its eleven year history, it was founded in 2003.
According to Corrine Glesne "qualitative methods are generally supported by the interpretivist (also referred to as constructivist) paradigm… in which social realities are constructed by the participants." Glesne further posits that we have all been involved in a variety of "diligent searches without necessarily labeling the process research." This concept is further complicated when we add a modifier i.e. quantitative or qualitative that makes our searches seem all the more academic and abstract.
