Cristine Koehler Zanella; Edson Jose Neves Junior
Rev. Carta Inter., Belo Horizonte, v. 16, n. 3, e1174, 2021
1-22
Movies in the teaching of International
Relations: the Brazilian experience
Filmes no ensino das Relações
Internacionais: a experiência brasileira
Películas en la enseñanza de las Relaciones
Internacionales: la experiencia brasileña
DOI: 10.21530/ci.v16n3.2021.1174
Cristine Koehler Zanella
1
Edson Jose Neves Junior
2
Abstract
This article investigates how movies have been used as an IR
pedagogical tool in Brazil. Through a survey research method,
with voluntary and unidentified participation of respondents,
we mapped when films are used and why, the judgment on the
successfulness of performed activities, and the difficulties to
use them. Data confirmed that films are widely employed; that
the main purposes of using movies are to provide additional
information and to illustrate how a given IR theory or school
explain the world; and that limits of using films go from the lack
of adequate films to the absence of adequate resources for their
exhibition.
Keywords: International Relations; pedagogy; movies; Brazil.
1 Doctor in Political Sciences (UGent/Belgium) and Doctor in International
Strategic Studies (UFRGS/Brazil); Lecturer in International Relations at Federal
University of ABC (São Bernardo do Campo/São Paulo, Brazil)
(cristine.zanella@ufabc.edu.br).
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7092-4549.
2 Doctor in International Strategic Studies (UFRGS/Brazil); Lecturer in International
Relations at Federal University of Uberlândia (Uberlândia/Minas Gerais, Brazil)
(edson.neves@ufu.br).
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0532-5555.
Artigo submetido em 19/03/2021 e aprovado em 03/05/2021.
ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DE
RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS
ISSN 2526-9038
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unrestricted use,
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• Este é um artigo
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Movies in the teaching of International Relations: the Brazilian experience
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Resumo
A partir de uma pesquisa quantitativa e qualitativa, com participação voluntária e não-
identificada dos respondentes, este trabalho investiga o uso dos filmes como ferramenta
pedagógica no ensino das Relações Internacionais no Brasil. Mapeamos quando os filmes
são utilizados e por que, a percepção sobre o sucesso das atividades e as dificuldades
observadas. Os dados confirmam que filmes são largamente utilizados; que as intenções
principais ao utilizá-los são fornecer informações sobre eventos e ilustrar as explicações
de dada teoria ou escola; e que os limites dessa ferramenta vão desde a falta de filmes
apropriados à ausência de recursos adequados para exibição.
Palavras-chave: Relações Internacionais; pedagogia; filmes; Brasil.
Resumen
A partir de una investigación cuantitativa y cualitativa, con participación voluntaria y no
identificada, este trabajo investiga el uso de películas como herramienta pedagógica en
la enseñanza de las Relaciones Internacionales en Brasil. Mapeamos cuándo se utilizan
las películas y por qué, la percepción sobre el éxito de las actividades y las dificultades
presentadas. Los datos recopilados confirman que las películas son ampliamente utilizadas;
que las principales intenciones son proporcionar información y ilustrar explicaciones de
una teoría o escuela determinada; y que los límites de esta herramienta van desde la falta
de películas adecuadas hasta la falta de recursos adecuados para exhibición.
Palabras clave: Relaciones Internacionales; pedagogía; cine; Brasil.
Introduction
International Relations (IR) are a privileged field for employing films as
a learning tool. Regardless of their gender, films can be used in IR, which is
explainable for several reasons, such as (i) films address relations beyond borders.
In very few other courses, students can feel distant from their academic objects
and scenarios of analysis as they feel in IR — films, by portraying events, help
perceive concepts, actors, and movements on these spaces making them less
abstract (Inoue, Krain 2014). This is especially true in large countries as Brazil,
in which many IR courses are headquartered far from the countries major cities
such as Sao Paulo , Rio de Janeiro, or Brasilia; (ii) the involvement in movies’
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histories by students can transform their interest in related topics into an easier
task and can therefore encourage them to investigate a specific topic (Kuzma,
Haney 2001); (iii) an in-context presentation provide a more complex view on
addressed themes or concepts (Weber 2001; Weber 2014), stimulating students
to explore these topics through other different perspectives than those limited
to certain theoretical schools, which increases analytic criticism; and (iv) films
can be more stimulating than text reading, and still contribute for more active
class participation (Inoue, Valença 2017; Boyer et al. 2003). Thus, the use of
cinematographic works for the teaching of International Relations has been a
frequent resource in classrooms and, increasingly, this has become an object of
academic research studies. The following article intends to add some contributions
in this regard.
Scholar Cynthia Weber (2014), in “International Relations Theory: a critical
introduction”, whose first edition was launched in 2001, analyzed each theory
on IR chosen for her book based on popular films. Weber — who is also a film
producer, director, and editor — became known for her series of short films on
the American identity fostered after September, 11th, by inviting her viewers to
think on democracy, multiculturalism, and national identity (I Am An American
2017). Like Weber, researcher Sophie Harman increases the list of IR scholars
who are directly involved with film production, exceeding the academic limit
restricted to analysis. In 2017, in partnership with director Leanne Welham,
Harman wrote the script and produced the film “Pili” (2017), about the struggle
of poor Tanzanian women against HIV. In 2019, she published the book Seeing
Politics. Film, Visual Method, and International Relations that deals with “Pili”
to demonstrate the virtues of cinema for the IR (Harman 2019). On a different
approach, Marc Doucet (2005) investigated children’s films. His work suggested
that films contribute to the increasing popularity of a certain vision of the world
at the detriment of others and therefore some IR theories tend to seem a more
accurate description of the world than others, which transforms their acceptance
into an easier process and validates them as a way of thinking on international
political phenomena.
Nevertheless, films are not an educational tool by themselves, and the way
through which teachers and professors use them for teaching and learning can
also pose some negative aspects. For instance, as far as the teaching of politics
and international politics is concerned, focusing on the main character’s suffering
in a film portraying atrocities can make it difficult to understand the current
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political dynamics that led to that violent scenario. By indicating arguments
that may go against the use of cinema for teaching IR, Safia Swimelar (2013), in
“Visualizing International Relations: Assessing Student Learning Through Film”,
highlights that films can manipulate contents and provide misinformation on the
addressed theme; films can still occupy an exaggerated time in class, provoking
tedium and leaving little room for reflection; films can also waste too much time
on unrelated themes; films can be proposed by teaching professionals with no
capacity in working with films; films can trigger emotional effects with a great
impact on the understanding of the analyzed theme; and films can mostly reflect
a certain theory or ideology, in a situation in which little or no attention being
given to other thoughts (Swimelar 2013, 16,19). This is a more elaborated made
by other authors that were celebrating the use of movies in the IR classrooms
but not without alerting that movies should not be incorporated in the curricula
without due attention to the intended learning goals (Glover, Tagliarina 2013).
Despite criticisms, the ten-year experience held by the authors suggests
that films have been progressively serving as material for IR lecturers, not as
objects of improved and finalized knowledge, but as a primary source of analysis,
as a cultural manifestation contextualized in time and space, just like other
works in the artistic field. And, in recent years, IR specialists have advanced,
as exemplified in the references to Cynthia Weber and Sophie Harman, in the
production of films oriented by fundamental themes in their field of study. This
work has been aimed to investigate this ongoing process in IR. The intention
was to investigate, in the Brazilian IR scenario, the profile of lecturers who are
more prone to employ films, when films are used as educational resources, the
goals intended by lecturers by using films as an educational tool, the judgment
on the successfulness of performed activities and the difficulties indicated by
lectures in the use of films for teaching purposes in IR.
To investigate the goals for which lecturers resort to the movies in IR, four
ways of using films in the class were resumed, following the definition proposed
by Stefan Engert and Alexander Spencer (2009), in “International Relations at
the Movies: Teaching and Learning about International Politics through Film”.
In their work, the authors identified the use of films for (i) portraying historical
events; (ii) debating on specific themes of international politics; (iii) examining
cultural narratives; and (iv) explaining and criticizing IR theories. On this work,
however, we worked with only three categories of goals. The two first ones were
suppressed and reformulated to: “adding information on either a specific event
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or on a theme”. The first goal was reformulated because we considered that no
teacher resorts to films as an accurate picture or as the sole source of information
on an event. We also excluded the second goal indicated by Engert and Spencer
(debating specific themes on international politics) because we considered that
debates can be unleashed in all situations and that dialectics will be inherent to
both the examining of cultural narratives and the criticism on IR theories. Thus,
debating specific themes can be suppressed as an independent category of goals.
This work is divided into three sections. In the first section, we describe
the methodology for applying forms and the universe of analysis. In the second
section, we analyze the profile of lecturers who use films as educational tools
for teaching IR and we also report the reasons and arguments invoked by those
who neither use films nor intend to use them as an educational resource. In the
third section, we analyze the goal for which films are employed, how lecturers
assess the success in using this tool, and the difficulties of using cinema within
IR learning environments where teachers work. Throughout these sections, we
will indicate the paths explored by this research in its following steps.
Description of research method and universe of analysis
In Brazil, IR has expanded as a field of scholar education. Between 2005 and
2015 this growth was expressive as it was enlarged from 58 to 112 IR courses. Still,
in 2015, the approximate figure of IR students in Brazil exceeded 24 thousand
individuals (Inep 2016). This expansion of IR courses has been also followed by
the consolidation of this area as a field of scientific knowledge. One step toward
this goal is perceived by the adoption of so-called National Course Guidelines,
or NCGs (in Portuguese, Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais — DCNs) for college
courses. NCGs are aimed at defining some basic contents for each course, still
attempting to guarantee that a minimal range of knowledge is taught for all
students enrolled in a certain course within the Brazilian territory. For IR courses,
NCGs were approved by the Brazilian National Council for Education (Conselho
Nacional de Educação — CNE) formally adopted in October 2017 (CNE 2017).
Although it is possible to identify both the growth in IR courses and the
consolidation of this area in the country, it is also very hard to define the number
of lecturers of these courses in the Brazilian territory. Several reasons contribute
to this difficulty. Firstly, there is not a database assembling IR lecturers in the
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country. Secondly, the correspondent Brazilian association, Brazilian Association
for International Relations (Associação Brasileira de Relações Internacionais —
ABRI) has been indeed consolidated as a space for scholar reunion. However,
many individuals are not associated, so the official board of affiliates is a partial
representation of IR lecturers in Brazil. A study performed by Villa et al. (2017)
— in which trends, preferences, and perceptions of IR epistemic communities in
Latin America are addressed — identified 321 members in the Brazilian epistemic
community for IR. We understand that this figure is underestimated. With more
than 100 IR courses in Brazil, considering its epistemic community (scholars and
lecturers, as informed by the research) as being composed of 321 individuals
would correspond to considering that, in each course, only 3 lecturers are part
of that community. Even if one considers only those lecturers linked to more
specific IR subjects — such as Brazilian foreign policy, analysis on foreign policy,
international politics, international security, and IR theories —, this number still
seems rather reduced.
A third factor contributing to the difficulty in identifying the universe of
IR lecturers is that, even if a survey came to be performed, by quantifying the
number of IR lectures in Brazil, this would still be a transitory environment.
IR is characterized by its interdisciplinarity, which frequently leads lecturers
to be associated with each course only for teaching specific subjects. In some
institutions, for instance, many lecturers are mainly associated with other courses
and teach IR subjects on a solely occasional basis. This situation leads to the fact
that the teaching staff working at each IR course may substantially differ yearly.
In the face of the aforementioned non-existence of a database of IR lecturers,
the universe of respondents in the survey we conducted was defined by another
assessment, performed between August 2015 and January 2017, on internet
websites for IR courses in Brazil. 85 websites were located, in the 5 territorial
areas of Brazil, and provided information on lecturers associated with each course.
1892 names of lectures associated with IR courses were identified, among which
1021 e-mail addresses were located. The research universe excluded lecturers on
courses with no websites, lecturers who were not officially listed on each course,
and those whose institutions’ websites did not provide their e-mail addresses.
Therefore, the fundamental criterion for preparing this research and defining who
would be consulted derives from basic guidance on quantitative research methods:
how the Brazilian International Relations epistemic community is undefined,
mainly due to the increase in the number of courses and its interdisciplinary
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character, the option was to consider the largest number of lecturers linked to
undergraduate courses available for contact through digital addresses.
Out of the 1021 invitations which were sent with a website link for answering
the survey, 159 were returned for delivery failure due to the deactivation of the
address, which indicates, as previously suggested, a high turnover in the number
of lecturers in Brazilian IR courses; 74 invitations were returned as an automatic
answer, indicating lecturers’ absence due to their vacation; 154 invitations were
personally answered by lecturers who did teach at the IR course, but declined to
answer the survey because their subjects were not associated to IR core courses
(for instance: English language, computing, Portuguese language, Mathematics,
Accounting, among other subjects); and 10 invitations were answered by lecturers
indicating they were no longer associated to that course. Therefore, 624 was
the final figure of useful invitations. Out of these 624 invitations, 26% were
effectively answered. One form was excluded because the lecturer only taught
for post-graduation classes, and the object of this research is limited to the use
of cinema for teaching IR at graduation level (which leads to a Bachelor’s degree
in Brazil). 163 was the total figure of answered forms which were useful for this
research.
Table 1 — Definition of the universe of lecturers and answered forms
Description
Number/Figure
Total lecturers’ e-mail addresses collected from consultation on websites 1021
Automatically returned invitations for delivery failure due to the deactivation
of e-mail addresses 159
Automatically returned invitations for lecturers’ absence due to personal
vacations 74
Lecturers who did not answer the survey for teaching parallel disciplines,
with no direct linking to IR 154
Lecturers who did not answer for no longer teaching at the course 10
Total useful forwarded invitations 624
Total answered forms 164 (=26,28%)
Lecturers who only teach at the post-graduation level 1
Total forms useful for this research 163
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
The forms were created on Google Forms platform. The answers were
spontaneous and non-identified by specific names. Nevertheless, the respondents’
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e-mail addresses were requested, to make it possible to further expand this
research on specific points demanding deeper analysis. In this sense, there are
two examples, among many: one can more deeply investigate how lecturers
who stated using films for working with a specific IR theory did this, and; one
can still investigate what type of materials were sought by lectures who stated
not being able to identify films able to respond to their educational purposes.
Another goal in this collection process was to enable some return to respondents
of the written work, based on the several obtained answers.
In age terms, the respondents’ profile indicates a group of lecturers
concentrated on an age group defined in Brazil as adults (between 30 and 59
years old). More than half of the respondents (53%) are between 30 and 44 years
old. There is a balance in their origins, with 50% of the respondents working
for public institutions and the other 50% working for private institutions. The
majority of respondents finished their doctorates (65%). On the data-collection
process, this group was divided between lecturers holding only a doctorate and
lecturers with an extra research period, in post-doctorate, with this subdivision
being performed to a more accurate group stratification. Finally, the Brazilian
Southeastern area is where the majority of respondents work and where the
majority of IR courses in Brazil are.
Framework 1 — Form respondents’ profile (number of respondents
and corresponding percentage within each analyzed category)
Age group
Up to 29 years old 30-44 years old 45-59 years old 60 or older Total
16 10% 87 53% 42 26% 18 11 % 163 100%
Nature of the institution
Private Public Total
82 50% 81 50% 163 100%
Highest educational level achieved
Post-doctorate Doctorate Mastership Specialization Total
28 17% 79 48% 54 33% 2 1% 163 100%
Brazilian location
South Southeast Center-West Northeast North
34 21% 85 52% 17 10% 17 10% 10 6%
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
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Some considerations must be made regarding the representativeness of
the sample of respondents in their relationship with the teaching profile of IR
Bachelor’s degree courses in Brazil. As a rule, in data research, it is essential
to consider whether the sample numbers are representative of the group to be
analyzed. In our case, as there is no epistemic community determined by the
bibliography for the academic field of International Relations and as the course
is interdisciplinary by its nature, we chose to send the questionnaire on the use
of films in the teaching of IR to all teachers who had their virtual addresses
available on the institutions’ websites. This exercise raised the question of
whether the sample obtained from the respondents was representative of the
group of lecturers in the International Relations courses in Brazil. As will be seen
below, the confirmation of this relation is only partially verifiable, considering
the questions we asked in the form, indicated in Framework 1.
First, concerning respondents by age (in Framework 1 indicated as “Age
group”). There is no specific information regarding the age profile of the teaching
staff of undergraduate degrees in International Relations or even of lecturers at
national Higher Education Institutions. Therefore, checking whether our sample
is representative of this reference is not a possibility.
Second, regarding the nature of the respondents’ institutions, there is a
substantial disparity concerning the profile of undergraduate courses in national
International Relations. According to Framework 1, the number of lecturers from
public and private institutions that filled out the form is practically identical.
However, if we consider the number of International Relations courses in Brazil, the
superiority of private institutions is evident. A survey on the field of International
Relations in Brazil, published in 2020, with data referring to the period from 1974
to 2017, indicated that there were 125 undergraduate active courses in private
institutions against only 26 in Public Universities (Ferreira 2020). In this regard,
private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) therefore represented approximately
83% of Brazilian IR courses and public ones only 17%. These figures indicate
that the number of teachers in private institutions was (and still is) much higher
than that of public institutions. Therefore, considering our sample, there is a
notable difference to indicate its representativeness.
Third, concerning the degree of training in our sample (“Highest educational
level achieved” in Framework 1), it is clear that there is a predominance of lecturers
with doctorates and post-doctorates: 65% of the group; a smaller proportion for
those with Master’s degrees (33%) and only two individuals with training at the
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Specialization level (1%). It is important to note that in the Brazilian academic
structure, there are two types of postgraduate courses: the stricto-sensu, which
includes master’s and doctoral degrees; and lato-sensu aimed at specializing in
certain areas which is why they are also called Specialization courses. There are
no published studies for the International Relations course that reveal the degree
of lecturers’ training working on IR courses. However, if we observe the Higher
Education Census, an extensive survey on national higher education, it presents
the profile of the teaching staff of national HEIs. According to data from the
2019 Census, the percentage of lecturers with a doctorate (or post-doctorate) in
higher education is 45.9%, with a master’s degree is 37.5%, and Specialization,
15.7% (Inep 2019). In this case, the approximation of our sample is moderate
because it is only close to the data related to the “Master’s” training.
Finally, regarding the respondents’ regional location (in Framework 1 “Brazilian
location”), there is a significant approximation if the number of courses by
geographic regions of Brazil is considered. According to the aforementioned
publication, on the IR scenario in Brazil, 55% of undergraduate courses in
International Relations are in the Southeast region; 21% in the South region;
10% in the Midwest; 8% in the Northeast, and 5% in the North; in addition to
1% who answered “does not apply” (Ferreira 2020). In our sample, according to
Framework 1, the number of respondents by region is very close: 52% Southeast;
21% South; 10% Midwest; 10 % Northeast, and 6% North. In this case, the
representativeness of the research concerning the International Relations area
is much more significant.
In summary, as for representativeness, there is a very approximate
correspondence only for the item “Brazilian location”, which considers the
geographic region of the teachers who answered our questionnaire. Moderate
representativeness for the “Highest educational level achieved” field, and a low
one for the “Nature of the institution” indicator. Such conclusions, therefore,
make it clear that the sample number refers to the fraction that answered the
questionnaire and does not represent the Brazilian International Relations epistemic
community. This conclusion does not invalidate the research presented here,
because defining an epistemic community, as aforementioned, for the field of
International Relations in Brazil would require specific research, but it should
be noted that the results presented refer only to our sample.
In the next section, the assessment on the use of cinema by each of these
strata will be presented, in an attempt to identify patterns, to suggest some
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explanations for the numbers which were found, and to indicate further research
paths.
Who uses movies in the teaching of IR in Brazil
The answers which were obtained from lecturers indicate that films —
encompassing, in this work-research, both fictional films and documentaries
— are sources to which IR lectures often resort. More than 82% of the lecturers
stated that, in subjects taught at IR courses, they used entire films or film
fragments as educational tools, either by developing in-class activities or by
suggesting studying activities to be performed at home. Despite some occasional
disadvantages in the use of cinema, as remarked by Swimelar, IR lecturers foresee
several positive aspects in resorting to this tool for improving the knowledge
built from conventional sources.
In terms of the age group, one could be led to believe that younger lecturers
would tend to interact with these audiovisual tools and to resort to them in
the process of teaching and learning. However, this group, formed by 10%
of the respondents, was precisely the one presenting the lowest number of
lecturers who stated to have resorted to the use of cinema in class and/or to the
recommendation of films for in-home activities. Generally, resorting to the use
of cinema increases as the lecturer’s age also increases. The group of lecturers
stating a higher degree in the use of cinema was that between 45 and 59 years
old. Working with cinema as a teaching tool is neither obvious nor consolidated
in the field of IR, and there is still a lack of texts guiding the methodology to be
employed in class for this purpose. In this sense, the fact that more experienced
lecturers are those who more often resort to cinema as an educational tool seems
to reflect more confidence in contents that can be approached through other tools.
Besides, at this age, lecturers already had the opportunity of knowing a wider
range of films able to serve educational purposes. Finally, the group of eldest
lecturers also resort less to films than those lecturers who are between 30 and
59 years old. This can suggest an attachment to traditional means of teaching
and learning or even some difficulty in handling the equipment required for
audiovisual usage. Additionally, younger lecturers may avoid resorting to less
conventional sources due to their wish of stating their knowledge on classic
sources for the study of IR.
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Graphic 1 — Use of films in the process of teaching IR in Brazil
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 01 00
Use in classroom or recommend films
North
Northeast
Center-West
Southeast
South
Post Doctorate
Doctorate
Mastership
Specialization
Private
Public
up to 29 years old
30 to 44 years old
45 to 59 years old
60 years old or more
TotalR egion
Highest
educational level
achieved
Nature of
institution
Lecturer's age
group
Yes %
No %
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
Regarding the nature of institutions where lectures teach, whereas 94%
of the lecturers working for private institutions stated to resort to films as an
educational tool, 70% of the lecturers working for public institutions stated
the same. This is the deepest intra-category difference within the categories
investigated on Graphic 1. When these figures are crossed with the reasons for
which lecturers neither used nor recommended films (Frameworks 2, 3, 4), two
situations are unfolded.
In the first situation, among those who did not use films, but expressed
interest in using films (22 lecturers), the main alleged reasons were “lack of
classroom and/or adequate audiovisual resources for the exhibition”, “lack of
adequate films for the desired educational purposes”, “difficulty in obtaining
films” and “unfamiliarity with adequate methodologies for working with films
as an educational tool”. These reasons mainly indicate the lack of material
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resources (equipment, films) that enable the use of this tool or still the lack
of methodological resources (knowing how to use films for teaching). Since it
is imagined that methodological tools are accessible for lecturers working at
both private and public institutions, it is possible to infer that part of the lower
degree in using audiovisual tools by lecturers working for public institutions is
due to an equally lower degree in access to material resources in comparison
to private institutions.
In the second situation, in the investigation of lecturers who neither used
nor were interested in using films in the process of teaching (7 lecturers), the
main indicated reasons for their lack of interest were: “they are not adequate
resources for the specific taught subjects”, “I consider that scholar books and
articles are more efficient resources for college teaching”, “it consumes much
time of class” and “I do not have enough knowledge on the methodology for
using cinema as an educational tool”. The reasons for the non-interest in using
films as an educational tool refer to the inadequacy of cinema for teaching
specific subjects (which reflects in the statement that cinema is unsuitable for
both certain contents and in-class work). The lack of knowledge on adequate
methodologies for working with films emerges again among the reasons for the
non-interest in working with films as educational tools.
Framework 2 — Interest in using films by lecturers who had not done it yet
Who did not use films Number/Figure
But are interested in using films 22
And are not interested in using films 7
Total 29
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
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Framework 3 — Difficulties in the use of films by lecturers who
did not use them, but are interested in using them
Difficulties in the use of films as an educational tool faced by those
who did not use films, but is interested in using (more
than one alternative could be selected)
Number/
Figure
Lack of classroom and or/ audiovisual resources adequate to exhibition 10
Lack of films which serve to the aimed educational purposes 7
Difficulty in obtaining films 6
Lack of knowledge on adequate methodologies for working with films as
an educational tool 6
Lack of students' interest in using this instrument 2
More than 70 minutes reduce the time for discussion 1
The exhibition of films in the classroom would harm other educational
activities 1
I used films on other occasions and had no difficulties 1
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
Framework 4 — Reasons alleged by lecturers who neither
used nor have interest in using films
Reasons why films were not used / there is no interest in using films
(more than one alternative could be selected)
Number /
Figure
They are not adequate resources for the subjects that I teach 3
I think that scholarly books and articles are more efficient resources for
education in college; 2
They consume too much time of the class 2
I do not know enough of the methodology for using films as an
educational tool 2
There is a lack of physical or technical structure for using films as an
educational tool 1
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
Following Graphic 1, it is remarked that the use of films as tools for teaching
IR tends to be slightly lower among lecturers with doctorate than among lecturers
with mastership. These figures may perhaps be explained from the perspective
of a higher degree in confidence held by lecturers with a doctorate in using
more traditional means of teaching and learning. It is also possible that lecturers
with a lower educational degree, even for compensating an eventual authority
stemming from a doctorate, are more concerned in making their taught subjects
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more attractive for the students, being ready to establish a dialogue with the
current audiovisual production and to use films as an educational tool.
In a nearly counter-intuitive result, in terms of economic development
according to Brazilian locations, lectures working in the Northern area of Brazil,
followed by those working at the Center-Western region, were those who stated
to make the highest degree in using films as educational, tools, with respective
figures of 80% and 90% of positive answers. Lecturers working in the wealthiest
Southeastern area are the next ones, presenting a figure of 85% of these lecturers
stating to use films in their subjects. The last stratum was occupied by the
Northeast and the South, with respective figures of 82% and 71% of lecturers
stating to make use of films as educational tools. In the analysis of specific forms
answered by lecturers from the Southern region, the results are that (i) they did
not use films and have interest in using them, the most indicated difficulties are
“Lack of classroom and/or adequate audiovisual resources for an exhibition” (3
references) and “difficulty in obtaining films” (2 references). Other reasons, such
as lack of students’ interest, lack of knowledge on methodologies and lack of films
which serve to educational purposes, received one mention each. By analyzing
specific forms answered by lectures in the Southern region who (ii) did not use
films and have no interest in using them, the most alleged reasons were that
(films) “are not adequate resources for the subjects I teach” (2 mentions) and
“I think that scholar books and articles are more efficient resources for teaching
at college” and “there is a lack of physical or technical structure for using films
as an educational tool” (1 mention each). Therefore, it is perceivable that, in
addition to those cases in which cinema is not useful for teaching a specific
subject (cases in which the lecturer neither uses nor intends to use films), the
lack of material resources negatively impacts the use of cinema as an educational
tool in the Southern area of Brazil, as seen in both specific and overall answers
(Frameworks e and 4 above).
Finally, another variable must be considered to understand the use of films
in the classroom in the teaching of IR: the provision of complementary courses
or extension activities. In some institutions of higher education exhibitions of
cinematographic works are recurrent, if not regular, as a resource for academic
debate outside the classroom space, that is, not linked to the content of a specific
discipline. Such a resource can work in different ways for the use of cinema in
the classroom; by the demand and adhesion of the students, it can be a stimulus
to the practices and induce the insertion of films in the disciplinary plans or, on
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the other hand, it can curb its use in the classroom by considering that events
about cinema and International Relations are already held and has an interested
public served. However, preparing a quantitative study on the use of cinema as
a complementary formation or as an extension activity, as well as its impact on
the use of films for the teaching of IR, is quite a complicated task for two main
reasons. First, they are not mandatory activities and depend on the initiatives
of student organizations or lecturers who are enthusiastic about the method.
Second, many of these activities are not registered in digital systems, have
different formats and some are not even disclosed outside the undergraduate
course in which they are carried out.
In the next section, which films are used in the teaching of IR and their
correspondent goals.
What, when, and with which goal films are used in the teaching
of IR in Brazil
Graphic 2 displays that lecturers who resort to films as an educational tool
widely use them, both in fiction and documentary, both in the classroom and
for in-home activities. This means that, once these lecturers begin to use films in
the process of teaching, these lecturers recognize several moments and contexts
in which these resources contribute to the educational process.
By considering lecturers who either use films only in the classroom or solely
recommend films for in-home activities, it is remarked that there is a preference
for handling materials in the classroom. Perhaps this preference is related to the
possibility of thinking and debating with students about the exhibited material,
for guiding their attention to the goals intended with the use of the film, at the
detriment of a more loosen interpretation of the content provided by the film.
By considering the isolated and sole preference either for documentaries or
for fictional films, lecturers prefer documentaries. This preference for documents
may be linked to the very own nature of these films: “approaching concepts and
questions about which there is a significant social interest or debate” (Nichols
2005,10). In documentaries, there is also a more plural narrative, because, in
these works, the specialized literature recognizes that there is an intertwining
phenomenon that encompasses at least three components: the filmmaker’s
history, the history of the film, and the audience’s history (Nichols 2005, 93).
By coupling these elements with the fact that this type of work is generally
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aimed at approaching reality — even though a documentary cannot be confused
with reality —, the use of documentaries can represent, for the lecturer, a more
graphic and more complex tool for approaching a specific topic of content, as it
does occur in reality itself.
Regarding the use of documentaries as educational tools, Munster and Sylvest
(2015) stated that documentaries have an inherent educational potential, whether
for what is displayed or for what is said about a certain event or theme. However,
studies performed by Zanella and Neves (2017) with IR students revealed that,
under the perspective adopted by students, the mediation provided by lecturers
in the use of documentaries is essential for organizing the process of learning,
whether through the presentation and previous discussion of the theme or
through provoking the student’s stance for facts and relations among actors and
driving forces, for instance.
Graphic 2 — Nature of films and context of use for teaching
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0 100
Only as na extrar ecommendationf or in-homea ctivity
Only duringc lass period
During thec lass perioda nd as an extra
recommendation fori n-homea ctivity
Fiction
Documentary
Both
No answer
Situationo ft he use
of cinema for
teaching IR
Nature of thef ilmu sedo r
recomended
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
Regarding the educational goals which are intended in the use or
recommendation of films (Graphic 3), 40% of the lectures affirmed to use
films in order “to provide additional information on a specific event (e.g.: the
UN Peace Mission in Haiti) or on a theme (e.g.: the defense human rights)”. In
a way, this reflects the preference by lecturers for documentaries, which add
the connection of the content to information and perspectives held by several
individuals on a studied reality. Other 40% of lecturers informed to use films
mainly in order “to illustrate how a given IR theory, economic school, political
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school, etc., explain the world (e.g.: to illustrate what the film assumes as relevant
for explaining how the world works, why some specific results are obtained,
etc.).”. This is related to a demanding approach; and, in our perspective, this is
the most difficult educational approach stemming from the cinema. Teaching,
in this case, means to drive or to provoke the student’s thinking to go beyond
evident information displayed on the screen and therefore reach the set of ideas
and cause-effect relations stemming from both the content and the structure of
the film. An important example of this approach is the systematic assessment of
IR theories through films, in accordance to Cynthia Weber (2014) at the end of
each chapter of her book “International Relations Theory: a critical introduction”.
This research shows that lecturers in Brazil are committed to developing a similar
approach in the classroom. Finally, 19% of the respondents affirmed to use films
“to assess the political stance of the movie”, indicating lecturers’ perception that
movies carry the perspective of those who create them (Shapiro 2009), a world
view, with certain foundations, stereotypes and even purposes.
The perspective of continuity of this research is therefore promising, in the
sense of indicating how these lecturers perform this approach.
Graphic 3 — Main educational purpose when using films
40%
19%
40%
1%
To provide additional informationo na specifice vent
(e.g.: theU NP eace Mission in Haiti) or on at heme
(e.g.: thed efense humanr ights) -40%
To assest he political stanceo ft he film or the world
narrativeo ft he film (e.g.: to critically analyzew hat
films, such as thoser elated to thew ar on terror,c hose
to saya nd how they choset os ay - 19%
To illustrate howa givenI Rt heory, economic school,
politicals chool, etc.,e xplains the world( e.g.:t o
illustrate what the film assumesa sr elevantf or
explaining how the worldw orks,w hy some specific
resultsa re obtained,e tc.). -40%
No answer -1%
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
Finally, on Framework 5, it is possible to identify great satisfaction from
the use of films as an educational tool. The majority of lecturers stated to have
fully reached their intended goals. A reduced — albeit non-negligible — number
of lecturers indicated the impossibility of assessing whether goals were indeed
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reached. This can be ascribed to the recommendation of films as extra material
to the addressed content, without being part of the evaluation activity performed
by each lecturer. When they were questioned on the difficulties in employing
films as educational tools, a majority affirms not to have any difficulty at all in
using this tool (Framework 6). Regarding these alleged difficulties, there is some
highlight for “lack of classroom and or audiovisual resources adequate for the
exhibition” (37 mentions) and “lack of knowledge on adequate methodologies
for using films as an educational tool” (27 mentions). By considering that the
difficulty in access to resources is circumstantial at each institution where each
lecturer works, the methodology is the aspect for which an eventual continuity
of this research may contribute.
Framework 5 — Degree of successfulness of using films as an educational tool
Do you think that the defined goals for using or recommending films: Number /
Figure
Were fully reached 87
Were partially reached 36
Were not reached 0
I cannot assess it 9
No answer 2
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
Framework 6 — Difficulties in using films as an educational tool
For who used or recommended films — Which are the main difficulties
that you would indicate in the use of films as an educational tool (more
than one alternative could be selected):
Number /
Figure
I use films and don´t have difficulties / at all 56
Lack of classroom and/or audiovisual resources adequate for exhibition 37
Lack of knowledge on adequate methodologies for working films as an
educational tool 27
Difficulty in obtaining films 24
Lack of films that serve to the aimed educational purposes 22
Lack of students' interest in the use of this tool 16
This practice is not encouraged by the course or institution 10
There is no time for the full exhibition of the film 3
Other indicated problems (lack of subtitles in Portuguese and internet-
connection problems) 2
Source: Prepared by the authors (2020).
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The following section will summarize some conclusions and indicates the
most promising ways to be paved by further research.
Final remarks
With the growth of IR as a field of knowledge in Brazil, there is an equally
growing interest in educational matters related to this area. This text has intended
to offer a panoramic view on the use of films as an educational tool for teaching
IR. Overall, there was a perception that films — especially documentaries — are
widely employed as educational resources in IR. However, there are situations in
which the use of films is not recommended for addressing IR contents, whether
because the content itself has no gains in being studied through cinema, or
because the lecturer himself or herself does not know about adequate films for
the intended educational goals. In any case, among the major difficulties alleged
for the use of films — if it is not the major difficulty itself —, is the lack of a
classroom and or audiovisual adequate resources for exhibiting films. In this
case, the problem is posed by material resources available by the institution
and the students and lecturers themselves can exert some pressure to obtain
these resources. Differently, the significant mention by lecturers with difficulties
in working with films because of unknowledge on adequate methodologies is
one of the important data that emerged from this research, paving a way to be
followed in future texts.
In parallel with the growth of the academic field of IR, it is necessary to
consider the significant increase in access to films outside of Hollywood circuits
to expand the use of cinema as an educational tool. In general, until recently, in
countries like Brazil, the universe of films available was limited to a few national
productions and a majority of works from major studios in the United States.
With the profusion of the internet and streaming platforms, the availability of
films of distinct nationalities and with different approaches has considerably
expanded. If we add to this change the proliferation of TV series, also coming
from nations with little-known film industries, the provision of audiovisual
works reaches considerable diversity. This scenario is relevant because one
of the problems pointed out by the teachers who answered the questionnaire
was the lack of adequate works for the teaching of IR. This lack of adequate
films pointed by lecturers from the Global South may be related exactly to the
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thematic or narrative perspective inadequacy present in the most easily available
films distributed in Brazil. For now, this is a reasoning that we present only as
a hypothesis which, added to the adequate methodologies, will deserve better
address in a continuation of our research.
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