Cinema and geography teachers: approaches and distancing - considerations from the public education network of Dourados (MS)

Abstract

In this paper, we intend, based on data obtained in research carried out with Geography teachers working in public schools in Dourados (MS), to analyze how these teachers understand and work with cinema in the educational context. We verified that vast majority of teachers surveyed pointed out as the first reason for using films in the classroom the fact that cinema is a way of cultural expansion of students. However, when we observe the phrases that they wrote to characterize the relationship between cinema and school, we perceive the predominance of the concept of cinema as a didactic tool for teaching Geography content. This is reinforced when we analyze the list of films used in relation to the contents / themes worked on. In this sense, it can be said that the approach to cinema occurs more by the search for didactic resources that can illustrate or reinforce the contents worked on than by the characteristics and potential of films as a language that participates in the creation of spatial senses. The distance between teachers and cinema can also be seen by the little knowledge they have about this language, as the number of those who have taken a course or read books about cinema is reduced. These considerations indicate the need to expand the concept restricted to the instrumental and communicative dimension of cinema predominant among teachers participating in the research.