Full text of DOI:10.1111/1528-3577.00081

International Studies Perspectives ~2002! 3, 89–94.
THE ISP FORUM: DIALOGUE AND DEBATE
At the Movies: A Continuing Dialogue on
the Challenges of Teaching with Film
As part of ISP’s ongoing effort to provide a scholarly venue for the exchange of
ideas on a variety of topics, this issue’s ISP Forum presents one set of reactions
to the February 2001 article by Lynn Kuzma and Patrick Haney titled “And
Action . . . ! Using Film to Learn About Foreign Policy” (February 2001:33–50).
Vincent Pollard’s comments represent what we hope will be the first in a series of
comments on teaching international studies with film. Profs. Kuzma and Haney
in their rejoinder urge for an ongoing discussion of the topic, as they see the use
of film growing in the field. More broadly, the Editors of ISP invite readers to
submit their own comments and reactions on this and other pieces that appear
within the pages of ISP. Please note that all submissions undergo a peer review
process.
Mark A. Boyer, Editor
University of Connecticut
Cognitive Leverage of Film in International Studies Classrooms
This commentary expands on Kuzma and Haney’s discussion of five advantages
associated with the use of film and video in international studies classes. Those
advantages also enhance teaching simultaneously to students with different levels
of prior information and experience. However, additional observations and com-
parisons with those of other international studies instructors are needed to
confirm or modify that claim.
Kuzma and Haney helpfully articulate five classroom advantages derived from
using film and video. In their cogent treatment, film and video ~1! stimulate the
senses, ~2! concretize abstractions, ~3! trigger affective learning, ~4! generate his-
torical connections, and ~5! generally advance “the learning paradigm” ~2001:33–
50!. And from a complementary perspective, Leib ~2000:1! claims, “The main value
fiction and film bring to the teaching of politics is engagement.” Can we take this
analysis a step further and ask what it means if one observes that students are not
all engaging the same thing? I believe so. Plausibly, well-chosen and well-introduced
films and videos enable a transcendent cognitive and affective advantage in the in-
ternational studies classroom: appropriate and skillfully introduced films and vid-
eos simultaneously elicit learning at different levels of student understanding. Selected small-
group student reactions to films used in four courses taught on one community
college campus ~seven sections! and a Research I university campus ~five sections!
during five semesters in 1999–2001 suggest the plausibility of this claim ~see Table 1!.
Teaching-learning objectives in these courses emphasize linkages between domes-
tic and international politics and the power of social movements in effecting
governmental and extragovernmental political change.1 Many students’ lack of
1
http:00lama.kcc.hawaii.edu0external0asdp0polisci0easian0japan0pollard2.html is the URL for the Political Sci-
ence 345H ~“Japanese Politics”! syllabus. And http:00lama.kcc.hawaii.edu0asdp0polisci0easian0china0pollard1.html is
the URL for the Asian Studies 320C ~“China”! syllabus. The full set of teaching-learning objectives for these courses
is on page 1 of the respective syllabi.
© 2002 International Studies Association.
Published by Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK.

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Table 1. International Studies Videos, Courses, and Course Modules: Twelve Sections
in Four Courses, 1999–2001
Sections
Viewing
Videos
Social Movements: Films0Videos
Courses: Descriptive Titles
People Power, 1989
Introduction to Political Science
7
Withdraw U.S. Bases! Appeal from Okinawa
Introduction to Political Science
Japanese Politics
4
1
Ripples of Change
Japanese Politics
1
China: Agonies of Nationalism, 1800–1927
Asian Nationalism and Communism
Asian Nations Studies: China
3
1
The “Introduction” course included an “International and Transnational Politics” module. 225 students in 11
sections of 4 courses are included. Total sections listed above are greater than 12 since students in 5 sections viewed
more than one of the videos. See reference list for bibliographic data on videos.
activist experience presents a challenge to their appreciating social realities under-
lying the concept of social movement. I respond by selecting films0videotapes
that communicate cognitively and affectively why and how participants in social
movements act at the same time at the same place and with the same or similar
political goals. Since students learn in different ways, small-group discussions are
one venue where markers in the process can be observed. One can plan pro-
ductively stimulating discussions ~Brookfield, 1991:102–114!. And an important
aspect of planning them is to think through how classroom and other learning
materials are likely to be processed by student learners.
With a modal class size of eighteen,2 extensive small-group interaction with
students and close observation of their behavior and progress was possible. This
is part of a mixed pedagogy intended to encourage student questioning, to
introduce vicarious experiences, and thereby to enhance inductive learning.
Analyzing student activity in their questions-and-answers during class, responses
to written and e-mailed “early response questions,” quality circles, papers, and
end-of-semester self-evaluations, I infer that film and video allow and stimulate
students to access course content on multiple levels, according to students’ prior
education, experience, and interests. A selective discussion of oral and e-mailed
student responses to film and video representations of social movements follows.
Lengthy segments of the fifty-six-minute “People Power, 1989” on the collapse
of state capitalism or communism in Eastern Europe in the 1980s for students in
the “Introduction to Political Science” course facilitated an illustration of con-
cepts like “social movement” and the interplay between domestic and inter-
national politics. While one might emphasize the heroism and effectiveness of
ordinary Polish people struggling against a repressive government, the viewing
experience highlighted developments in several countries during 1980–89 and
allowed an immigrant Romanian student to explain an unusual scene. This was
the nationally televised Christmas Day 1989 trial and execution of conjugal rulers
President Nicolae Ceausescu and Deputy Premier Elena Ceausescu. To class-
mates disturbed by unexpectedly violent images, the student asserted that noth-
ing less drastic would have loosened the decades-long grasp of terror instilled in
Romanians by the dictatorial Ceausescu couple.
In two courses ~five sections!, a 24-minute Okinawa-focused video by the Japan–
Asia–Africa–Latin America Solidarity Committee opened the eyes of students in
2
Two of these sections met together; otherwise, the mean, median, and modal number of students at each class
meeting would be lower.

A Continuing Dialogue on the Challenges of Teaching with Film
91
“Introduction to Political Science” and “Japanese Politics” classes to environmen-
talist, feminist, pacifist, and nationalist themes ~reviewed in Pollard, 2001!. In
the “Introduction to Political Science” course, a student with a prior career as a
U.S. military translator challenged a claim made in the voice-over, thus enhanc-
ing discussion of the video. And despite sympathy for demands made in this
advocacy video, a student from Japan indicated how the radical demands to
expel the bases would seem to many people on Japan’s main islands, some of
whom also discriminate against Okinawans.3
Objectives in the Political Science 345H ~“Japanese Politics”! course include
the following:
• evince familiarity with Japanese governmental and nongovernmental politics;
• be aware of minor political currents which may be early indicators of bigger
changes;
• appreciate how history, geography, religion, and language have shaped Jap-
anese political choices.
Nanako Kurihara’s “Ripples of Change” video let students deeply interested in
feminist issues educate their mildly curious classmates.4 Prior to a postviewing
JapanesePolitics-L e-mail discussion, the following question was posed to students:
“When filmmaker0videographer Kurihara considers the effects of the women’s
movement on Japanese society in the 1990s, she seems hopeful. In contrast with
the women’s movement in the United States, to what cultural difference~s! does
Kurihara attribute the different way in which changes in gender relations will
probably take place in Japan?” In response, Laura Morrison, an undergraduate
student whose family heritage is partly Japanese and who gave permission for the
following to be quoted, wrote as follows:
I think what Kurihara is saying is that the women’s movement in Japan is differ-
ent from @that in# the U.S. because the U.S. women look at themselves more as
individuals rather than Americans. Their identity is not based on the surround-
ing environment. Women in Japan have a harder time because the people in
Japan have a group mentality and they are not very open to people who are
different from the “group” setting. Japanese women have an extra struggle because
they have to be able to learn to be Japanese and @then# being an “individual.” If
you compare U.S. women@, they# are individuals first and then Americans. But in
Japan you are Japanese first and then an individual, and this order of self-
identification is @in# conflict with each other, making the women’s movement
even harder. When a Japanese woman is able to look at herself first as a person
and accept who she is and also be able to accept herself as Japanese, then the
women’s movement will be able to continue.
For students in the “Asian Nationalism and Communism” and “China” courses,
documentary film clips and black-and-white still photographs used in “China:
Agonies of Nationalism, 1800–1927” conveyed underlying reasons for nineteenth-
and twentieth-century Chinese reactions against European colonial powers, Japan,
and the United States.
One objective of the Asian Studies 320C ~“China”! course was to “demonstrate
a familiarity with major trends, events, people, values, and source materials
3
That video and some of those students also participated in an “Envisioning a Demilitarized Okinawa” program
cablecast 22 times on community access Channel 54 ~Honolulu! during July–November 2001.
4
On 13 June 2001, four University of Hawai‘i students participated in a 90-minute post-semester IP-to-IP
teleconference with women’s studies students from Keio University ~Tokyo! who had also viewed and discussed the
“Ripples of Change” video.

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A Continuing Dialogue on the Challenges of Teaching with Film
associated with each of the three major transformations of China in the twenti-
eth century.”
In “China: Agonies of Nationalism, 1800–1927,” occasional barely restrained
condescension in the narrator’s intonation and choice of dismissive vocabulary
helped to generate understanding of how U.S. government officials, policy-
influencing academics, mass communications media, and interested publics repeat-
edly failed to understand the dynamics of the Chinese nationalist movement in
which the Kuomintang ~Guomindang @“Nationalist Party”#!, Communist Party, and
lesser forces contended for the loyalty of urban and rural masses and elites.
To reiterate, Kuzma and Haney have given us a stimulating foundation for a deeper
appreciation of the uses of film and video in the international studies classroom.
In testable form, we can synthesize and extend the five cognitive advantages out-
lined in their article. Well-chosen films and videos help to remediate the less-
prepared student to grasp major points without overwhelming him or her with
unfamiliar details. Meanwhile, the better-prepared student is reminded on a deeper
level of what she already knows while being presented with an opportunity to re-
flect on, associate, and synthesize her cognitive advantage more deeply.
As teachers, we should be attentive to possible and actual accessing of videos
on different levels by students of different ability levels, preparation, and inter-
ests. Even if these are unintended outcomes, attentiveness to their occurrence
may give us clues about how to increase their frequency. This learning process
occurs on an individual level where students view a video and cognitively process
its content silently. And it may occur more intensively in small-group discussion
where three to five students teach one another while searching for answers to
assigned questions of varying difficulty. However, this does not always happen
immediately. So, participation in these groups, moving from one to another,
sometimes simply listening and observing, sometimes asking if students have
enough information to answer the questions, and sometimes playing a more
active role in helping them get started with answers to specific questions provide
a way to judge. Student requests for additional information provide a check on
assumptions about how much they already understand. As the examples above
suggest, a student with a firmer empirical or conceptual handle on develop-
ments and issues under consideration can explain the significance of a detail for
a partner who misses the context altogether. Thus, better-prepared students
continue to develop while others keep up and make progress.
Since my plausible inference that well-chosen videos help us teach effectively
and stimulate students of different levels of interest, preparation, and cognitive
skills by encouraging them to teach one another is based on Small-N observa-
tions, this topic invites further discussion and refinement.
Vincent Kelly Pollard
University of Hawai‘i
Comments by Kuzma and Haney: Using Film in the Classroom
We are pleased to see recent attention devoted to using films to facilitate active
learning experiences in our classrooms. Since our International Studies Associ-
ation presentations ~Haney, 2000; Kuzma, 2000! and ISP article ~Kuzma and
Haney, 2001! we have heard from many colleagues who use films—and many
more who want to—in order to connect students to history and abstract concepts
in lively and concrete ways. In the last issue of ISP, Weber ~2001; see also Lindley,
2001! discussed how she used films to teach international relations theory. In
this issue, Pollard’s commentary makes the argument that using films can facil-
itate learning when students have different levels of knowledge and experience
with the issues we present.

A Continuing Dialogue on the Challenges of Teaching with Film
93
We would also emphasize a key corollary to Pollard’s argument that films can
“simultaneously elicit learning at different levels of student understanding,” that
these films must be skillfully selected and introduced. Identifying what our learn-
ing goals are for a film is a central first step to using films well in class; carefully
introducing the film to the class and debriefing students after the film is over are
also key to the success of the venture. Below, we continue the “forum on film” by
offering additional points that will hopefully provide interested readers with
more ideas about how to use films in the classroom and resources they can turn
to for help. First, we expand our earlier discussion of how films bring history to
life; second, we focus on an area not mentioned in our previous article, using
film to discuss ethical issues in international relations.
We have argued that films can be powerful tools for promoting learning
because of their ability to stimulate the senses, to engage emotions, and to make
abstract concepts and history come to life ~2001:34–35!. However, one of the
disadvantages for instructors who show historically based films is knowing in
what ways the film used—or misused—the actual historical record. Films based
on history often do not stick to historical scripts. This leaves viewers either
wondering how things really happened or, worse yet, believing that the history
portrayed in the movie is the only accurate account.
One very useful resource that interested instructors might consult here, besides
Gregg’s ~1998! valuable edition, is the edited book entitled Past Imperfect: History
According to the Movies ~Carnes, 1996!.1 This volume contains over sixty essays, by
eminent historians, many of which relate to international affairs and foreign policy–
one by Stephen Jay Gould is even on Jurassic Park ~1993!! Each essay chronicles the
history behind popular movies, placing them in an historic context. The book of-
fers further resources such as related books and films. Paul Boyer’s essay on Dr. Strange-
love ~1964!, for example, not only describes the Cold War historical setting for this
dark comedy, but also demonstrates how the film’s characters were based on real
historical figures. This invites students and teachers to compare and contrast the
movie with the events and actors of the Cold War.
Another essay by Carnes ~1996! details how the film Fat Man and Little Boy
~1989! tried to “improve” history. The author suggests the movie’s embellish-
ments served to underscore a political point that the film tries to make about the
arms race. This raises the issue of the politics behind film-making that instruc-
tors may want to explore by discussing the political agendas of director, produc-
ers, and the film industry as a whole.
Educators who want to begin developing a student’s sensitivity to and critical
analysis of the philosophical and ethical values inherent in public policy choices
in the international arena can use movies to further this educational goal.2
Movies provide a compressed version of a scenario, fictional or actual, that
dramatizes contentious issues, decision-making procedures, and the value con-
flicts inherent in them. Students are able to identify with film characters as they
struggle with decisions that do not have a simple “right” or “wrong” answer. They
see the complexity of decision making when characters grapple over conflicting
interests. They agonize with protagonists who are faced with morally ambiguous
situations. As the film’s story unfolds, students are vicarious spectators who see
who benefits and who pays the costs of public policy decisions.
For instance, the moral ambiguities of war are dramatically portrayed in the
films Platoon ~1986! and The Thin Red Line ~2000!. Clear and Present Danger ~1994!
questions the efficacy of fighting terror with terror, showing that at times there
are no “good” options. The movie Fail Safe ~1964! dramatizes the choice between
appropriate and inappropriate military responses and highlights Just War Theo-
1
I ~Haney! would like to thank one of my students in my summer film class for introducing me to this book.
For ethical cases in politics see the edited volume by Gutmann and Thompson ~1984!.
2

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A Continuing Dialogue on the Challenges of Teaching with Film
ry’s condemnation of purposefully targeting civilians ~Walzer, 1977!. Judgement at
Nuremberg ~1961! questions whether a victor’s justice is really just and depicts the
birth of an international consensus against genocide, labeling it a “crime against
humanity” ~Brown, 2000; Slomanson, 2000!. The concept of distributive justice is
brought to life in A Year of Living Dangerously ~1983! through the questions and
actions of an Indonesian journalist and his relationship with a foreign correspon-
dent during the reign of Sukarno.
Instructors leading movie discussions where ethical issues are the focus may
ask students to place themselves behind a Rawlsian “veil of ignorance” where
they do not know their place in society, social status, fortune, abilities, intelli-
gence, strengths, or weaknesses ~Rawls, 1971!. Instructors can then ask, “Would
you be willing to accept any consequence of this action falling on yourself?” or
“What would be the outcome if everyone acted this way?” Leading a discussion of
alternative options and actions will advance student’s critical thinking and cre-
ative problem-solving skills.
The above discussion is our attempt at sharing additional thoughts concerning
using movies in the International Studies classroom. We hope others will further
the discussion in the pages of this journal.
Lynn M. Kuzma
University of Southern Maine
Patrick J. Haney
Miami University
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