Author: Süss, Daniel / Hart, Andrew.

Title: Media Education in 12 European Countries. A Comparative Study of Teaching Media in Mother Tongue Education in Secondary Schools.

Source: http://e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/ecol-pool/bericht/bericht_246.pdf [12-08-2003]. Southampton 1999. P. 1-268.

Publisher: Research and Graduate School of Education.

Published with kind permission of the publisher.

Andrew Hart / Daniel Süss (Eds.)

Media Education in 12 European Countries:
A Comparative Study of Teaching Media in Mother Tongue Education in Secondary Schools

Research report from the Euromedia Project, co-ordinated by Andrew Hart at the Media Education Centre at the University of Southampton, U.K.

Co-ordination of the publication project by Daniel Süss, University of Applied Sciences Zurich, School of Applied Psychology and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

E-Collection of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, 2002

This report is dedicated to the memory of Andrew Hart

Outline of the Euromedia Project

Andrew Hart

Global media and global education

Media ownership, production and distribution have become increasingly internationalised and even globalised. But educational responses have not kept pace with these developments. There has been much rhetoric but little research about Media teaching and learning. There is therefore a pressing need for comparative studies, so that local research can be examined in a global context. Media culture has expanded massively over the last decades. There is a range of new media: cable and satellite television, home computers, video recorders and camcorders, new 'on-line' interactive services, video discs and other consumer-oriented interactive software. The movement from analogue to digital coding and the consolidation of communications conglomerates has given rise to a growing interpenetration of media, as genres, themes and contents flow from one to another with increasing fluidity. We are entering a multimedia environment which is increasingly enveloping, involving and experienced as an interconnected whole.

Technological and statutory developments have led to significant changes in the ways in which young people interact with the media. Various forms of deregulation have led to the increasing availability of specialist and streamed services which no longer fit the traditional models of broadcasting. Technological developments have facilitated increasingly creative participation in media processes and interactions with media artefacts. These practices include 'scratch' video, the use of 'dub' and mixing techniques in live and recorded music and the reworking of still images through digital manipulation. At the same time, computer technology has increased the opportunities for relatively sophisticated production in sound and still and moving images. Increasingly, these are distributed through the Internet, thereby changing the relationships betwet young people and commercial media industries.

Optimists see these developments as supporting a more open, diverse and participatory communications system which will offer more choice for audiences, more fluid relationships between producers and users and a more informed and active citizenry. Pessimists fear the exclusion effects of differential access to key resources and competencies and the erosion of boundaries between fantasy, fiction and reality. Many point to the increased problems of regulating children and young peoples' exposure 'unsuitable' representations, especially given the spread of Internet access.

Debates between conflicting views about the media of the future have strongly influenced current thinking about appropriate forms of education. This book will show how classroom strategies and practices in different countries are responding to the new technological developments and ideological debates.

PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The project will offer the first international perspective on the teaching of Media to 14-16 year-old students in the 1990s in Europe. Each local study will include a general analysis of the development and current situation of Media Education in a specific national context, noting how particular theoretical and practical problems have affected it. By providing detailed case studies of current work in different parts of the world, this project will enable comparative analysis of various Media teaching paradigms and practices in different cultures. It will offer new perspectives on Media teaching, which will enable teachers to examine approaches which differ from their own and to reflect on their own practices with a view to understanding them more fully and enhancing their effectiveness in the classroom.

The project seeks to illuminate three major general questions:

• How are teachers living in the new multimedia world, in their own lives and in their lassroompractice?

• How do they see this world in relation to their personal philosophies of teaching?

• How are schools responding as institutions? To what extent do school policies recognise the importance of young people's extra-curricular culture?

• What influences are exerted by national and local curricular authorities? Do current formal curricula encourage engagement with new media technologies?

The project's specific research question is:

• What are Mother Tongue/L1 teachers doing when they say they are doing Media Education at ages 14-16 in secondary schools?

This question will be made operational by focusing on two major sub-questions:

• What Media Education aims are apparent?

• What forms of Media Education are apparent?

In turn, these questions will be broken down into further questions:

• who teachers of English\t\1edia are (their experiences, background and training)

• how they see themselves in relation to schools and curricula

• what they say (and think) about Media Education as a discipline

• how they define their own approach to Media Education

• what they actually do when they do Media Education

OBJECTIVES

The project will:

• document the different understandings, purposes and practices of Media teachers in a range of international locations

• enable comparative analysis of different approaches to Media teaching both within different national and between different international locations

• encourage discussion of appropriate models for different locations and purposes

• offer a specific, replicable model for classroom research by other practitioners

• facilitate discussion of appropriate methodologies for classroom research in Media Education

• provide a basis for the continuing development of Media Education as a discipline and for further research in Media Education.

ORIGINS

The project is based on the success of the original Models of Media Education Project (1992-93) in England and its international extension as the Models of Media Education Inter-national Project carried out in English-speaking countries throughout the world, (Hart, 1998). The process of observation, discussion and analysis illuminated some of the convergences between English teaching and Media Education and enabled us to examine a range of classroom strategies in some detail.

DESIGN

As in the original Models of Media Education study, this project will produce two distinct sets of data on Media teachers' rationales for their work through interviews and Media teachers' classroom methods from lesson observations. It will use structured interviews to investigate teachers' motivations, aims and anxieties in relation to Media teaching. It will also carry out systematic observation of lessons and included a de-briefing process with the teachers interviewed. Each interview will include a brief description of the lesson to be observed and a full account of the lesson's aims. A Media lesson (also averaging about an hour) will be observed by the interviewer. Interviews (and, optionally, the lessons themselves) will be recorded on cassette and draft accounts of the lessons and interviews sent to the interviewees for comment.

Contexts

Studies will be based on empirical research in a secondary school context with teachers of 14-16 year-old students studying Media.

Methods

At least 10 teachers will be observed teaching Media and interviewed about their teaching, using agreed frameworks for interviewing and observation.

The interviews will seek to establish:

• conceptions of Media Education within Mother Tongue teaching

• perceived problems and rewards of teaching and learning about the media

• teachers' attitudes to Media Education both as a theoretical discipline and as a classroom subject

• teachers' aims for their students

• teachers' prior experience of media institutions

• key concepts with which teachers feel most confident and the sources from which their understanding of these concepts derive

• favoured resources and the ways in which these are used

• teachers' expectations for the future of Media Education

Methodological rationale

Classroom research has long been animated by major theoretical and methodological debates which can only be sketched in briefly here (Hammersley 1993). It may be helpful, however, to discuss briefly the two methods used in our own research to collect two distinct sets of data, through structured interviews with teachers and through systematic observation of selected lessons. In the 1960s, the dominant method for studying classroom phenomena was systematic observation.

Large samples of teachers and students were observed at regular time intervals or for specified periods and recurrent events and interactions were recorded according to a predetermined coding scheme. One of the best known of these is Flanders' Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC), but there are now more than 100 others. Systematic observation has been frequently criticised as having some major flaws (Walker and Adelman 1975; Delamont and Hamilton 1984). For example, using predetermined categories may prevent insight into unpredicted complex behaviours. At the same time, arbitrary time-sampling neglects and may distort 'natural' classroom interaction patterns and restriction to classroom settings ignores the contexts of teacher and student cultures, assumptions and intentions which envelop them.

Whilst this research method has been ably defended (McIntyre and Macleod 1978), it is clear that FIAC and other coding systems are not equally suited to all classroom situations. FIAC is particularly appropriate for coding talk in a 'transmission'-type classroom but produces difficulties in coping with talk in small-group contexts where pupils talk to each other. The external systematic observer is also unlikely to understand, let alone to code adequately, many of the detailed connotative aspects of classroom talk. A great deal of talk in 'open' classrooms necessarily remains hidden. During the 1970s and 1980s, an increased emphasis on "naturalistic study of everyday settings employing relatively unstructured, qualitative methods" (Hammersley 1993: x) gained favour amongst classroom researchers. Through the influence of several different but interlocking approaches (in particular, ethnography, ethnomethodology, interactionism and phenomenology) there has been a marked shift away from the study of large samples and the use of quantitative analysis and statistical explanations towards the production of 'thicker', more in-depth data based on ethnographic techniques. Amongst a range of interpretive and qualitative approaches, the casestudy method has come to dominate classroom research.

Unlike full-scale ethnography, which necessarily involves extended periods of intensive participant observation, case studies have the distinct advantage of enabling research results and recommendations to be produced within a useable time-frame because they reduce the amount of necessary researcher time spent in a given setting. At the same time, case studies offer the subjects who participate a greater measure of control over the research process through negotiated access to data and publication of findings. Both of these factors are especially significant in school settings, where teachers are both extremely busy and have a legitimate professional interest in classroom research which may enhance good practice.

The case-study approach using ethnographic techniques emphasises description and analysis rather than theoretical perspectives. It does not involve the rigorous setting up and testing of hypotheses so much as the evolution of appropriate theoretical explanations for the data collected.

SCHEDULE

Each project will be initiated during 1999 and ready for publication in 2001.

FINANCE

There will be no central funding of local projects. However, because of the evident value of this kind of research, many previous collaborators have been able to secure small grants locally to enable them to buy in some help and cover costs of the empirical research.

INSTRUMENTS

Detailed research instruments (observation schedule and structured interview questions) will be provided to all partners who formally agree to participate. (See Appendix)

REFERENCES

Delamont, S. and Hamilton, D. (1984) Revisiting classroom research: a continuing cautionary tale in Delamont, S. and Hamilton, D. (Eds.) Readings on Interaction in the Classroom, pp. 3-24

Hammersley, M. (Ed.) (2nd ed. 1993) Controversies in Classroom Research Buckingham: Open University

Hart, A. P. (1998) Teaching the Media: International Perspectives New Jersey: LEA

McIntyre, D and Macleod, G. (1978) The characteristics and uses of systematic classroom observation in McAleese, R. and Hamilton, D.(Eds.) Understanding Classroom Life Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research Walker, R. and Adelman, C. (1975) Interaction analysis in informal classrooms: a critical comment on the Flanders system in British Journal of Educational Psychology, 45, pp.73-6.

Media Education in Europe: Common Trends and Differences

Erwin Bernhard/ Daniel Süss

The international project "EuroMedia", presented in this publication, was initiated and co-ordinated by Andrew Hart, Director of the Media Education Centre at the University Southampton. Shortly before the project had come to an end, Andrew Hart died at the beginning of 2002. He leaves one's mark in the international research community of Media Education. The publication work was made by the project team co-ordinated by Daniel Süss (Zurich). The project team dedicates this report to the memory of Andrew Hart.

Dr. Andrew Hart was Senior Lecturer in Education and Director of the University of Southampton's Media Education Centre. He was Director of the Research and Graduate School of Education's Research Training Programme and of the MA(Ed) Language in Education course. He has also taught for many years on PGCE, Master's and Research courses and has developed and worked on a range of innovative Distance Learning courses. He was an Associate Tutor at the Centre for Mass Communication Research at the University of Leicester and a Tutor-Supervisor on the Open University's EdD programme. He has published widely on Media Education and worked closely with teachers as Director of the Southampton Media Education Group, and the Southern Media Education Research Network. He has also been UK representative on the World Council/Network for Media Education since 1996. He was on the Editorial Board of three international academic journals and was Editor of the International Journal of Media Education (Trentham Books). He has acted as adviser and consultant to the UK Qualifications and Curriculum Authority on Advanced Level curricula in Media, Film and Communication Studies. He has worked in collaboration with the BBC and ITV companies on research and resource projects and has spoken at specialist conferences throughout the world.

Major publications include Teaching Television, Making 'The Real World' (CUP 1988), Understanding the Media (BBC/Routledge 1990/91) and Developing Media in English (Hodder 1995). His recent book Teaching the Media: International Perspectives was published by Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey, USA, 1998. Recent articles on his research appeared in METRO, 22 (Autumn 1999) in the European Journal of Communication Research 25/3(2000) and in Changing English 8/1 (2001). He was the coordinator of a research project on Media teaching in 12 European countries and his latest book (with Alun Hicks),Teaching Media in the English Curriculum, is published by Trentham Books.

This study can be compared to earlier international projects, which had been accomplished within Media Education. Mainly the following publications must be mentioned:

The project "New Directions Media Education Worldwide" (Bazalgette/Bevort/Savino 1992) offers a survey with over 20 publications from almost every continent. It was co-ordinated by the British Film Institute BFI, London and the Centre de Liaison de l'Enseignement et des Moyens d'Information CLEMI, Paris. It was also supported by UNESCO.

The publication "Media Education in Europe, Towards a European Culture of Media" is the result of a Western European workshop in the "Politische Akademie Tutzing" at the lake of Starnberg. Therein perspectives from nine countries have been combined.

"Teaching the Media – International Perspectives" (Hart 1998), co-ordinated by the Media Education Centre at the University of Southampton offers a comparison between six English speaking countries in the world. This study is directly linked to the last project. In 1997, Andrew Hard organised a "Media Education Symposium" at the "European Conference on Educational Research" in Frankfurt. In addition, the papers were published online (see Hart 2000; Goodwyn/Findlay 2000; Lohl 1997). Horst Lohl regularly holds seminars to the international comparison of Media Education. The results were published on the Internet.

Reading the national reports of the present project, big differences as well as some common elements can be observed; the latest being the so called "basso continuo" in this international concert.

The Differences

Whereas in some countries mostly women teach on their own for a salary between 20 to 30 $, in others well paid pedagogue work in a team; On the one hand, 14-16 years old teenagers show much interests in Media Education, on the other hand, they are totally demotivated, they feel as victims of the system and give teachers the same feelings; federal school systems allow the teachers freedoms, while other countries prefer having a strictly centralised educational system, which offers almost no space for own initiatives. In the wide range between integrative schools and systems, which practice a less permeable diversification of education, almost every variation can be found. Mainly, there is a difference to the importance of Media Education.

In Greece, Media Education doesn't exist for the supervisory school authorities and for teachers it isn't barely practicable because of not given either any freedoms nor equipment and supportive organisations. In Russia, financial conditions have to be pointed out as handicaps primarily besides weak embodiment of Media Education in national curricula. National institutions, offering supports and consultations have excellent specialists, however only a few members and precarious conditions. In Spain, Media Education has been introduced as part of the curriculum recently. Because of unavailable resources and a crisis in the school level 14 – 16, Media Education couldn't be launched yet. In Switzerland there aren't any national binding curricula. The cantonal curricula prefer a vaguely defined Media Education without any goals that are to be achieved. This means that any kind of Media Education is possible. During the last years the interests in Media Education have declined because of the technological oriented introduction of ICT.

A grimly federalism is also practised in Belgium whose language communities follow separate ways. In Flemish communities, the significance of Media Education in the curricula seems to decrease. However, there are several active organisations, which offer the teachers further education as well as material support. Particularly in Germany, Media Education is subject of many controversies and publications, but still there has not been much progress in practice. The federal politic of the "Bundesländer" (states) develops different possible solutions. Even though Media Education is part of the curricula or has already been integrated, it's still mainly a subject for pioneers. In Ireland, the endeavours of the "Irish Film-Institute", Irish Radio and Teacher Community of Media Education have contributed that Media Education has been released in optional courses, English lessons and finally in art lessons and civic education. It doesn't exist as a subject on its own.

In Finland, Norway, Hungary, Slovenia and Great Britain Media Education is an important part in the curricula. In Hungary, the communist regime recognised the moving image and media's importance for people's consciousness. It therefore assured that Film Education with a strong aesthetic viewpoint was part of the literature education. After the process of democratisation, this tradition has significant changes. Since the early 90s the subject has developed to have an own structure composed by a media (with the viewpoint of social sciences) and a "language of the moving image" parts. Nowadays the subject is a compulsory part of the National Curriculum. In Slovenia, Media Education develops an amazing vividness through intense conflicts and discussions. It's an important part of the education in mother-tongue education: It should support the building of the young country's national conscience. In Finland and Norway, Media Education is an indispensable subject in the curricula, mainly as a part of mother-tongue education. In these countries, the key role of Media Education for the present and future society is emphasised. Furthermore it lies within the school's responsibility to prepare the future generation to handle these instruments competently. Great Britain has followed this way for years and the beginning was the integration of Media Education in mother-tongue education. Since 1995, Media Education can be taught as a subject on itself and it even can be chosen as a key subject in colleges, but this solution isn't very common. Contents and procedures of the final exams are based on formal criteria similar to the classical languages (see Christ, 1997).

Common Elements

Media Education is an interdisciplinary subject and sets an importance on comprehension and interpretation.It can be interpreted in various ways. People who are interested in technology reduce their goals to Network and Computer Literacy, in other words Media Didactic. People who are primarily interested in aestethics stress the awareness of media's language; be it visually, verbally or auditively.

Ethnologists, sociologists and psychologists point out, that media are means of transferring values instead of information: The information which can be taken out is always a consequence of interpretation and varies therefore depending on the recipient. Furthermore, it is influenced by illustration; which again suggests that other institutions like the agents, agencies as well as technological, economical and financial conditions of media production have to be considered. In order to make young people to competent users and possibly to active media producers, the above mentioned aspects have to be known.

With the approach to question the media system as being "the fourth power" in society and to use it as being self-productive, one is likely to be criticised. It is far away from the approaches of the traditional teacher-training, it needs a very profound knowledge and occurs in practise very seldom. Most of the teaching staff is better prepared to do the analysis of media's language mainly if media is considered to be but books and newspapers. Since this happens very often the result is another constant in Media Education: its bias on material equipment and cognitive approaches.

A Shakespeare edition from the year 1900 is still applicable at school. A computer, made in 1980 with its expensive software, isn't usable anymore. Expensive hardware and software have to be replaced regularly and maintained in a large effort. For students who always want to work with the best and newest computers they seem to be old and unusable. For the school communities however it is impossible to follow the rhythm of the chaotic innovations and the fast changes in the IT field. But the cognitive bias is much more serious. Who can assert oneself to have the knowledge to operate all current hardware? Who has even an approximate survey about all current products which form the young people's media environment?

In all the countries, even in those who enjoy the best IT equipment and where the aims in Media education are very ambitious, the gap between school culture and media environment widens, the majority of teachers feel that they are not trained well-enough and the technological equipment is insufficient.

The problem, how the school should integrate media youth-conformably to its students and in the same time still follow traditional goals, remains unsolved. Practically everywhere the kind of exams, which should control if the official goals could be reached, don't offer any incentives for Media Education (see for the USA: Christ, 1997). Because of narrow time resources Media Education is in danger to appear as a waste of time.

A further common element is also given by the fact that teachers do a very good job concerning this subject, and this despite of all the hindrances. The same holds true for the specialists and specialised institutions, which, on the one hand, offer the teaching staff further education in Media Education as well as technological support, and on the other hand claim publicly the integration of Media Education in the curricula. Even though at universities Media Education is only in the beginning to become a part of the teacher-training as well as of communication and media science, it is still insufficient and very often only mandatory in the training-courses, things are changing to the better. In general, having a cautious and patient optimism is allowed; an optimism that in every country, Media Education will be part of the curricula, that the training of students in Media Education might improve, that one might be successful in preventing the partially threatening reduction of Media Education to the narrow goal of Computer Literacy (compare Potter 1998) and that Media Education might be practised as "a real Pedagogy" more and more in every school.

References

Bazalgette, Cary/Bevort, Evelyne/Savino, Josiane (Eds.) (1992): New Directions: Media Education Worldwide. London: British Film Institute.

Christ, William, G. (Hg.) (1997): Media Education Assessment Handbook. Mahwah N.J., London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Goodwyn, Andrew/Findlay, Kate (1997): Media Education and Mother Tongue Teaching: Conflict or Convergence?. In: Hart, Andrew (Ed.): Frankfurt Papers: The Media Education Symposium at the European Conference on Educational Research. MEC Collected Research Papers 1. Southampton, p. 23-37. (Online-Publikation 2000: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~mec/MECWEB/ECERedit.pdf )

Hart, Andrew (1997): Paradigms Revisited: Media Education in the Global Village. In: Hart, Andrew (Ed.): Frankfurt Papers: The Media Education Symposium at the European Conference on Educa-10 tional Research. MEC Collected Research Papers 1. Southampton, p. 39-83. (Online-Publikation 2000: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~mec/MECWEB/ECERedit.pdf )

Hart, Andrew (Ed.) (1998): Teaching the Media – International Perspectives. Mahwah N.J., London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lohl, Horst (1997): International comparisons in Media Education research: Experiences with a smallscale project and perspectives for further research. In: Hart, Andrew (Ed.): Frankfurt Papers: The Media Education Symposium at the European Conference on Educational Research. MEC Collected Research Papers 1. Southampton, p. 1-22. (Online-Publikation 2000: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~mec/MECWEB/ECERedit.pdf )

Lohl, Horst / Projektgruppe Internationale Medienpädagogik (1999): Medienpädagogische Konzepte im internationalen Vergleich. Universität Hannover. Online-Publikation: http://www.unics.unihannover. de/medienpaed/index.htm Potter, James, W. (1998): Media Literacy. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Schorb, Bernd (Hg.) (1992): Media Education in Europe: Towards a European Culture of Media. Medienerziehung in Europa: Auf dem Weg zu einer europäischen Medienkultur. München: KoPäd.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Barbara Schneider and Petra Kundert from the School of Applied Psychology, Zurich, for their support in the translation, writing and layout of this manuscript.

MEDIA EDUCATION IN FLEMISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS: A STUDY REPORT

Els Schelfhout

Outline

The prime concern of this chapter is the specificity of the demographic situation in Belgium. This situation has an impact on the social, political and economic aspects of our country and its component Communities and Regions. As education falls under Community legislation, it is evident that this complex situation also influences both the form and content of the education system. Belgium's education system and the context in which Media Education arises are dealt with in the third section of this paper. Before touching upon the state of the art of Belgian M.E., the second section will relate the historical development of M.E. in Belgium and Flanders.

This report is a summary of a study on the current state of media education in Belgian secondary schooling. Analysis of the research results and a few case-studies will be discussed. The results of the research will be situated within a larger context and several concise suggestions for future policy are given, more specifically for the eindtermen (final terms) and educational goals of the last four years of secondary schooling.

Social, political and economic context of Belgium

Belgium is relatively small, with a surface of just 30,518 square kilometers. 44.3% of this is the Flemish Region, 55.2% the Walloon Region, and 0.5% the Brussels Region. But Belgium is also one of the most densely populated countries of the world, with a population of 10 million. The Flemings are the largest population group in Belgium. As of January 1, 1996, 5.8 million people lived in the Flemish Region, of which 4.8% were foreigners.

The complicated structure of the Belgian state influences both policy and government. Apart from that, the coexistence of three different official languages (Dutch, French and German) makes the (geographical) definition of the research field necessary. We have chosen to focus on Flanders; therefore, this part of the research is concerned with the current situation of M.E. in Flemish secondary schools.

Belgium became an independent state in 1830 and the Belgian Constitution was effective from 1831. From 1970, this Constitution has been progressively revised in order to federalise the political, legislative and administrative structures of the originally unitarian and centralised Belgian state. In the resulting federal system, there are three policy levels, each having legislative and executive functions: the federal State, the Communities, and the Regions. There is no hierarchy between the three policy levels; each has its own powers.

The federal State of Belgium has a federal Parliament (the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate) and a federal Government. The Communities form the second policy level, of which there are three: the Flemish, the Walloon, and the German-speaking. Communities are responsible for cultural, personal and linguistic affairs. Furthermore, there are four language areas in Belgium: the Dutch, the French, the German and the bilingual area of Brussels-Capital. The Dutch-speaking area falls completely under the responsibility of the Flemish Community. The cultural and linguistic affairs in Brussels-Capital, being bilingual, are the partial responsibility of the Flemish Community. Then there are three Regions: the Flemish, the Walloon, and the Region of Brussels-Capital. Regions are responsible for all territorially bound matters. Each Regional territory is carefully defined. Both Communities and Regions have their own parliament and government. Having three Communities, three Regions, and a federal State, Belgium would thus have seven governments and seven parliaments. However, in Flanders the Community and Region governments form one and the same body.

Control over education lies within the Communities. Therefore, each Community has its own education system. Of the total population of pupils, 55.84% are in the Dutch-speaking system, 43.62% in the 12 French, and 0.54% in the German (figures for school year 1994-1995). The Department of Education of the Flemish Community is responsible for almost all of education policy, going from nursery to university.

During recent decades, the Belgian school curricula have undergone many changes, some more drastic than others. Among the reforms were changes in the teaching period packages, the broadening of topics, and changes in the minimum criteria which the majority of the pupil/student population should be able to meet at the end of their grade or course (eindtermen). In spite of these structural reforms, however, nothing has fundamentally changed in the way children and subject matter are dealt with. On the contrary; rules concerning school attendance are still characterised by a rather pedantic and patronising attitude towards children. Within this climate there remains little space for ME.... Only 86 of the 927 full-time secondary schools in Flanders gave attention to ME in 1999. Secondary schooling in Belgium is organised into three so-called grades. The first grade (12-14 yearolds) is not subdivided. The second (14-16 years) and third (16-18) grades are divided into ASO (General Secondary Education), TSO (Technical Secondary Education), KSO (Artistic Secondary Education) and BSO (Special, or Vocational Secondary Schooling). This study focuses on the second grade.

The present curriculum for the second (and third) grade of secondary education consists of five modules: physical education, language, mathematics, world orientation, and artistic education. Besides 'image', 'music', 'drama', 'movement' and 'attitudes', artistic education (muzische vorming) consists also of 'media'. In secondary education, the knowledge and development goals for the submodule 'media' are:

• Pupils should be able to illustrate how the media influence their own thoughts and behaviour and realise the power of media in their own education;

• Pupils should adopt a critical attitude towards different kinds of news reporting.

After a Decree of the Flemish Government¹, the final terms and development goals for ME in the future were further limited. Whereas in the present policy there is place for a separate module 'artistic education' (as it is in the first grade of secondary schooling), under which there is some attention to media, this module will be renamed 'creative artistic education' with the following specifications:

• Pupils explore creative and artistic forms such as music, theater, literature, dance, painting, sculpture, design, interior decoration, fashion, etc., conceiving them as elements which form a community, as status symbols, as expressions of personal aesthetics, or as functional elements.

• Pupils experience creative and artistic expressions as a global phenomenon found in many different places, such as museums, art galeries, public spaces (subways, railway stations, etc.), public buildings, factories, offices, places of worship, private houses, gardens and parks.

• Pupils recognise the possibilities of using new technologies (especially information and communication technologies) and know of their impact on the various forms of artistic and creative expression.

• Pupils become acquainted with the production processes and activities of art and culture.

It is important to note that there is no more mention of 'media', except for 'information and communication technologies' (ICT). Only in the final term regarding the development of 'civic responsibilities' is there mention of 'insight into media messages', which primarily consists in the recognition of prejudices. Obviously, this change of focus has led to concern amongst those teachers who are currently spending time on ME.

Before discussing how teachers interpret the present final terms regarding media education and attempting to reach concrete results, we shall first give a historical framework in order to understand the present state of media education in Belgium and Flanders.

The context of Media Education in Belgium
Historical Development

Until 1945: protective approach

Until the 1940s, film, being still a relatively new medium, was regarded as entertainment, and there was a protective attitude towards it: children needed to be protected against its negative influences. This was the same in Belgium as elsewhere. Censorship was one of the means of this protection; the main legislative measure was the 'Act to Combat the Moral and Social Dangers of the Cinema' of 1 September 1920. Apart from that, there were pleas for 'film education' avant la lettre, and some schools used educative films. It was argued that exposing children to certain films was beneficial for educational and aesthetic reasons.

However, there were simultaneously those who were definitely sensitive to the positive possibilities of film. Aesthetic interest in the medium was increasing, and this led to an interest in using film for education, and not just for special cinema shows for children.

1945-1960: thinking about film education

It was only after the Second World War that film education really started taking shape in Belgium. In the beginning there were the initiatives to protect children and youth from the 'threat' of movies. In 1944, for instance, there were conferences about education on film organised in collaboration with the (Dutch) 'Catholic Film Action' (Katholieke Film Aktie, KFA) in Ghent and Antwerp. The cinema was seen as a cause of anti-social behaviour and delinquency amongst youngsters. This causal thinking led to large-scale research on the impact of film on children's lives, which were effectively the starting point of film education as their conception of the impact of film became more nuanced. In 1961, for example, Prof. J.M. Peters (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Katholic University Leuven, Belgium) put forward a definition of film education in an Unesco publication titled 'Education CinÇmathographique' (Teaching About the Film):

3. Film education means helping growing children develop a critical sense of evaluation towards movies which obtain their force primarily through technical inventiveness and other articificial factors actually standing closer to advertising than film as such.

4. Film education forms part of general aesthetic learning. Aesthetic experience means an enrichment of human life.

5. Film education deploys every pedagogic potential of film. This means that non-aesthetic (social, ethical and spiritual) qualities of film are also important.

6. Film education is concerned with the cultivation of a 'new language' of this medium, or rather, with the possibilities of visual thought.

7. The teacher of film education acknowledges that the increasing importance of visual mass media forces us to conceive of their place within the lives of the young.

8. In Flanders, Peters had an immediate impact on the educational opinions about film education. In the magazine of the Catholic Film League Film en Televisie there were various articles on film education by educationalists such as Frits Danckaert, Roger Maestaf and Ferand Rigot. They publicly called for visual and film education as was proposed in Teaching About the Film. In fact, 'education towards good movies' (Danckaert, 1961: 11-13) still is the ultimate goal of film education.

1960-1970: film and television education

The coming of television initially led to practically the same responses amongst educationalists as cinema did. On the one hand, it was feared that television would enhance the 'massification' of society. Television was an ubiquitous and anonymous force and therefore a greater threat to the traditional authority of the teacher. On the other hand, there were voices emerging who became the advocates of educational television. These voices either wanted to influence the television content itself, or bring teachers to teach children how to watch TV, or produce altogether new educational programmes meant for TV broadcasting. The first two initiatives became the main foundation of media 14 education in the US, but in Belgium they weren't as successful. Propositions for producing educational films and TV programmes were received better.

As the VCR was not yet available it was difficult for teachers to discuss TV programmes in class, especially those shown at night. This is why film was more central to media education in the 1960s. Parallel with developments in mass communication studies, more and more attention was given to certain sociological aspects of television: viewing patterns, influences, television genre, and the television industry. The gradual transition of film to television education also had its influence on choice of subject matter. When film education was mostly based on critically acclaimed movies, television education was based on more kinds of content, including news, documentary and entertainment.

From 1970 onwards

The original objective of 1960s film studies such as those suggested by J.M. Peters was that by making their own films, teachers would get to know the medium in a first-hand way, and gain insight into film as a means. Although interest in schools was steadily growing, there was little practical implementation because of lack of infrastructure, resources and know-how. Most educational initiatives therefore took place outside schools.

Activities in film were approached from three angles. Firstly, shooting one's own movie means getting acquainted with the visual and aural language of film (audiovisual communication). Secondly, making films is a form of expression (audiovisual expression). And thirdly, working together on a movie can contribute to realising other educational and developmental goals (audiovisual ways of working).

Recent developments

While in a host of European countries universities include ME, in Belgium there is very little academic attention to the importance and possibilies of this field. Notable exceptions include the Cultuuriniatie door massamedia ('Initiation to culture via the mass media') project of the Department of Education at the University of Ghent (1996), and the Ph.D. of Els Schelfhout (2001) on media education and multiethnic schooling. Before these, there were some projects undertaken by the Research Center for Experimental Pedagogics at the Catholic University of Louvain. As will become apparent, the practice of media education in schools has hardly fared better in Belgium. Various socio-cultural charities do deal with the field and try to mould lasting relationships with schools, but the appreciation they receive amongst teachers is not reflected at the level of the Community Governments.

Even from the respective Departments of Education there is minimal attention to media education. This stands in stark contrast to the attention given to the application of the new information technologies. It is argued that the implementation of ICT in primary and secondary schools is necessary for socio-economic as well as didactic reasons: firstly to avoid a discrepancy between computerliterates and -illiterates in our information society, and secondly to use ICT for teaching, not instead of, but together with the more traditional tools of teaching. Set against the lack of initiatives in media education, the plurality of ICT projects seems almost grotesque, although the significance and possibilities of information technology as such should not be doubted. Nevertheless, though the Government places great emphasis on the role ICT can play in the classroom, it also states that the choice to use 'new media' is the school's. By conferring the autonomy to decide on this issue to schools themselves, and because there is little attention anyway for ME in teachers' training, there has been very little ME in Flemish schools. Something one hears often is "Everyone learns how to look at TV by themselves in the end". As teacher training hardly mentions ME, extra-curricular initiatives and additional courses are exceptionally organised. But because these occur in teachers' free time, not many of them attend.

Teacher education and training

After analysis of the programmes of five university courses for teachers (which prepare students for teaching in grades two and three in secondary schools), it seems safe to say that attention to pedadogic applications and possibilities of media is practically non-existent, let alone to ME. The same is true for the training for teaching in grades one and two. In both cases there is a lot of attention for the pedadogic applications of ICT and computers.

Teacher-training courses include global subjects such as education method, sociology, psychology and didactics. Then there are the more specific modules which can vary according to the main area chosen: mathematics, history, geography, French, English, Dutch, etc. Programmes for teaching Dutch usually consist of pedagogics, communication skills and language skills.² But 'communication' and 'language' here do not include media literacy. In the curriculum of Flemish teachers' training, 'language skills' refer to speaking and writing skills, reading, and interpretation. Only in one of the analysed curriculums was 'computer literacy (media)' [sic] stated as a topic. Again, what is sought here are the educational applications of ICT, although there was a seminar series on the 'creative use of media', which consisted in writing screen scripts etc.

The role of language is stressed in numerous programmes. We can read, for instance:

Traditional secondary schooling was characterised by little verbal participation of the pupils, which meant that those who already had verbal difficulties did not get the chance to improve their language. The didactic methods used are often directed at the reproduction of predefined learning materal and derive from a static conception of knowledge, which is today obsolete. The insights of social constructivism and the emergence of new media have fundamentally altered the conception of learning and 'knowledge which will matter in the future'.

Today, we need to reinterpret the transfer of knowledge and knowledge itself as dynamic processes. The one who learns constructs and produces knowledge as much as the one who teaches: the role of language in this production of knowledge is central. In the field of education, therefore, it is necessary to: give more attention to the spoken and written language of instruction; actively engage the pupil in the learning process, i.e. 'learn by talking and writing'; and implement a language policy in schools³. In spite of the pleas to evolve from the traditional model of knowledge transfer to a more dynamic interpretation of knowledge and the role of language therein, language is still viewed as exclusively verbal. Language, however, should be viewed much more broadly, as something structural and also as including audiovisual language. Whether teachers are interested and willing to do this, and whether they have the capacity and possibility to integrate media education into their curriculum, even when they are not adequately trained, becomes especially pertinent.

Professional associations, agencies and support

As teachers working in schools are not trained in ME as part of their training, the minority of them who are interested are compelled to seek support from various professional associations, mostly non-profit organisations. Most of these organisations developed as initiatives of individual teachers and charity workers. However, there still is no government subsidising of these initiatives; quite a few of them manage with temporary project fundings.

A study done jointly by two of these media education organisations, Imagica and Jekino Films⁴, showed that in 1999 there were sixteen Dutch-speaking ME organisations in Flanders and Brussels. We have to stress that the attention given by these organisations to media organisation is very variable. Their activities can be anything from distributing and archiving audiovisual art and organising festivals (e.g. Argos, Open Doek), to organising workshops and seminar series on the history of film (e.g. BAC, the former Belgian Animationfilm Centre, now: 'Instituut voor het geanimeerde beeld';

Center for Visual Culture), to creating possibilities for children, youths and youth workers to produce their own media products (e. g. Cargo, Graffiti, Imagica, Jekino, Videokontact & -Jongeren). These are not exclusive activities; all organisations also pay attention to the education of adults (such as in teacher training), and have activities for both adults, and children and youngsters.

Specific initiatives and projects

By virtue of their intimate cooperation with schools, their initiatives in training adults, and their concrete projects with children, Imagica and Jekino are particularly interesting organisations. Their work has become mature and is financed by various federal and regional funding authorities. One initiative Imagica organised for the body of Flemish Representatives in Brussels was 't Kan ('It's possible'), an audiovisual education project meant for the second grade in secondary schools. All Dutch-speaking second grade pupils in Belgium can participate. In this project, teachers encourage their pupils to write an imaginary script for a short movie. There is an accompanying pedagogic module on techniques in visual language and script-writing which uses concrete examples. Imagica provides further guidance and support by way of training the teachers, email communication with the 16 pupils, and visits to the participating classes. The scripts are marked and discussed by a professional film director. The best one is actually filmed.

A comparable project was 't Mag ('It's allowed'), a media education project for the third grade of secondary schools. The part of the project situated in Brussels was Zeg het met beelden ('Say it with pictures'), but the project had an international dimension too, called PiXL. Classes participate by writing a script for a video film of three minutes. Some of these scripts are selected and can be filmed. Pupils get ten three-hour training lessons. Doing practical excercises, the pupils learn how to use a camera, engage with visual language, and write (screen) scripts. After having shot the actual video clip, they learn how to edit video tapes and add original sound and music. Communication between schools and Imagica is first and foremost by email. The videos, once they're finished, are sent to youth festivals and TV stations both nationally and internationally. PiXL also enabled pupils to exchange experiences outside of Belgium.

Still another project, Studio Jekino, was organised by Jekino and was basically a series of creative film workshops for children and youngsters. 8 to 20-year-olds were grouped by age and together participated in acting, filming, writing scripts for short movies, and editing and showing reports and music videos. This means that children and youths themselves operated the camera, learned its techniques and how to capture images in an interesting way. Participants wrote parts for themselves, starred in their own videos and played reporter. Computer editing made the results look professional. There were three workshops: reporting, short movies, and movie festival. In the workshop on reporting, a TV report is made on a topic which interests the youngsters. Using examples, they write a scenario and screen script. After some marked excercises with the camera the group goes out for shooting. After that, the footage is edited and the soundtrack finalised. In the workshop on short movies, the youngsters write a short story. Jekino helps them transform the story into a movie script. The youngsters shoot the scenes (again, after some excercises with the camera) and do the editing. They also play the lead protagonist in their own short movie. In the workshop on movie festivals, finally, the youngsters get the chance to know what it is like to be part of a TV crew. They are assigned the same rights as the professional press and they have to give an own perspective on an actual movie festival. They get to know actors and directors, look at the way TV crews work, watch the movies, conduct interviews, and altogether experience the life of a real film reviewer.

Another project of Jekino was called Film snappen, film snoepen ('Understanding films, devouring films'). It started out aiming at 6 to 12-year-olds, but after the enormous demand for this initiative it has recently been elaborated to include teenagers up to 16 years old, i.e. up to the second grade. In the initial project participants come together for two one-and-a-half hour workshops. In the first workshop, they get to see how a film is produced. By way of viewing excercises (while the smallest children put things together with their hands) the youngsters are introduced to the world of visual imaging. Using very diverse film fragments they browse from animation techniques to comprehending the relationship between 'seeing' and 'understanding'. The session on 'Film practices' has more to do with using the camera. The participants discover the semantics of visual language, how animation works, etc. They also get acquainted with the intriguing possibilies of special effects.

Resources: text books, audiovisual materials, technology

Teachers who gain an understanding of ME through their training are rare. Those who can and want to teach about media have to depend on support and advice from ME organisations. There is hardly any pedagogic material for ME, which means that teachers have to put together their own. Because most teachers do have an elementary understanding of semiotics, they will mainly use this kowledge for their 'Media' lessons. Thus, and because there isn't adequate teaching material for ME, there is an over representation of textanalysis in media lessons.

The gap in the training and the lack of required teaching material results in a situation in which neither teachers nor pupils can take the step towards making their own media products. There are quite a few teachers who feel daunted by technology which they often know less than their pupils do.⁵ Inadequacies not only exist in the domain of training and teaching material, but also the resources are far from satisfactory. The equipment the government supplies to schools is generally limited to computers. According to the Declaration of the Flemish Government of September 2000, the budget for ICT in schools has risen to one billion Belgian francs a year. The ultimate objective is having one computer for every four to five pupils, which would cost at least tree billion francs (approximately 17 69,800 Euro)⁶ 'ICT' is here reduced to 'computers'. There is no mention whatsoever of television, radio, video, etc.

Study procedures

Sample selection and methodology

Twenty-four secondary school teachers participated in the project. Interviews were conducted with all twenty-four. Only 8 of them were prepared to be observed while they were teaching. Most of the teachers were initially not prepared to participate with either the interviews, or both the interviews and the observations. They argued that they had to end their Media lessons, that the examinations were near, and/or that the principal of the school would be unwilling to permit the research to take place in his or her school. Moreover, some of the teachers felt they were being (ab)used in too many research projects. We should not doubt any of these arguments, but it is also plausible that it was the aforementioned insecurity of the teachers which was an issue in not letting the researchers into the school building.

The teachers who did participate with both parts of the research are therefore without exception individuals who have become, through explicit interest and/or training via professional organisations, particularly apt in the 'intricacies' of ME. We acknowledge the fact that this could have lead to a certain bias in the research results. What is also important, seen from within the framework of the research, is that not all teachers were language (i.e. Dutch) teachers. This means that teachers having studied sociology, philosophy, etc. also participated in the interviews. The observations, however, were conducted solely during language lessons (two teachers teach Dutch and one French). This meant a further limitation of the group studied.

Time-scale, conduct of interviews, observations of the teaching and modifications of the research instruments The interviews took place in the period between January and May 2000. The observations took place in the periods May to June and September to October 2001. The length of the interviews was strongly dependent on the engagement of the teachers with the topic. Some teachers would answer with a simple 'yes' or 'no'; others would tell entire stories. The researchers – i.c. two staff members of Imagica and Jekino and the author – had agreed not to intervene too explicitly in order to enable the teachers to tell their own story, and the researchers to get a representative picture of the teachers' attitudes towards the subject. If deemed necessary, it was agreed, specific themes would be discussed more in depth after the observations were over.

The translation of the English questions did not cause any mentionable problems; only questions which were conceived specifically for the English situation (e.g. 'Which GCSE syllabus did you use?') were not included. The forms for observation were translated as well, so that the key issues for conducting the observations could be memorised by the researcher.

Findings

Detailed analysis

A typical example

This lesson concerns a 'content analysis' and interpretation of the movie Dead Poets Society. This analysis would be considered ME in Flanders.

Lesson objectives and content

The objective of the lesson was first made clear to the pupils (eightteen second grade girls), as was the way this objective connects to the previous lesson. This objective fitted into the so-called 'cultural heritage' approach in ME, in which film is considered to be an aesthetic object, an artistic expression. This approach partially builts on the so-called 'cultural analysis' approach which is not so much concerned with what media do to the recipients, but what recipients do with the media. In contrast with the previous lesson – which also started out from a cultural analysis approach – during this lesson the pupils analysed the content and not the form of the movie. Key concepts were 'meaning', 'sense' and 'values'; 'intro, 'plot', 'intrigue' and 'premise'; 'protagonist', 'antagonist' and 'tritagonist'. The teacher explained these concepts after having shown the 120-minute movie using film excerpts.

Teaching tools, teaching forms and resource material

The teacher made use of a VCR and video tape. Although there was teaching, there was also sufficient space for pupil response. By questions and answers the pupils were invited to think through the problematics, and not so much the medium. There was no use of standardised resource material, that is, text books. The coursebook the teacher used has been put together by herself. Pupils were required to take notes.

An atypical example

The following lesson concerns a lesson in 'film analysis', given by a teacher of Dutch to a mixed class of boys and girls from the second grade in human sciences. In terms of content and teaching tools, as well as teaching form and teaching objectives, this media lesson can be termed atypical in Flemish secondary education. This is because the teacher did not confine herself to analysis of content, as is often the case, but placed more importance on the analysis of form.

Lesson objectives and content

The objective of the lesson was explained to the pupils. The objective was 'media-centered', which means that the stress lied on gaining insight into the workings of the media, and more specifically into the workings of film, by way of formal analysis. By using a table on the blackboard, pupils could get a sense of how this lesson related to the previous ones.

While the previous lesson dealt with the aspect of 'sound', in this lesson 'colour', 'montage' and 'camera movement' were central. Key concepts were, not surprisingly, film-technical terms such as 'flashback', 'shot', 'scene', 'sequence', 'directorship', 'montage' and 'perspective'. Most of these concepts were new to the pupils. The teacher explained the terms by using examples and brief descriptions. During the second hour of the lesson the pupils watched some film excerpts. Already some of the key concepts were being used when the excerpts were discussed.

Teaching tools, teaching forms and resource material

The teaching tools (a VCR and a TV) were from the school itself. The film material on the video cassette was put together by the teacher herself, as was the coursebook which contained illustrations as well as practical examples. To present the concepts and issues discussed in a schematic manner, the blackboard was used. The table on the blackboard was copied by the pupils into their notebooks. The teacher made passing references to technologies other than video and film. Her knowledge about technology was evident in the ways she was explaining the workings of technologies to her students. As the lesson was given to a relatively small group of pupils (20) and took place in a small auditorium, every pupil had the chance to follow both the film excerpts and the conceptual explanations. The relationship between the teacher and pupils was firmly based on interaction and dialogue. By integrating practical elements the pupils were encouraged to participate in the lesson. This engagement did not hamper interpretations. However, there was not much discussion of personal experiences, and there was no encouragement to become more actively engaged, by for instance writing a script or doing filming.

An exceptional example
Lesson objectives and content

This case concerns a lesson, or rather, lessons given by a teacher of French who has been using media (mainly TV and internet) with great interest for many years. His objectives are to make lessons more varied, easier to follow and more entertaining. ME, in his case, is not an end as much as it is a means – if the cases above expressed an 'intrinsic' view on media education, this teacher expresses an 'instrumental' view. In his lessons there is emphasis on learning a language, French, for which media are used as teaching forms. Concrete objectives are defined by him as 'comprehension', 'building of vocabulary' and 'development of a critical stance'. In his own words, he wants to 'reteach the language course French from a book course into a practice course'.

Teaching tools, teaching forms and resource material

The teacher primarily uses his own source material and uses his contacts with journalists, amongst others. The topics dealt with are always timely. New technologies are seen to be useful tools. His having developed a website together with his students shows that he is not at all uncomfortable with ICT, as was the case for many of the other teachers.

Because of the high marks his pupils attained through this way of working, the teacher is maximally supported by the principal of the school. It is noteworthy that this school invests in audiovisual and information technology applications more than other schools do. Because of both his extensive use of audiovisual teaching forms and the construction of an internet website, the teacher himself received media attention.

Patterns of teaching

The time that the teachers we interviewed spend on media education during their lessons varies from 5% (two teachers) to 30% (all the rest) of their total job. More than in their other classes, they attempted in their media lessons to approach the subject in a personal and critical way. This approach can be partly explained by the absence of teaching material, and the obligation to put together one's own coursebook, audiovisual material etc. Moreover, the interpretation of what media lessons were supposed to consist of remained relatively free, as it was not explicitly defined by any programme. The critical aspect was reflected in the teaching objectives of most teachers interviewed: teaching pupils to become critical TV watchers. In spite of this, most lessons were structured in quite traditional ways, 'from top to bottom'. There was not single case, for instance, in which the pupils were subdivided into smaller groups. Critical thinking, after all, is principally stimulated by dialogue and by questions and answers.

Gaps in practice

Apart from a few exceptions, teachers interviewed were ICT-incompetent. And yet, they realised ICT will play an even more determining role in education in the near future. They expected governments to invest not only in infrastructure, but also in software and training. It was notable that for the majority of respondents seemed to eschew not the computer, but the camera. Filming and editing appeared to be a big step for them.

General conclusions

From the interviews it can be deducted that the views of the teachers on media education were illustrative of both instrumental and goal-oriented thinking. 'Media' was sometimes a means, sometimes an end. This meant that both the functional and the intrinsic approach to media education were operating. Besides that, ME as a course does not stand by itself; it goes beyond the boundaires of disciplines. Within the obligatory teaching package, especially language (Dutch) teachers are involved in ME. At some schools, ME is also given in life science courses (psychology) and sometimes even in 'hard' science courses (mathematics).

The defined goal of ME was formulated by most of the teachers interviewed ( 21 on 24) as follows:

teaching pupils to evaluate the quality of media products. Media education is especially focussed on watching and listening 'critically'. It is the young who are easily mislead by media messages. On the other hand, film analysis is often chosen, regarding film as an art form. In contrast with the homogeneity in the setting of goals in ME, there is a heterogeneity in terms of method. During the lessons concerned, teachers analyse, compare and discuss news broadcasts, commercial campaigns and films showed (preferably) in school, and once in a while, do some filming themselves (although this is quite exceptional). A few respondents teach ME still in very theoretical, encyclopaedic and authoritarian fashion.

With regard to the educational material for ME, the teachers are unanimous: there is none. Some teachers want this void to be filled; others consider it to be a good thing that there are no text books as they would limit their creativity. Frequent use is made of (film) magazines, newspapers and the Internet, and sometimes comics are used. All teachers, whether they like it or not, use their own material (course books), and almost all of them stated that their personal vision of society precipitates in their Media classes. As one teacher put it: 'I'm not a robot am I?'.

The overall picture seems to be clear: the form ME assumed in actual lessons is a heterogenous collection of goals, methods, means and teaching forms, even if in 1999 there were only 64 of the 927 Flemish secondary schools which actually did include it. The form of ME depended heavily on the personal views of the teachers. Most of the time the initiative to teach media education was taken by teachers out of personal considerations and interests, and they hardly felt that they were supported by colleagues or management.

Practical and methodological support for ME is necessary. Especially the technical know-how of teachers is insufficient, most certainly regarding the use of new electronic media. 'Students have the technical know-how, but not the critical stance; amongst teachers it is exactly the opposite', said one respondent. Attention to all aspects of the media within teacher training is now one of the main priorities.

The lack of vision and policy displayed by the federal Government with regard to ME (which reveals itself both in curricular gaps and the shortage of means) is a thorn in the flesh of the teachers. Some schools have only one television set for 300 students, other schools do have enough computers, but not the necessary software, etc.

Future developments

All the teachers interviewed were convinced that media education was important, especially in order to teach pupils to be 'critical citizens'. The majority of teachers, on top of that, argued that the further development and interpretation of ME is crucial as a separate curricular module. Moreover, they were very realistic and realised that their hopes were merely 'wishful thinking'. The rewriting of the final terms and the changes in the curriculums of the second and third grade of secondary schooling (see above, the Decree of 29 November 2000) have led to the transformation of 'artistic education', with an explicit mention of 'media', to 'creative artistic education', with mention of music, theatre, literature, dance etc., but not 'media'. The recognition of the new ICT and new media, and their impact on artistic and creative expression is stressed as teaching goal.

The only scientifically argued educational package⁷ that exists for media education in Flanders is titled Cultuuriniatie door Massamedia ('Initation to culture via the mass media')⁸. In it, it is shown that arguments for 'television education' are still made from the perception of TV having negative effects on the young. Young children should primarily understand what actually happens on television. 'With their age increasing, children's cognitive capacities and experiences with the medium increase too, and they will be able to decode television themselves. Youngsters leaving school late would understand television as well as adults' (Buysse & Henne, 1996: 42). It is precisely this often-heard misconception, that there is not much to learn about media because everyone, in the end, will understand media messages anyway, that is the main reason why there is such a vagueness about the role that teachers can play in this process and the methods they should employ. The practical implementation of media education is seriously handicapped by this lack of engagement. Today's schools are still fundamental in the upbringing of children, and central in preparing them for citizenship. This process is gradual. For the Greeks, a 'school' was a space in which one had time to learn, a space in which one was initiated into all domains of knowledge, a space in which insight was passed on by way of structured thinking. A pupil who wanted to reach the level of the master, was taught rhetorics, grammar and control over language. A later phase in education consisted of participating in the public life of the city.

The goal of education has not changed. It is still about enabling pupils to express themselves, use different languages, think and realise projects... But it is not just 'language' that needs to be controlled, but visual language as well. Children need to be taught how to use and understand visual language.

Acknowledgements

This research report was realised in cooperation with Imagica, a non-profit organisation for Media Education (email: imagica@skynet.be) and Vlaams Centrum voor Kinder- en Jeugdfilm (Flemish Center for Children's and Youth Cinema) Jekino (email: jekino@online.be; web: http://user.online.be/jekino).

Biographical details of the author

Els Schelfhout (1967) is Doctor in the Social Sciences. She is affiliated at the Department of Communication studies at the University of Ghent and president of the 'Studies on Communication, Image Building and Media Literacy' research center.

She received her Ph.D. degree in January 2001 and her doctoral thesis was titled Communication studies in pedadogic perspective: watch carefully, think critically and use responsively. In this dissertation, the instrumental usage of audiovisual media was situated within debates on independent Media Education and multi-ethnic education in primary schools in Flanders. Her current research interests include 'Screen Education' (audiovisual media and ICT) and remain motivated by socially relevant problems. She has published various contributions on Media Education, imaging, stereotypes, racism and multi-ethnic education.

Appendix: Language skills

Language skills, in the curricular definition, comprise the following:

1. Speaking skills

• Continuation of exercises in the articulation of difficult sounds

• Exercises in phonetic transcription

• Transformation of technical-articulatory capacities into global speaking skills in diverse contexts

• Making speaking skills concrete in 'Minimal Dramatic Teaching Forms', working with group themes, verbally introducing children's books and lessons

• Becoming acquainted with the most frequently appearing speech, pronunciation, voice and language handicaps amongst children and their remedies

• Commenting upon opinions about education in the mother tongue

• Reading expressively and commenting on poems written by children

2. Writing skills

• Systematic study of the Spelling Syllabus 1995, and treatment of the 'old' and 'new' spellingin class

• Weekly spelling exercises/games and dictations

• Autonomous study through additional spelling excercises

• Application of global writing skills in writing some reviews of children's books and group theme projects (referencing, collecting, selecting, writing, correcting, transferring)

• application of global writing skills in the writing of short stories and of a poetic text (creative, fictional)

3. Reading

• Knowing the general goals in reading education

• Knowing applied reading and knowing how to transfer it

• Initiative reading and reading aloud

• Creative reading

• Getting acquainted with authors, books, publishers, organisations and activities in the field of book promotion and stimulation of reading

• Learning how to employ useful criteria to evaluate texts and books

• Autonomous study

4. Language interpretation

• Being able to identify and name the different kinds of words and phrases in supplied sentences and/or texts, both according to the 'old' and 'new' systems of language interpretation

• Using comparative texts as an example of concrete language interpretation

• Being able to identify components of communication in diverse expressions of language

• Being able to formulate the goals of educating language interpretation

• Being able to use and describe the concepts of the educational plan for language interpretation

• Being able to choose the organisational forms in which language interpretation is practised

• Being able to apply the theory of language interpretation in one's own concrete use of language

Bibliography

Buyse P. & Heene J. (1996) Cultuurinitiatie door Massamedia. Experimentele ontwikkeling van een vormingspakket voor het basisonderwijs, Universiteit Gent, Vakgroep Onderwijskunde. Imagica vzw voor Madiavorming & Vlaams Centrum voor Kinder- en Jeugdfilms/ Jekino Films (1999)

Overzicht Nederlandstalige mediavormingsorganisaties in Vlaanderen en Brussel, Brussel.

Peters J.M.A. (1961) L'Çducation cinÇmatographique, Paris, Unesco, 2nd print 1962. (Simultaniously presented in English: Teaching about the film, and in Spanish: La educaci¢n cinematografica)

Schelfhout E. (2001) Communicatiewetenschappen vanuit pedagogisch perspectief: "Watch carefully, think critically and use responsively", doctoral thesis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Vakgroep Communicatiewetenschappen.

Vanderpoorten M., Flemish Minister of Education (2000), Concluding Speech, ICT Forum, Brussels,

December 14th 2000, http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/ict/ictforum.htm

TEACHING MEDIA IN ENGLISH

Andrew Hart/ Alun Hicks

Contents

This research project, 1998 to 1999, was funded by the Media Education Centre and the Language Division of the Research and Graduate School of Education at the University of Southampton. The research was conducted in 11 secondary schools in the South of England (Dorset and Hampshire)

The project Director was Andrew Hart, the Research Fellow was Alun Hicks.

Research Aims

Following the success and international extension of the Models of Media Education project (Hart and Benson, 1993; Hart, 1998) this new study examined the range of approaches to Media teaching in secondary schools at Key Stage 4 (ages 14-16) in the context of the post-Dearing curriculum for English.The project aimed to investigate the forms and purposes of Media teaching in English in secondary schools in the South and South West of England. It attempted to update the findings of the Models of Media Education Project in the light of the new provisions for National Curriculum English and current GCSE Board syllabuses. It also aimed to provide an account of the forms and purposes of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in English teaching through the lens of appropriate research perspectives.

Research Questions

The primary research question addressed was:

• What are teachers of English doing when they say they are doing Media at Key Stage 4 in UK secondary schools?

This question was broken down into the following underlying components:

• who teachers of English are (experiences, background and training)

• how they see themselves in relation to schools and curricula

• what they say (and think) about Media as a discipline

• how they define their own approach to Media

• what they actually do when they teach Media

Key Areas of Research

The research illuminated the following areas:

• conceptions of Media Education within Mother Tongue teaching

• perceived problems and rewards of teaching and learning about the media

• teachers' attitudes to Media Education both as a theoretical discipline and as a classroom subject

• teachers' aims for their students

• teachers' prior experience of media institutions

• key concepts with which teachers feel most confident and the sources from which their understanding of these concepts derive

• favoured resources and the ways in which these are used

Media Education in Context

The School Environment (1989 to 1999)

Prior to 1989, the teaching of English in the UK lacked a commonly accepted framework in which Media teaching could find its place. The Cox Report (DES, 1989) provided a clear basis for Media teaching within several of the five approaches to the teaching of English which it identified.

Approaches to English in the Cox Report (1989)

A "personal growth" view focuses on the child: it emphasises the relationship between language and learning in the individual child, and the role of literature in developing children's imaginative and aesthetic lives.

A "cross-curricular" view focuses on the school: it emphasises that all teachers (of English and of other subjects) have a responsibility to help children with the language demands of different subjects on the school curriculum: otherwise areas of the curriculum may be closed to them. In England, English is different from other school subjects, in that it is both a subject and a medium of instruction for other subjects.

An "adult needs" view focuses on communication outside the school: it emphasises the responsibility of English teachers to prepare children for the language demands of adult life, including the workplace, in a fast-changing world. Children need to learn to deal with the day-to-day demands of spoken language and of print; they also need to be able to write clearly, appropriately and effectively. A "cultural heritage" view emphasises the responsibility of schools to lead children to an appreciation of those works of literature that have been widely regarded as amongst the finest in the language.

A "cultural analysis" view emphasises the role of English in helping children towards a critical understanding of the world and cultural environment in which they live. Children should know about the processes by which meanings are conveyed, and about the ways in which print and other media carry values.

The 1992 – 1993 Study

The research done in 1998 to 1999 followed up earlier Southampton research. The original Southampton Models of Media Education project in 1992-93 explored major questions about aims and methods for Media teaching amongst teachers of English. (Hart and Benson, 1993) It uncovered several areas of uncertainty amongst teachers and identified a range of models which English teachers consciously draw on in the classroom at Key Stage 4 (KS4: age 14-16). The project produced detailed descriptions and analyses of a wide range of classroom strategies for teaching about the media.A range of teaching models was identified that showed how classroom strategies and practices were incorporating new technological developments and ideological debates. By providing two distinct but related sets of data on Media teachers' rationales for their work (from in-depth interviews) and Media teachers' classroom methods (from systematic observation), the 1992-93 study:

• documented different understandings, purposes and practices of Media teachers in a range of locations

• enabled comparative analysis of different approaches to Media teaching in different locations

• encouraged discussion of appropriate models for different locations and purposes

• facilitated discussion of appropriate methodologies for classroom research in Media

• provided a basis for the continuing development of Media as a discipline and for further research in Media

The 1992-93 project also showed how Media teachers had been supported in the development of their work in the classroom through curriculum guidance and training provided by university education departments and by national advisory bodies like the British Film Institute (BFI) and Film Education.

Teachers also had had the benefit of support from professional bodies like the National Association for the Teaching of English, the (now defunct) Society for Education in Film and Television and the Association for Media Education (AME). Also important was the role which central government played in the formulation of National Curriculum policies, especially for English (through the Department for 25 Education and Employment, Her Majesty's Inspectorate, the (then) Schools Curriculum Assessment Authority and previously the National Curriculum Council (responsible for the Cox Report).

In 1992-93, at departmental level, there was often a clear expectation that Media work would occur, as mandated by the National Curriculum for English, and there was often discussion and collaboration in the design of units of work that incorporated Media for students at KS4. So, in spite of the fears and uncertainties of some teachers of English about how others (parents, head teachers, school governors)would see their Media work, it was incorporated into the routine work of English departments. It was rare, however, for Media to be written explicitly into school policies.

In most cases, the lessons observed in 1992-1993 lacked:

• interaction and dialogue (teacher-pupil or pupil-pupil) about media

• space for young people's own media experience and knowledge

• opportunities for active involvement in the social production of texts

• teaching in context through engagement with media processes and technologies

• engagement with political issues

• focus on media institutions

Since that research, new National Curriculum Orders based on the Dearing Review published in 1995 (DFE) repositioned Media within English. In the 1995 version, the importance of Media was made clearer, though the actual number of Media references were fewer. At Key Stages 3 and 4 the most significant reference to Media came in the Reading Programme of Study and required that "pupils should be introduced to a wide range of media, e.g., magazines, newspapers, radio, television, film.

They should be given opportunities to analyse and evaluate such material, which should be of high quality and represent a range of forms, purposes, and different structural and presentational devices." (1.f.) Many other references within Reading would, to the committed Media teacher, have encouraged opportunities for Media. Such encouragement is evident from the examples quoted below:

Post-Dearing National Curriculum English Orders (1995 and 2000)

(1995) Pupils should be taught to:

• extract meaning beyond the literal (2.a.)

• analyse and discuss alternative interpretations (2.a.)

• consider how texts are changed when adapted to different media. (2.b.)

• evaluate how information is presented (2.c.)

• recognise, analyse and evaluate the characteristics of different types of text in print and other media… consider the effects of organisation and structure, and how authors' purposes and intentions are portrayed, and how attitudes, values and meanings are communicated. (3.a.)

In addition, there were within the Speaking and Listening, and Writing Programmes of Study, ample opportunities for the inventive teacher of Media to bring in quite naturally the study of media texts. For example, the range of forms in which pupils were expected to write included "playscripts and screenplays" (1.c.)

The force of the post-Dearing curriculum and the place of Media within it were enhanced by the School Curriculum Assessment Authority's (SCAA, now the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority)

GCSE regulations and criteria which instructed Examination Boards that "The range of reading assessed must also include non-fiction, media and texts from other cultures and traditions" (p. 37). Thus, many teachers who had feared the demise of Media Education within English, found that it had, in fact, been given the status that, arguably, only comes from a secure position within the assessment system.

Most recently, the English Order was rewritten in 2000, to give added emphasis to the moving image within Media Education, and this year (2002) GCSE specifications for the teaching of English have been amended, though the impact of these new specifications upon Media teaching within English seems likely to be minimal.

However, despite these developments and the strong growth of specialist GCSE, GNVQ and A-level courses, Media in English seems to have remained a minor concern for many teachers of English. Learning about the media was re-established by the post-Dearing curriculum, but not in a particularly strong form . Continuing battles over the purposes of English have created uncertainties and tensions that have sometimes side-lined Media teaching in English.

Yet, as suggested above, the environment in schools has now changed both in terms of curricular constraints and the spread of multimedia resources. Some recent studies also indicate a growing interest in IT as an object of study rather than simply as an instrument for teaching and learning. (Goodwyn and Findlay, 1997). So our new research addresses both the issues of curriculum context and the new media environment.

The New Media Environment

Outside schools, there have also been radical changes in the social and cultural practices that characterise young people's media interactions.

We are at the beginning of a multimedia era, in the sense of a new, increasingly enveloping and involving media environment experienced as an interconnected whole. Media culture has massively expanded over the last decades. There is a range of new media: cable and satellite TV, home computers, video recorders and camcorders, new 'on-line' interactive services, video discs and other consumer-oriented interactive software. (Livingstone and Bovill, 1999: p. 6) There is also a growing interpenetration of media, as genres, themes and contents flow from one to another with increasing ease as a result of the movement from analogue to digital coding and the consolidation of communications conglomerates.

Technological and statutory developments have led to significant changes in the ways in which young people interact with the media.

Various forms of deregulation have led to the increasing availability of specialist and streamed services that no longer fit the traditional models of broadcasting. Technological developments have facilitated increasingly creative interactions with media artefacts. These practices include 'scratch' video, the use of 'dub' and mixing techniques in live and recorded music and the reworking of still images through digital manipulation. At the same time, computer technology has increased the opportunities for relatively sophisticated production in sound and still and moving images. Increasingly, these are distributed through the Internet, thereby changing the relationships between young people and commercial media industries. Indeed, the development of broad-band networks which abolish the 'tyranny of distance' and allow a continual, interactive flow of cultural productions, information, experience, and expertise of all kinds, is widely seen as the pivotal innovation in the emerging array of 'new media'.

Many young people no longer experience media texts as complete entities. Rather, they seem capable of relating to and enjoying a series of fragments and of 'parallel processing' many media events simultaneously. Traditional 'effects' research has focused on audiences as passive objects, but more recent ethnographic approaches see audiences as informed subjects who respond actively to texts.

Qualitative studies have shown how different media genres relate to diverse 'taste publics', how the social dynamics of domestic contexts relate to media usage and how new communication technologies are being integrated into domestic settings. Studies of young people's usage of television and a range of other media have begun to outline a developmental model of new forms of literacy in terms of narrative, discursive and modal competencies. These competencies are more than skills. They are social practices that develop by means of 'spontaneous' acquisition and by 'scientific' or more systematic learning experiences.

Optimists see schools' ability to use these developments as a basic precondition for building a society able to take full advantage of the movement from an industrial to an information age. They point to the potential for creating a more open society, a more informed and participating citizenry, a more fluid and innovative culture, and a more flexible and appropriately skilled workforce. The UK Government has placed particular emphasis on the need for schools to promote 'network literacy' and has funded a number of pilot projects linking schools to broad-band networks.

As the experience of computing in schools has shown, however, simply introducing new technologies does not ensure that they will be used either fully or flexibly. A number of British commentators have pointed to economic and organisational realities: high running costs and lack of appropriate training for teachers. There is no positive correlation between the spread of information and communication technologies and the growth of understanding about them. Indeed, the correlation may be an inverse one. Even where there is a genuine determination to update school curricula, the pace of technological change continues to outstrip educational responses.

But there is also a cultural reality that is shaping the ways new technologies are used in schools and how pupils relate to them. The 'new media' are being introduced into a situation where there is a complex network of established connections and discontinuities between schooling and the mass media environment. These relations can create openings and opportunities for flexible innovation in teaching and learning around 'new media'. But they can also erect symbolic barriers. The rhetorics and pleasures of pupils' leisure-time involvement in media often sit somewhat uneasily alongside school-based initiatives.

Teachers of English are now facing a range of new pressures and dilemmas that are accentuated by changes in the cultural formations outside school. The media environment that surrounds schools and engages pupils' attention has become more complex, more pervasive and more integrated. The new centrality of media culture to young people's experience has been further strengthened by the erosion of the sites that previously sustained and handed on vernacular cultures through family and community networks.

Seen together, these developments made 1998 to 1999 an appropriate moment to take a systematic look at how schools and teachers were responding to curricular and technological changes. In addition, therefore, to the specific focus on the forms and purposes of Media teaching in the English classroom, here are some larger major questions about current tensions between culture, technology and schooling that the new project illuminates:

• How are teachers living in the new multimedia world, in their own lives and in their classroom practice? How do they see this world in relation to their personal philosophies of teaching?

• How are schools responding as institutions? To what extent do school policies recognise the importance of young people's extra-curricular culture?

• What influences are exerted by national and local curricular authorities? Do current formal curricula encourage engagement with new media technologies?

Findings from the 1998-1999 Study

There were ten main findings

1. The status of Media study within English has been enhanced by its assessment position within the new, 1998, GCSE syllabuses.

New syllabus demands have meant that teachers are gaining in confidence in their teaching of Media; those less confident acknowledge the need for more expertise. Teachers were optimistic about the future of Media Education.

2. Progression and continuity within Media have been enhanced since 1992-93, with all departments introducing a Media policy into their English schemes of work.

Although examination syllabuses and departmental Media policies have been highly influential in determining the nature of Media Education within English, individual teacher choice within the syllabus or scheme of work was still critical in determining the approach to Media within the classroom.

3. All Examination Boards except NEAB, by positioning the assessment of Media within a terminal examination, have effectively limited the study of Media to the printed text, with the emphasis strongly upon written, verbal communication.

As a consequence of syllabus choice, a narrow view of Media Education has emerged in some schools, although teachers did strive to move beyond the syllabus limitations. Also, the definition of Media Education has been muddied by some Boards through their failure to define clearly the position of media texts in relation to non-fiction texts.

4. Though television and the VCR were the technologies most likely to be used, television broadcasts, other than in the form of prepackaged advertisements, did not feature in any of the lessons. That is, there was no study of television drama, documentary, news or light entertainment. Film, however, did feature in three lessons.

IT did not feature in any of the eleven lessons seen. Teachers and their pupils are just beginning to use the new technologies, including the Internet, but there is, as yet, no evidence of any attempt to make technologies (new or old) the focus of Media study within English.

5. Media Language and Representation were the concepts most likely to be addressed by the teachers. Institutions or Agencies were least likely to be addressed.

Texts were likely to be studied without significant attention to context. Even Media Studies specialists saw no place for Institutions within the crowded English curriculum. In several schools Key Concepts had become 'hybridised', a mixture of rhetorical principles borrowed from literature combined with the original BFI Signpost Questions.

6. The 'discriminatory' paradigm was the one most likely to frame teachers' perception of Media teaching within English.

Within this context, there was still, amongst some teachers, a sense of equipping pupils with the means to defend themselves against Media manipulation.

7. Teachers were unlikely to have attended recent Media INSET, unless it was provided by the Examination Board. Exceptions were teachers also running specialist Media Studies courses.

Experienced teachers were especially dependent on Media understandings gained some years ago.

8. When teachers used commercial resources, those produced by the English and Media Centre, and, in particular, The Advertising Pack (Grahame 1993) were the most frequently used.

Within this pack, most teachers were familiar with the materials related to the selling of Levi Jeans.

9. There was little evidence of motivation to teach about the media coming from anywhere outside the English curriculum and the examination syllabuses.

In the eleven schools visited, no teachers recalled any OFSTED inspector making a significant reference in the verbal feedback or in the written report to the teaching of Media within English. No school had developed a cross-curricular approach to the teaching of Media.

10. In schools where GCSE Media Studies was taught, there was a significant impact on Media teaching in English as a result of strong internal links and staff development provision by the Media specialists.

In the eleven schools visited, four Media specialists had a significant role in providing INSET for teachers of Media within English and this had a positive impact on colleagues' confidence and competence in their work.

Developments since 1992-93

The most significant conclusion from this research is that little has apparently changed since 1992-93, despite new National Curriculum and Examination Board provisions. This is hardly surprising in one sense, since nearly half the sample of teachers we studied this time were the same as those in the earlier study and it is unlikely that their practice would change radically in the intervening five years. Four out of the five who were revisited used the same medium on each occasion (two print and two television) and the fifth 'switched' from television to print.

It is also unsurprising to find a predominant focus by these English teachers on Language and Representation more than on Institutions and Agencies. The study of text, rather than context could be said to be a defining characteristic of English teaching as it is currently understood.

The 1993 report noted few opportunities in lessons for space to be given to pupils' own media experiences, but in comparison with the 1998-99 study there was a strong element of popular culture in the lessons. In 1992-93, three dealt with the making or marketing of popular music and another with the analysis of comics, but in the 1999 report there are no obvious examples of popular culture being addressed, other than in the study of the Levi Jeans advertisements. Arguably, the curriculum freedom offered in 1992-93 allowed for a more open interpretation of media experiences, but this freedom had its disadvantages. Between the eleven teachers there was less of a common purpose, more of a sense of individual preoccupations being explored.

On the other hand, the new study shows that in spite of an apparent narrowing down of the Media curriculum, all teachers felt a clear sense of purpose. They all had a sense of the place of Media within the English curriculum, and each lesson was clearly designed to fulfil an identifiable Media requirement of the appropriate GCSE syllabus. It is possible to interpret the changes that took place between the two studies as a development of coherence and focus in Media, but, perhaps, at the expense of inclusiveness, and creativity.

Status, Coherence, and Progression

There are areas in which significant advances have been made. For example, the 1992-93 research noted the doubtful status of Media Education within the English department. In 1998-99 that status had been significantly enhanced, and there was a strong sense that most were gaining confidence in their Media expertise, or, at the very least, recognising the need to gain more expertise if they were to do justice to their pupils. The motivation for this, of course, has been the new GCSE requirement that Media (as a reading skill) is assessed in all syllabuses.

This may, however, not be all good news. Where the GCSE Board elected to test Media within a terminal examination, there was a strong emphasis upon analysing printed texts, considered without the benefit of their original context. Where the Board elected to test Media understanding within coursework, there was much more likelihood of study of context and of the moving image.

If the status of Media within English has been enhanced, then so has its coherence within the English curriculum. OFSTED inspections have ensured that every school now has clear curriculum statements outlining curriculum content and opportunities for progression and continuity. (Ironically, inspectors were extraordinarily consistent in their failure to make the teaching of Media in English a significant issue). There were clear examples in 1998-99 of such curriculum statements having a significant impact on the Media curriculum, and being strongly based on a conceptual model of Media teaching. It seems that there is now much less likelihood of pupils endlessly repeating advertising projects as they progress through the school with each teacher unaware of their pupils' prior curriculum experience. Collaboratively produced units of work, supported by relevant and centrally held resources (particularly from the English and Media Centre) were the norm.

But a word of caution is needed here. In most cases, the final choice for curriculum content at lesson level still resides within the individual teacher.

Teachers can use this freedom to 'play safe' to rely on tried and tested lessons taken from a collectively produced scheme of work. Or, they can use the freedom to assert their individuality within a coherent curriculum framework. Thus, continuity and progression for the learner can be guaranteed, but this may be within a narrow or limited Media diet. For teachers to make informed choices they need the benefit of research such as this. They need to see the advantages of common purpose, but, at the same time, to recognise the dangers of the curriculum straitjacket. A very careful balance between collectivity and individualism needs to be struck.

Teacher Consensus and Support

In 1992-93 the National Curriculum framework was still 'bedding in'. By 1998-99, the National Curriculum had been largely accepted, or at least tolerated. Teachers themselves were likely in 1992-93 to have entered Media Education down a variety of avenues; in 1998-99, regardless of length of teaching, memories of first encounters with Media Education tended to be forgotten, with teachers now linked by the National Curriculum connection. With this new uniformity, there is arguably, a common base on which teachers can agree and move forward, though some may regret the loss of diversity. Yet if teachers of Media can now look with more confidence to the English curriculum and to their English teaching colleagues for authority and support, they are likely to find the whole-school context more of an obstacle. In 1991 the BFI were, (misguidedly, as history has shown), advocating that the main Media thrust should be cross-curricular (Bowker, 1991: Buckingham, 1990a 1990b; Hart ,1992).

Certainly, there has been no obvious development of cross-curricular Media initiatives since then, and OFSTED-driven whole-school imperatives have made it harder for the English teacher to justify leaving classes to attend Media-related courses.

Media INSET in 1992-93 was noted as being sporadic and inconsistent. In 1998-99, with the collapse of much local authority-based INSET, Media training seemed even rarer.

Technological Change

Five years of technological development have meant that teachers are beyond the stage of struggling to get on computer training courses, or talking about the importance of 'keyboard skills'. In 1998-99 there were references to use of scanners, digital cameras and, of course, the Internet. But in practice, the pattern of lessons in both research projects seems very similar. I T was not used in any lessons seen, though folders of work and lesson plans suggested that the use of word-processing was common enough outside these lessons. In 1998-99, the Internet was beginning to be used as an information source to support study of film and literature.

But still, such technologies were tools of occasional use rather than the focus of study. Perhaps another five years will see more attention paid to the significance of accessing entertainment and information via the Internet and the possible impact on how we collectively and individually perceive the world.

A significant and surprising feature in relation to choice of Media technology remains the absence of television broadcasts as focal 'texts'. If television broadcasts have yet to gain a major foothold in the English curriculum then what chance has the Internet as an object of study?

Contexts

Whatever texts were studied, a common thread in the 22 lessons featured in both projects was the significant absence of context. Printed texts were commonly seen as isolated fragments, and though broad institutional contexts were raised, the emphasis was nearly always upon engaging with the text itself. Five years have made little difference to teachers' attitudes towards teaching about Agencies, Institutions or Ideology. The 1998-99 teachers were never opposed to the notion that the context of production was important, but considered the issue too slippery for pupils to grasp, or too low a priority in a crowded curriculum that offered no encouragement to go beyond the text itself. Indeed, the Media Studies specialists, those most likely to know about Institutions and Ideology, were no more likely than any other teacher to bring these issues into the English classroom: they were strong in their assertion that such matters were best tackled in a discrete Media Studies context.

Media Pedagogy

Despite the curricular and technological changes of the past five years, teachers' aims and approaches seem to have changed little. They still seek to empower their pupils with the ability to 'analyse', 'understand' and 'deconstruct', with a hint of inoculation in the empowerment. Their approaches within the classroom also remain broadly similar. Analysis is still likely to involve teacher-led discussion, with learning handed back to pupils once the parameters of textual understanding have been defined.

This seems especially strong where television technology is used, with teachers finding it difficult to separate control of technology from control of learning. And the outcome of textual analysis in a production sense is still more likely to be the essay than the video. Indeed, given that all Media work in the 1998 GCSE syllabuses has an assessment outcome, one cannot blame teachers if they 'play safe' in this respect. The gap between teachers' description of most successful or favourite Media lessons and the lessons observed in the research reveals a tension between what teachers actually do teach and what they might wish to teach. They often cite in the interviews successful lessons that were group-based or technology-dependent, lessons that some find difficult to accommodate in the current English curriculum.

Implications

The National Curriculum for English was re-drafted in 1999-2000. It now places more emphasis on "moving image texts" and makes a clearer distinction between non-fiction texts and media texts, but offers no strong encouragement to engage with the social and economic contexts in which texts are produced. The way in which Examination Boards 'translate' the new curriculum into assessment criteria and practices will be central to the development of Media teaching over the next decade. (Early scrutiny of the new, 2002, GCSE specifications suggest minimal impact upon Media teaching in English).Another factor will be the possible 'trickle down' effect from the new syllabus specifications which the Examination Boards have produced for Advanced and General examinations in Media Studies for students at 16+ and 18+ years of age.

Optimistically, another five years could see a significant opening up of the Media in English curriculum. But one of the 1998-99 teachers feared that if the English curriculum does not take account of the pace of technological change, then a 'credibility gap' could open up between pupils' personal media experiences and schools' engagement with them. It is arguable that the gap already exists. Nearly 30 years ago, Murdock and Phelps (1973, p.143) suggested that pupils' media assignments, "should be produced with a real audience or public in mind…the school, or even better, the local neighbourhood."

That recommendation is unlikely to be fulfilled in the current English curriculum, which generally encourages conservatism rather than innovation.

This research shows unequivocally that the National Curriculum requirements and the way they have been interpreted by the Examination Boards define, but do not ultimately determine, what Media is taught in English-teaching classrooms. In practice, local factors such as school policies, Head of Department preferences, access to resources, professional training and individual commitment, work in tension with external factors. Teachers still have relative autonomy in curriculum planning and lesson delivery. However, If teachers like the eleven in this project are to close the increasing gap between the new media environment outside school and educational responses within school, they will need the curricular, technological and institutional contexts in which they can effectively operate and in which innovation is encouraged.

Research Design

Purposive sampling in Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset LEAs focused on schools where Media teaching was thought to be prominent within the English curriculum. Where possible, in order to make direct comparisons possible, the same teachers as were featured in the 1992-93 study were approached.

Arrangements for visits were made through personal contact with Heads of English Departments. As in the original 1992-93 study, the new project used semi-structured interviews with selected practitioners and audiotaped classroom observations. Schedules of interview questions and key classroom issues were devised for interviews with teachers and for classroom observations. The interview questions differentiate classroom approaches to Media in terms of aims, content and methods and explore teachers' previous experience, professional development and perceptions of Media as a discipline. The same basic questions and the same observation categories as were used in 1992-93 formed the basis of the instruments, but there were additional interview questions and observation categories on uses of ICT which were not relevant in the 1992-93 study.

Lesson observations, based on the same observation categories as in 1992-93, took place as soon as possible after interview. The categories include time-allocations for different parts of the lesson; the nature and style of questions; the degree and nature of pupil participation; the resources used (in-32 cluding ICT), tasks and activities set; concepts available to pupils and language used by teacher and pupils. An account of each lesson was sent to the teacher concerned for comment. A detailed explanation of research design and research instruments is available in Hart and Hicks (2002)

Glossary of Abbreviations

GCSE General Certificate of Education

GNVQ General National Vocational Qualification

NEAB Northern Examination and Assessment Board

OFSTED Office for Standards in Education

LEA Local Education Authority

Literature

Bowker, J. (Ed.) (1991) Secondary Media Education: A Curriculum Statement London: BFI

Buckingham, D. (1990a) 'English and Media Studies: Making the Difference' English Magazine, 23, pp. 8-12

Buckingham, D. (1990b) 'English and Media Studies: Getting Together' English Magazine, 24, pp. 20-23

Department of Education and Science (1989) English for Ages 5-16 London: HMSO (The Cox Report)

Department for Education (1995) English in the National Curriculum London: HMSO Goodwyn, A. And Findlay, A. (1997) Media Education and Mother Tongue

Teaching: Conflict or Convergence? Paper delivered at Southern Media Education Research Group Symposium within the European Conference on Educational Research, Frankfurt

Grahame J. (1993) The Advertising Pack London: English and Media Centre

Hart, A. (1992) Mis-reading English: Media, English and the Secondary Curriculum The English and Media Magazine, 26, pp. 43-6

Hart, A. (Ed.) (1998) Teaching the Media: International Perspectives New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates

Hart, A. and Benson, T. (1993) Media in the Classroom: English Teachers Teaching Media Southampton: Southampton Media Education Group

Hart, A. and Hicks, A. (2002) Teaching Media in the English Curriculum Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books

Livingstone, S. and Bovill, M. (1999) Young People, New Media (Summary Report of the Research Project: Children, Young People and the Changing Media Environment) London: London School of Economics.

Murdock, G. and Phelps, G. (1973) Mass Media and the Secondary School Basingstoke: Macmillan

Media Education in Finland

Markku Varis/Johanna Pihlajamäki/Nina Vuontisjärvi

The Finnish context

In Finland views of the contents of Media Education and even of the terminology used in instruction vary considerably. Characteristic to Finnish Media Education is that it is often defined as a synonym of the concept of communication education or even as its subconcept (see Kotilainen, 1999, p. 32–34).

From the viewpoint of this study it may not be of relevance what the textbook definition of the contents of Media Education is; more important is to find out how teachers in the field perceive the topic. A hypothetical generalisation can be made, that we are talking about Media Education when (i) the media are educational material, (ii) a subject of an analysis of media content or (iii) media content is produced, for example in the form of own radio or television programmes (see Härkönen, 1994a, p. 46). Another aspect of the present state of Media Education in Finland is the fact that on the higher levels of basic education it is not a separate subject of instruction. It is, however, included in the instruction of other subjects, for example history and civics, drawing and mother tongue and literature. The lack of Media Education as a separate subject is surprising, given that the social need for Media Education has been acknowledged in many reports and memorandums.

One aspect of the social expectations is that the information society and media are expected to develop different economic innovations, which would promote business activity focusing on new media, as has happened at Nokia, which is specialised in the mobile phone market. On the other hand Finland is a quite sparsely populated country (at the beginning of year 2000 there were 17 inhabitants per square kilometre), and it is obvious that in a sparsely populated country information technology and the media are important means of communication, providing the citizens with equal access to sources of information.

Aims of the National Board of Education

The policy definitions of Media Education in Finland are influenced by the development programmes of the National Board of Education. According to them globalisation and structural changes in the society contribute to the shift towards information-oriented areas of production, which increases the number of high technology jobs. The foundations of economic competitiveness and social well-being are information and know-how. They are supported by high-quality education and research, innovative know-how and modern information and communication technology. Information and communication technology enables new ways of developing teaching and studying, but at the same time they also set great challenges for teaching. (Kehittämissuunnitelma, 1999, p. 2–3.)

The aim of the development programme of the National Board of Education is so-called communicative democracy: information networks should be available to all citizens, irrespective of their socioeconomic background. From this viewpoint the National Board of Education makes plans for Media Education within the framework of available resources, i.e. information technology: Teaching must aim at improving the skills required by the information society, thus enabling people to meet the increased competence requirements. The National Board of Education aims to achieve its objects by a specific plan of action. Its central points are (i) providing everyone with the competence required by the information society, (ii) multifaceted utilization of information networks, (iii) expansion and diversification of content creation (iv) reinforcement of the structures of the information society in teaching and research. All in all the development of the competence required by the information society starts with the training of the key individuals – teachers and professionals in the information industry and new media. (Kehittämissuunnitelma, 1999, p. 5–6.)

The official aims and visions have been criticised, too. For example according to Niiniluoto (1996, p.102, 106–107) the information society is generally seen as a new form of society, towards which the development of information technology will lead us. However, the concept encompasses an optimistic, technology-based belief that the media can be used to solve problems in society. Niiniluoto thinks that in education the concept of enlightenment society could be used as synonym for information and knowledge society, because according to the view it incorporates knowledge is needed for the control of one's life, and education helps people acquire and use knowledge. Thus we should also pay attention to the contents and understanding of knowledge, since virtually anything can be offered as knowledge.

Curriculum of the comprehensive school

The Finnish comprehensive school system is divided into two parts: forms 1–6 and 7–9. Children generally start school at the age of 7; although pre-school has got official status in 2001. The subject of research in the Euromedia project is forms 7–9. The current curriculum of the comprehensive school is from 1994, and in it the name of the subject studied here is mother tongue; from 1999 onwards it has been called mother tongue and literature.

According to the curriculum the instruction of mother tongue and literature has an important cultural objective. The pupils' identity becomes stronger and their ties to Finnish culture are built through knowledge of the Finnish language and Finnish literature. The instruction of mother tongue and literature carries the responsibility for developing the pupils' basic linguistic skills, and thus also for creating a foundation for learning how to learn. In order for the pupils to achieve their linguistic goals they should learn how to read and write well and become fluent in the (information) technical aspects of reading and writing. They should also understand and be able to read and write different kinds of texts. (Curriculum, 1994, p. 47–48.)

As already stated above, Media Education is not an independent curriculum subject; instead it is part of an inbuilt plan, which is acknowledged separately in the definition of communication education. In practice Media Education is implemented according to the cross-curricular principle, involving cooperation between several subjects, not just as a subject area within mother tongue and literature, the visual arts or civics. Ultimately the integration between subjects implicates that as a scientific breeding ground Media Education is a hybrid of several branches of science, and at the same time it gets added emphasis from man's innate fascination with technology and its utilization in the development of his own existence (Tella, 1999, p. 214).

According to national curriculum (1994, p. 40–41) communication education consists of expressive education and Media Education. On the other hand mass communication is part of Media Education. Communication education given within the framework of mother tongue and literature instruction emphasizes communication skills, text analysis, communicativeness and language as a means of coping with life. The three sectors within the objectives of communication education are: (i) the pupil in the reception process of messages, (ii) the pupil as a communicator and (iii) the pupil in his communication environment. If communication is taught within another subject, the objectives are defined by the needs of the subject in question.

Case studies

We begin the analysis of our material with three case studies from different parts of northern Finland: Oulu, Salla and Paltamo. By studying three schools from different parts of Finland we may be able to acquire information about the possible effects of the geographical location of the school on the Media Education given there and on the educational strategies. The inductive conclusions of the three observations can in turn later be compared with the whole of the research material, and thus it is possible draw a profile of the present state of Media Education on the upper forms of the Finnish comprehensive school.

Cooperation between subjects

One of our research subjects is the Oulu Teacher Training Upper Level Comprehensive School, which is the training school for students studying to become subject teachers at the Oulu's university. Oulu is the sixth largest city in Finland, with ca. 120 000 inhabitants. The city is located on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia in Northern Finland, and it is the administrative centre of the province of Oulu, which has grown rapidly during the last decade especially due to the electronics industry and new media.

The pupils of the Teacher Training Upper Level Comprehensive School come from the neighbouring areas. The lessons on the upper level are unusually long, 75 minutes, compared with the normal length of 45 minutes. The lesson observed on 25 November 1999 was part of an optional communications course, which is included in the instruction of mother tongue, held by a mother tongue teacher and an information technology teacher. The instruction during the course was divided so that the information technology teacher was responsible for the media technology involved and the mother tongue teacher for the content. The lesson we observed was the last one of the course, and during it pupils had to examine the exercises they had done earlier with computers, the best of which were selected for a hypertext compilation.

The lessons of the communication course were held in a computing classroom, which had 13 computers, including the teacher's computer. The group consisted of 16 pupils, which meant that some had to take turns using the computers. Among the projects they had prepared during the course were an image poem, a Father's Day card, a reportage, an e-mail story and an interview. The last lesson of the course emphasized the pupils' self-evaluation. As many textbooks and articles on Media Education have pointed out, the aim of the instruction should be development of the pupils' ability to analyse and evaluate, so that they will also be able to take some responsibility for their learning (e.g. Masterman, 1985, Härkönen, 1997, Tella, 1999). This goal was apparent during the observed lesson.

The pupils' skill level in using the computers had varied considerably at the beginning of the course. Generally speaking they all had played computer games, but their skill level in using productive software was quite low – in this respect all the pupils started on the same level. The aim of the course was to familiarise the pupils with the possibilities offered by computers in text processing. The completed projects were compiled into a hypertext document at the end of the course. At the beginning of the course there had been a lesson on searching for information on the Internet, but the course was still oriented towards texts and text types. At the beginning of the course the pupils had had the chance to suggest what topics should be dealt with, and when these had been agreed on, the rest of the course focused on their implementation.

Harri, the male teacher we interviewed, has worked as a mother tongue teacher for over 18 years. He defines the media as all mass media, and Media Education as teaching the pupils to adopt a critical attitude. These views were manifested during the observed lesson for example in the form of challenging exercises set for the pupils.

The division into so-called traditional media and new media is not very significant from a pedagogical point of view, since all types of media are studied in school. Harri considers the core issues in Media Education to be the primary content and means of the message, as well as awareness of who is behind the message. In the instruction the media are also studied as a means of disseminating and creating information, for example by making an own newspaper.

Harri has used the media as illustrative material for all his career, especially newspapers and magazines, but nowadays the possibilities of utilizing the media have increased considerably and become more diversified:

"Using the media in teaching is a quicker means than a textbook, and they often interest the pupils more."

Thus Media Education plays an important role in the teaching of mother tongue and literature, as it can be used for instance to add interest in the selection and study of different topics.

During the communication course the focus is on media work, but the media are prominent all the time in other courses as well, at least as illustrative material. In Harri's experience co-operation with other curriculum subjects is teacher and school specific, but generally speaking he estimates co-operation to be regrettably uncommon. In addition to mother tongue and literature, at the Oulu Teacher Training School Media Education is also included in the instruction of history, the visual arts and psychology, as well as some specialisation courses.

Media Education has been supported by the expertise of outside visitors; authors and a film-maker have visited the school for example and there have been some journalists among the teacher trainees. The school's own information technology teacher has participated in the teaching during the aforementioned communication course. Our observations confirmed that his technical know-how did in fact help the students when they had difficulties with information technology related tasks. The Oulu Teacher Training School offers good facilities for Media Education, since the school library subscribes to newspapers and magazines, the classrooms are equipped with video recorders and televisions, and the school also has two video projectors. The school also has a selection of video films for the needs of different subjects of instruction.

In media work the goals set for the pupils are, depending on the task at hand, a critical attitude and enjoyment of one's own production skills. The subject is rewarding for the teacher, since communication is one of the most popular courses at the Teacher Training School. Pupils there have the possibility to work in a positive environment and evaluate their work. According to Harri the mass media today have a broader outlook compared with the 1970s, and even enjoyment is allowed to consumers of the mass media.

In Harri's view the most difficult things to teach in Media Education are the underlying structures of newspaper articles. He predicts that in future the media will continue to change, electronic communication will become more common, the reading of newspapers and magazines will decrease and that there will still be inequality between communicators.

In Harri's lessons practical Media Education proceeds from an illustrative example towards theory, since the aim is to raise the interest of the pupils. His preferred areas in the teaching of Media Education are film education, literature and other arts, and he feels that the most difficult are the teaching of music videos and the Internet. In his view the most beneficial materials from the point of view of teaching are newspapers and TV documentaries.

Goal: a critical attitude towards the media

Eeva works as a teacher of mother tongue and literature at the Salla Upper Comprehensive School. The municipality of Salla is situated in eastern Lapland, close to the Russian border, 150 kilometres from the capital of the province, Rovaniemi. The municipality has ca. 6000 inhabitants, and the population is steadily declining, as the young people go to study and work in other places. The Upper Level Comprehensive School and Upper Secondary School of Salla are located in the administrative centre of the municipality, which means that pupils from the outlying villages of the municipality have to travel up to 60 kilometres to school. The Upper Level Comprehensive School and Upper Secondary School share the same school building.

The observed lesson was held on 4 January 2000, and it lasted 45 minutes. The class consisted of 8 girls and 7 boys. During the lesson Media Education was integrated in the instruction of writing, since the topic of the lesson was writing a causerie, a humorous column. The emphasis of the lesson was on activity, the dialogue between the teacher and the pupils, and pupil self-direction, all of which are greatly emphasized by Media Education theorists. The discussion on different types of newspaper articles had already started in the autumn of the previous year, and the causerie as a type of a newspaper article had been discussed in the previous lesson.

But as Eeva herself stated, a method such as this, which emphasizes the pupil's freedom and selfdirection, generally does not work on the upper levels of basic education. This was the case in the observed lesson, as well: only three pupils returned their causeries at the end of the lesson. Some pupils did not even bother to attempt to write the text, and in anticipation of this the teacher had planned an alternative: familiarisation with a collection of causeries. "If the pupil's own motivation is lacking, working independently does not function", Eeva said at the end of the lesson.

Eeva started working at the Salla Upper Comprehensive School in autumn 1999. She graduated in 1994, and this year is her sixth as a full-time teacher. However, she had already worked as a teacher for some years before graduation. Earlier she has taught history in addition to the mother tongue. The areas of mother tongue and literature that interest Eeva most are literature and Finno-Ugric languages. Eeva has included the media in her teaching from the beginning of her career, but lately its role has become increasingly important. Her interest in Media Education arises from her dream of becoming a journalist. She has, however, found Media Education to be a problematic subject, because during her studies she has never had the chance familiarise herself with it. She is especially unfamiliar with film education. Nonetheless Eeva considers Media Education to be very important: "Today the media educate young people more than anything else."

Because of this she would like to concentrate on Media Education even more than at present, but the number of lessons allocated for mother tongue and literature simply does not provide enough time for everything. At present she uses approx. 15 per cent of the course time for Media Education. Regarding the aims of Media Education Eeva brings up information retrieval and a critical attitude towards the media. In her view the instruction should provide the pupils with the ability to choose what TV programs to watch and an awareness of how the media attempt to influence the public and of the means employed to achieve this:

"I consider it important that young people learn to realise when and how the media attempt to influence them."

In Eeva's opinion the most important goal of Media Education is that pupils learn how to find information and use it critically, as well as adopt a cautious attitude towards media manipulation. In Eeva's experience one of the most difficult things to teach in Media Education is media literacy, since it is hard for pupils to understand for example the ideological background of news: "Somehow pupils find it terribly hard to realise that for example by changing the social angle the news item changes." Eeva's pupils generally have a positive attitude towards media work, because they get a break from the studying of textbooks and get closer to their everyday life. During lessons the pupils read a lot of newspaper and magazine articles and they are used as educational material; especially magazines, because they are readily available at the school. The school does not subscribe to any newspapers, but magazines (Apu, Seura) are regularly available in the school lobby. Every year there is also a magazine theme day. In Media Education lessons the pupils have discussions, make advertisements and collages, and search magazines for argumentative articles that raise interest or excitement in some way. However, the pupils cannot freely decide what kind of material they work with: for example Regina and 7 Päivää are favourites among young people, but they are not used in Media Education lessons. Eeva does not want to base her teaching solely on the media environment of the pupils. She finds it surprising that she sometimes comes across pupils who never read any newspapers. Eeva thinks it is important that the pupils write their own media texts, because it reinforces the learning and the pupils think it is fun, too. In Eeva's opinion Media Education is integrated quite naturally with the instruction of writing, as writing, too, is one form of social action. Furthermore, by writing magazine articles the pupils learn to analyse texts written by others, as they get first hand experience of the power of the written word. Book and film reviews, on the other hand, can be used to raise the pupils' interest in reading.

Eeva thinks that in future the role of the Internet will increase considerably. She hopes that the competence of the teachers in this area will improve with increased training. The two computer classrooms at the Salla Upper Comprehensive School are connected to the Internet, but the classroom has to be reserved in advance for instruction. Eeva used the Internet for the first time in a Media Education lessons last winter, but her experiences have not been very encouraging – the boys spent their time on porn sites and the girls used IRC the whole of the lesson. The most useful media in Eva's view are newspapers and magazines.

Communication-oriented Paltamo

Paltamo, a municipality of ca. 4500 inhabitants, is situated in the province of Kainuu, north of lake Oulujärvi in the eastern part of central Finland. The schools of the parish have become famous for communication education and widespread use of information technology. The most notable work is being done at the Paltamo Upper Secondary School Specialized in Communicational and Media Skills, but in addition to this the whole school system of the municipality participates in national teaching method development projects. At the upper level of comprehensive school Media Education is practised in the form of theme years, according to the so-called cross-curricular principle, which means that communication is taken into account in all possible curriculum subjects. For our study Media Education was observed in Paltamo on 20 December 1999. This may not have been the best possible day for acquiring research material, as the schools were preparing for the end of autumn term ceremony and the Christmas party. On the other hand the day was favourable in that there were many Media Education themes on view in the school at the same time: a play produced by the pupils' drama club, practice of the Christmas party play, use of the media as a teaching aid, film education and makeup of the young people's page of a newspaper.

The event that the pupils were most captivated with was the Christmas play performed by pupils, whereas the video-assisted lesson on the birth of languages hardly raised excitement in the observed class (9 boys, 7 girls). Katja, who at the time was in her first year as a teacher in Paltamo, explained her decision by the fact that she had to be in two places at the same time: teaching 9th form pupils and directing a small play for the Christmas party to be held on the following day. To solve her practical problem Katja turned to media technology and instructed the class to use the video to find an answer to the question "what are the differences between the communication systems of humans and animals". Before the end of the lesson Katja returned to the classroom to discuss the theme of communication with the pupils.

Katja had graduated as a teacher of mother tongue and literature only a year earlier, in 1998. In her opinion the subjects of Media Education are newspapers, television, radio, films, information networks and computers. Her teaching experience was limited to the instruction of the use of computers and film education. At the Paltamo Upper Comprehensive School the resources for Media Education are good: the school has for example a video recorder and computer in every classroom. There is also a separate computer classroom and a classroom equipped with a video projector.

In Katja's view the contents of Media Education include both questions connected with the reception of the media and the practice of self-expression with the help of the media. She thinks that Media Education plays an important role within her own subject, but at the same time she estimates that optimal results in Media Education can be achieved only after "the bog-standard stuff has been ploughed through". She admits that Media Education does not have first priority, if for example an essay has to be written before the end of a teaching period.

Katja finds film and knowledge of information networks to be the most interesting subject areas of Media Education proper. In her opinion the role of Media Education in mother tongue and literature is that pupils do not watch for example films merely for the sake of entertainment, or that they learn to view the contents of newspapers and other texts critically. The media are also useful in the production of the pupils' own texts:

"Then there's all that material, for instance films or something else... They are useful study materials in that one can write about them. There are unlimited possibilities." With regard to mother tongue and literature Katja also considers it important that newspapers and magazines make for good illustrative material for example in grammar classes and other aspects of the subject, as well. "For example literature and film have a lot to offer each other. The means they utilize have a lot in common."

The Paltamo Upper Comprehensive School is housed in the same building as the communicationoriented upper secondary school of the municipality. Katja and her 9th form had a cooperation project going on with the upper secondary school before the Christmas holiday; the making of a young people's page for the local newspaper, Kainuun Sanomat.

The weekly young people's page is implemented so that in alternate weeks in different parishes in Kainuu an upper level comprehensive school class writes all the texts published on the page. The pupils themselves decide on the possible theme of the articles. Together with their teacher the pupils discuss what article types are suitable for the treatment of a theme or ideas for texts. The most common text types on the young people's page are interviews, opinion polls, argumentative articles and also entertainment texts of some kind, for instance horoscopes.

According to Katja the preparation of one young people's page takes 6–8 lessons, including planning and implementation. First the texts are written on floppy disks in the computer classroom, then the teacher goes through the texts and has the necessary corrections made, and finally the texts are sent to the Paltamo Upper Secondary School Specialized in Communicational and Media Skills. There the pupils of an optional course take turns at making up the pages with the school's computers. The finished pages are then sent through information networks to newspaper Kainuun Sanomat.

According to the leader of the newspaper project, a mother tongue and literature teacher, the objective is not to train the pupils as journalists – the most important goal is training of computer use. A sort of a hidden syllabus of the course seems to be the training of group work in the sense that in practical problems the pupils gave advice to each other all the time. In addition to this the course teaches responsibility and commitment: the deadline for the completion of the pages is definite.

In Katja's view the newspaper project is a valuable achievement in itself from a teaching point of view: "It's really cool to participate in the making of a real newspaper." From the standpoint of the actual subject she considers the most important thing to be that the pupils get a chance to practise argumentative writing. Pedagogically important is also that for its part the making of the young people's page improves the pupils' independent initiative and responsibility, as well their skills and knowledge, and it also teaches them to evaluate the importance of content in the production of texts for the media.

On the basis of the observed practice lesson page makeup as a learning process follows the principles of critical pedagogy: pupils themselves define the challenges (e.g. there is more text that has to fit on the page than what is visually acceptable) and they also find the solutions to each problem (the texts can be edited and shortened). The supervising teacher of the makeup course says that her pedagogical principles are constructivism and learning by doing. For example the observed pupils participated in the page makeup got to practise scanning, focusing and cropping of photographs.

Most significant observations

Ten interviews and observation sessions were conducted in the winter 1999–2000 and one in the spring of 2001 in the provinces of Oulu and Lapland in northern Finland, where the population is uncommonly sparse and where the development of information services has even more relevance than normally. In the schools where we conducted our research the challenges set by National Board of Education have best been met in Paltamo, where the comprehensive school has active links with outside co-operation partners. One event noted in the media was when the pupils had a videoconference with the London Police in autumn 1999. The pupils of the upper level comprehensive school, together with some other European schools, attempted to solve an actual crime that had taken place in England.

There is great variation in the resources available to Media Education in different schools. All the schools we studied have a specific computer classroom with Internet connections, but they do not necessarily have enough computers for all the students. Generally the mother tongue and literature teachers have a television, video recorder and stereo equipment at their disposal, whereas not nearly all the schools subscribe to newspapers and magazines. However, pupils don't have any specific textbooks for Media Education – although some, not many, theoretical studies (first of all Härkönen 114a) and guides (e.g. Kotilainen 1999) are available in teacher training. On the basis of the interviews we conducted with teachers, in present-day Finland Media Education is first and foremost seen as instruction dealing with new media. This means that great importance is placed on teaching the pupils how to use computers for both information retrieval and self-expression. It is possible for example that the instruction of mother tongue and literature includes special lessons on computer Finnish, during which computers and the Internet are used for the needs of mother tongue and literature: the pupils search for information on authors, write out material produced in mother tongue classes, do exercises dealing for example with word classes and sentence analysis 40 over the network, tabulate the results of textual analyses etc. These lessons do not have an actual syllabus of their own; in practice the lessons proceed according to what is studied in mother tongue lessons.

It must be noted, however, that some teachers still emphasize the important role of newspapers, magazines, radio and television as means of communication. Some of the teachers still include dramatic self-expression in Media Education in the sense that through their own actions the pupils learn to understand how media entertainment is produced. The many dimensions of Media Education are well illustrated by the many different names used for it. For example Härkönen (1994b, p. 24) has noted, that in the Finnish Media Education debate at least the following terms are used almost synonymously: mass Media Education, communication instruction, communication training, media pedagogy/ pedagogism, Media Education, media communication education, audiovisual instruction, film, television and video education, press education, media literacy, information technology instruction, computer-assisted instruction, telematics instruction and multimedia instruction. In our research interviews the existence of such concepts became apparent in that in some lessons the focus actually was on theatre education or television was used as a teaching aid. In Finnish teacher training Media Education is an optional subject in three universities. In the degree requirements Media Education is seen as a multidisciplinary subject area, which studies the social, pedagogical, interpretative, expressive and productive aspects of audiovisual media culture. The teaching of Media Education implements the cooperation between science and art, and at best the media competence required in the media culture is founded on theoretical, aesthetic and pedagogical thinking. (E.g. Tuomaala, 2000, p. 65; for the concept of media competence see Baacken, 1997, p. 98-99.)

Profile of a media teacher

The work experience of the teachers we interviewed varied considerably: the youngest were in theirfirst year as permanent teachers, whereas the most experienced ones had been in the field for 20–30 years. Although no statistical conclusions can be drawn on the basis of our research material, it seems that the oldest teachers had the most uninhibited attitude towards the use of the media. This can be explained by the fact that a young teacher concentrates on the core content, whereas a more experienced teacher has a wider perspective on the variation of the contents of instruction and the methods used. Furthermore, an experienced teacher has realised that the pupils regard media work as a meaningful form of learning, which offers a refreshing change to the teacher as well. All in all the teachers say they see Media Education as an important part of mother tongue also in view of the fact that the media are part of the society in which the pupils live and in which they will have to find a place after school. In this sense some teachers find it regrettable that in the end the proportion of Media Education in mother tongue and literature instruction depends on the interests of the teacher. Regarding the evaluation of pupils, the teachers we interviewed emphasize the standard of exercises, the pupils' self-evaluation and activity in class. Such evaluation criteria are suitable, considering the fact that often Media Education is an optional course, the special nature of which should be taken into consideration. Numerical evaluation based on tests and examinations is not justifiable in the sense that besides knowledge Media Education also concerns itself with skills that are extremely difficult to evaluate using objective criteria.

The emphasis on skills in addition to knowledge is in harmony with critical pedagogy. One striking fact in our research material is that without exception all the interviewed teachers used Media Education as a means for achieving critical literacy and mental development of the learner. The teachers justify their aim by the fact that in the modern communication society the importance of public information continues to increase, and that it is necessary for citizens to be able to discern fact from fiction and identify the underlying interests behind media messages.

Contents of lessons

In schools the media are used in the subject of mother tongue and literature as (i) a means for acquiring information, (ii) study material, (iii) a means of self-expression, (iv) a communication channel, (v) a means for maintaining international relations and (vi) as a means for improving media competence. In the observed lessons the most popular topics were the writing and reading of media texts; in one of 41 the lessons the media were used as study material and in another the pupils themselves performed a form of aesthetic media – the theatre. The most important subject of instruction was newspaper and multimedia text; film and music video were also among the media used in the lessons, as it has shown in next table:

Table 1. Contents of lessons

The pedagogic approach in most lessons was independent work of the pupils and discussion about the topics under analysis. The discussion was not very lively in all the observed lessons, however, which can partly be explained by the fact that observation as a research method may be a disturbing factor in a school where observation of classes is not an everyday activity. On the other hand the subject being taught generally started to interest the pupils so much that they forgot the presence of an observer. In this sense the passive presence of the observer benefited the observation – as did the truly inspiring quality of the subject being taught. The pupils were most active in the lessons, which focused on the analysis of horror fiction or the performance of their own play.

Generally the starting point in Media Education theory is that the best learning results are achieved when curriculum subjects work in co-operation. Our interviews indicate that the idea of cooperation is worthwhile, but in practice it is only rarely realised. Furthermore, there is the danger with co-operation projects that the teaching entity remains inefficient and fragmented. On the other hand, some of the mother tongue and literature teachers would be prepared to increase the cooperation between curriculum subjects already during teacher training.

Recommendations

The direct aim of our research was not to formulate a curriculum for Media Education or to present concrete tips for teaching. However, the analysis of the research material shows that the status of Media Education in the instruction of mother tongue and literature is quite problematic. It emerges from the comments of many interviewees that mother tongue and literature has changed into some sort of general communication studies – study of journalism. It has followed from this that the contents of the subject easily remain fragmented, and according to some teachers the role of Media Education in particular seems marginal in relation to the whole.

According to our observations, however, the media can be used in the instruction of mother tongue and literature in such a way that it supports the most central objectives of the subject – mastery of the language and cultural knowledge. As study material the use of the media has the benefit that it enables the application of different forms of learning and distance education in places where special education in a particular field is not available.

The weakness of the use of the media and Media Education are, however, the resources of the schools: in class all pupils do not necessarily have the chance to work with computers. Another problem is that technology develops at an extremely rapid rate, which means that communication between different kinds of networks may fail. Consequently, Media Education is a vulnerable form of instruction.

On the basis of our observations and conclusions there is no room in the current curricula for Media Education as a separate subject of instruction. However, it does have a well-defined role as a subject area within mother tongue and literature. In our view there is no need to explore all aspects of the media at once in every individual school, however. On the other hand when combining critical pedagogy, Media Education and practical planning of teaching, it is possible to start with subjects and disciplines which are already united by a critical sense. When the learners have adopted a critical sense as a way of action, attention can also be turned to fields in which communicativeness has so far not been a dominant feature of instruction. Thus it can be said that one does not have to learn every media form thoroughly; one can concentrate on one communication relation at a time without hurry. A competence as a media reader developed in one area of communication – for instance the press – is likely to work in other areas as well, in other words there is a transfer effect.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank to Timo Mäntyvaara who translated our basic text to English. Also we own a word of thanks to Licentiate in Education, Arja-Sisko Holappa in guiding our work. Her pedagogic knowledge helped us very much.

References

Baacke, D. (1997) Medienpädagogik Tübingen: Niemeyer.

Curriculum (1994) Framework curriculum for the comprehensive school transl. Paula Berttell. Helsinki: National Board of Education.

Härkönen, R.-S. (1994a) Viestintäkasvatuksen ulottuvuudet Helsinki: Helsingin yliopiston opettajankoulutuslaitos.

------ (1994b) Viestintäkasvatuksen ulottuvuudet: taustoja ja tavoitteita in Härkönen, R.-S. (ed) Viestintä ja kasvatus, mediapedagogisia vaihtoehtoja Helsinki: Opetushallitus & Painatuskeskus Oy.

------ (1997) Kommunikaatiotaitojen kehittymisen arviointiperusteet in Jakku-Sihvonen, R. Onnistuuko oppiminen. Oppimistuloksien ja opetuksen laadunarviointiperusteita peruskoulussa ja lukiossa Helsinki: Opetushallitus.

Kehittämissuunnitelma (1999) Koulutus ja tutkimus vuosina 1999–2004. Kehittämissuunnitelma

Helsinki: Opetusministeriö.

Kotilainen, S. (1999) Mediakasvatuksen monet määritelmät in Kotilainen, S. et al. (ed) Mediakasvatus Helsinki: Edita.

Masterman, L. (1985) Teaching the media London: Routledge.

Niiniluoto, I. (1996) Informaatio, tieto ja yhteiskunta. Filosofinen käsiteanalyysi Helsinki: Edita.

Tella, S. (1999) Mediakasvatus _ aikamme arvoinen. Kasvatus 3 (205_221).

Tuomaala, M.-S. (Ed) (2000) Lapin yliopiston taiteiden tiedekunnan opinto-opas 2000–2001

Rovaniemi: Lapin yliopisto.

About the Authors

Markku Varis, Johanna Pihlajamäki, and Nina Vuontisjärvi are researchers in the university of Oulu, Finland. Senior assistant Varis completed his Ph.D in 1998, and his topic is the form and the intention of roundabout expressions (circumlocutions) in Finnish. Pihlajamäki and Vuontisjärvi have finished their MA thesis in 2001 on general communication and pragmatics. Each one has practical background in media work, and in school they have specialised in Media Education.

In university of Oulu Media Education is one of the main interests of the department of Finnish, because the unit is teaching media language and media research. Department has specialised to critical linguistics and language of mass media and, finally, to ideology on media messages. Writers can be contacted by this email address: markku.varis@oulu.fi

MEDIA EDUCATION IN GERMANY

Horst Lohl

Introduction: Objective, construction and content of the report

Objective: The primary interest of the Euromedia Study Germany (ESG) is not to give a complete overview of the richness of publications, experience-reports and programmatic remarks on Media Education in school or in class, especially in the subject German at secondary level. This research rather concentrates on the study of the pre-determined leading question of what teachers in (North -) Germany presently understand by saying they pursue Media Education in German-classes. Essentially this study concentrates on the view of the teachers that have been interviewed, and additionally on those of their lessons that were examined.

The main focus therefore is on the interviews, and additionally on descriptions of media-pedagogic positions or attitudes teachers represent, supported by lesson-observation. Furthermore, the experience they have gained with media-pedagogic activities / topics in German-classes are considered.

Construction and content of the report: This short version of the report presents the main findings of the ESG. Te basic conditions and the present situation of scholastic Media Education will not be outlined here for they can be found in other publications listed in the bibliography as well as an overview about media educational projects and institutions in Germany (Lohl 1999). In this version of the report the theoretical reference framework of the ESG will not be presented too. Instead of this an overview of the course and the essential results of the qualitative studies on Media Education in Germanclasses, that have been executed in the ESG, will be given. In the pre-determined framework, it is not possible to present the individual case-referential evaluations of the fourteen interviews and eight lesson-observations, which would clarify the differences between the teachers. Finally, some consequences for the future of Media Education in German-classes (of the Secondary level 1) and for further research in this area, with special reference to school practice, are presented.

Research procedure

Selection of the teachers

Those teachers of German who agreed to take part in the ESG were mostly known to the projectmembers from their own schooldays or from a work-experience. Some were selected by chance. Most of them are working in Northern Germany, particularly at Realschulen (secondary schools), Gymnasien (high schools) and Gesamtschulen (integrated schools) in Lower Saxony (Ages: between 40 and 62 years; sex: 12 male; 2 female)

Time scale

After some preparatory in the summer-term of 1999, the ESG was carried out by a group of students (Lehramt (Teaching Certificate) and Magister (M.A.)) under participation and management of Horst Lohl at the University of Hanover, Department of Education, from October 1999 until July 2001. The group did not get any particular financial support. Rather the students were doing the research within the context of a regular lecture, the participant-circle of which changed from term to term; also some students were dropping out because of their exams. Only some participants could take part in the work for the entire project. Some concluding and continuing work of evaluation is planned for the wintersemester 2001. Probably the stress will then also be put on possibilities of studies comparing the individual federal states.

Conduct of the interviews and the lesson-observations

The interviews and the lesson-observations were carried out on the grounds of the research-tools provided by Andrew Hart, which had been translated and adapted. They were usually recorded with audio-recorders if the subject agreed to it. The recordings were completely transcribed, i.e. translated into written German. Nonverbal utterances were only integrated if it was – in the eyes of the interviewer or observer – of particular importance for the understanding of what was said. All that was written down was made anonymous and evaluated individually and in comparison to the other findings.

In the Euro-Media Study Germany, fourteen interviews with teachers of German (and additionally three with student-teachers) and eight lesson-observations were carried out. The latter proved relatively difficult: From the beginning, some of the teachers in principle were not ready to have their German-classes observed without giving reasons. Others agreed to observations in the first place but made an agreement on a final date difficult by cancelling observations at short notice so that ultimately it was not possible to watch one of their lessons.

Other teachers agreed to lesson-observations. However, in some cases media-related topics were not taught in the lessons – as had been agreed on. Instead a traditional German-class took place, in which the pupils worked on literary texts. This was justified by changes in the instruction-plan or delays in the occupation with other topics. Unfortunately, the repeated attempts of the project-members to be attend lessons on media(-pedagogic) topics were, after all, not successful. This led to considerable delays in the further work on the project.

Modifications of the research-tools

After having been translated into German (which, because of meaning differences of terms and concepts in different countries, had to be done interpretatively in parts), the research-tools were repeatedly tried out in interviews and modified in order to avoid misinterpretation. The interviewers were intensively trained, and a slightly more open interviewing-technique was employed. With the adapted tools, we thus got more meaningful answers than are possible on the basis of a 'question-and-answergame', in which the subjects' perspective is only roughly outlined at a few points. The flickering term "media-pedagogy" was used but on purpose not closely defined in advance to avoid influence on the views of the subjects. Being explicitly asked, the interviewers were expected merely to point out that the term referred to the learning with media and the learning about media (media as topic of instruction).

Findings
Detailed analysis
Overall evaluation of the interviews

Introduction

All in all, fourteen interviews with teachers (age: between 42 and 62 years) from different school-forms (Haupt -, Realschule (secondary schools), Gymnasium (high school), IGS (integrated schools)) were carried out and analysed individually and in comparison to the other research, also with regard to an analysis of the content. The subjects cannot be seen as a homogeneous group since they not only belong to different school-forms–and consequently are on the one hand confined to different curricula and on the other hand are bound to the different political attitudes of the various schools – but they also belong to different age-classes, which leads to the assumption that they underwent an education differing in its main focuses. Keeping these prerequisites in mind, the diverse statements were checked for common tendencies. However, even greatly differing statements were incorporated into the final results.

Results

Background

All teachers who were being interviewed were teachers of German in combination with a social, historical or artistic second subject. The participants have been working in their jobs for some years and were thus able to draw on rich experience.

Media-concept

The definition of the term "media" is a wide one with virtually all the interviewed. A clear-cut definition cannot be read into any of the teachers' statements; still, there is a tendency to define media as "bearers and mediators of pieces of information". Most of the subjects think of the "classic" media such as the Overhead-projector, film and video and, above all, the print-media such as books and newspapers. The computer has a special status in the media-curriculum. The education with and at this medium is a particularly important task for schools – especially with regards to professional prospects.

However, the usage of this "new" medium–like that of other technical media (video-recorder et al) –remains rare due to organizational or technical problems.

Media-pedagogic concept

At school, media do have an important function. Human beings are "auditory" creatures and thus media like the VCR or the computer are a valuable source of learning. Even if literary work is of main interest, visual stimulation (by for example the VCR) must be taken up. A media-pedagogic concept is not defined by any of the teachers interviewed; but the totality of answers implies such concepts (mainly of the media-didactical kind). Mainly, the teachers identified media-pedagogy with the concept of media-didactics as defined above; this means that were primarily dealing with the question of learning with media, i.e. their use in the instruction, and hardly with making media the topic in class in order to learn something about media. Insofar, one could argue that (explicit) Media Education never comes into view at all; if one does not look at the selective and not systematically integrated design of media, for instance, an internet-documentation, a radio play or a video-film in terms of implicit Media Education. Now, one could argue that this way the students learn something about the 'self-made' media in passing. Unfortunately, this experience is never made explicit. The same is true for the traditional, selective, unsystematic occupation with films made of books in the subject of German, which is often simply seen as enrichment of the instruction. All interviewed teachers therefore have an idea of possibilities for the integration of Media Education into German-classes even if they understand different things by 'media-pedagogy'. As a rule, they identify media-pedagogy with media-didactics, the learning with media. The fact that media themselves can and should become a topic in Germanclasses remains rather too peripheral. Active work with media in German-classes usually takes place only sometimes: for instance when students design media themselves (e.g. internet-documentations, a radio plays, a (newspaper-)article et al.). Experience with the possibilities and limits of the respective medium, which is made this way, is not sufficiently reflected/ made explicit.

Aims and methods

Primarily, media mainly offer (1) variety in the course of instruction. In this context, everyday media (film / television) already well-known to the students are used in view of their didactic potential. What is more, the teacher may use the students' familiarity with these media, and with this their intuitive usage, for the learning process. Consequently, another important aim of media-pedagogy is to foster (2) self-driven activities and self-employment of the students. This yields as an important teaching objective means (3) an effective and reflected use of, that is to say a conscious confrontation with the medium daily consumed. The probably most important goal of media-pedagogic instruction results from this: (4) improving critical faculties. Students should develop an analytic view in order to, for instance, be able to recognize linguistic ways of the manipulation of consumers. In order to achieve the aims listed above, mostly video-films are shown (final reflection of novels), but also radio plays or sound recordings are employed. The book, however, remains unquestioned in its outstanding educational contents.

Working with Media

As has already been mentioned, media-concepts are not perceived neither as such nor do they seem to be integrated completely into the instruction so that working with media does not differ from other instruction.

Scholastic framework

In the current guidelines, audiovisual media are an area of instruction. Every school has got so-called media-rooms (differing in the standard of equipment). Mostly, overhead-projectors as well as TVs and VCRs exist in sufficient numbers. Moreover, some schools possess CD-players or cassette-recorders. Besides the equipment provided by the schools, teachers also use external facilities (theatres, visits to newspapers etc.). As regards the use of the computer, IT-classes or a project-group on IT is offered. However, no school is equipped with a sufficient number of computers and there are only some which have got access to the internet. In class, the computer is used exclusively to gather information. In some schools, experience is exchanged in the compartmental conferences (Fachkonferenzen); this, however, is not the case in every school. Moreover, usually technical problems are under discussion; didactic topics are seldom addressed. Only very rarely are projects on media worked out in the team; usually teachers are individualistic and 'fight on their own'.

Percentage of Media Used

The percentage of the use of media in instruction could only be assessed roughly by the interviewed teachers. The statements fluctuate between 5-10% and 40%. The huge scope of percentages probably results from greatly differing definitions of the term "media" as well as "working with/on media".

Education

Virtually all the interviewed teachers complained over a lacking education respecting the use of media during their studies. The motivation of the teachers plays a crucial role as media-pedagogic qualifications were hardly offered by the universities. Handling media in class was usually experienced in the student-teacher period for the first time. The area of the new media (computers, internet) was still also neglected then. (This, however, can be attributed to age of the interviewed teachers.)

In-service Training (IST)

In-Service Training (IST) is not obligatory und thus not made use of by all of the interviewed teachers – motivation of their own here too is crucial. Since the participation in IST (German: Lehrerfortbildung (LFT) must take place outside the schooldays, the interest has decreased even further. If teachers had taken part in ISTs, this often was already done some years ago. The media-related topics in ISTs then usually referred to the use of films in the instruction. For a further education in the area of computers, most interviewed teachers were lacking the necessary motivation – 'too old' is the most frequently given reason.

Curriculum

Very converse statements were made on the given possibilities of the curricula. While some felt completely restricted regarding the treatment of media-pedagogic topics, others think of Media Education as fixed component of the curriculum. These opinions presumably are due to subjective judgments and, as has already been mentioned, depends on the definition of "media-pedagogical" topics.

Compartmental Conferences

In the compartmental conferences of schools mainly the supply of money to purchase new computers is discussed (in different ways and different intensity). Only in some conferences are media-pedagogic concepts debated.

Teamwork and common concepts

Almost all subjects complained about a missing common and binding concept of the use of media in class. For instance, the use of the computer is demanded by the compartmental conferences and the school-management – common concepts, however, do not exist (leaving aside a few exceptions).

Tips for student-teachers

• orientation towards the world of the students is indispensable for a good instruction. Moreover, students must learn to

• watch, that is to say to consciously and reflectively watch films

Long-term goals

With the introduction of media-pedagogic topics into instruction, teachers want to achieve (1) an immunization of the students to the influencing factors of the media. An utmost (2) information especially with regards to visual media shall be reached. This aims at educating the students to a critical recipient.Besides judging which aspects represent the quality of the media, having pleasure is to be part of this. Media should also be seen as a part of our reality. In the confrontation with media, (4) emotions should not be left aside. Also, one should mediate higher (5) competence in the critical use of the internet. Students should learn to use this medium as tool and source of information. Besides these goals, which refer to the technological media, of course learning how to write and read is one of the most important goals of German-classes.

These long-term goals should be mediated in an up-to-date and modern way, which stresses the content of the media. Furthermore, they need to conform with the new strategies of reception.

Methods, contents of the curriculum and equipment

As has been mentioned above, using media is often impeded by the usually bad equipment of the schools. Moreover, in how far (technological) media are used, depends on the motivation of the respective teacher. To make matters worse, students often understand films made of literary works as a relaxing entertainment and do not reflect or judge them critically. Still, it is worth trying to sharpen the students' awareness of larger contexts and super ordinate structures by watching films. Similarly, the process of reception should itself become a topic. Finally, understanding this process is just as significant as the quality of the work.

Media for instruction are not produced by any of the interviewed teachers themselves; the offer of commercial instruction-media is sufficient. In this context, the computer is again entitled to a central role: this medium has a group-dynamic effect which turns the teacher-centred teaching into groupinstruction and thus helps to make instruction more active. The students learn to work independently and to come to results through creative thinking and a playful use of this medium – they learn to take the medium as a starting point for further thoughts.

The interviewed teachers are most confident in the work with film / video. In using the new media (computer, internet) they are, however, extremely insecure.

Media-pedagogy in the next decade

Some of the interviewed teachers think that there will not be any essential innovations. Others are of the opinion that, with the internet, projects will play an increasing role on the European level. Nevertheless, there are also teachers who think that after working towards media for years, there has come a time in which one will tend to take traditional forms of mediation in the instruction into consideration again. However, the astronomical increase of media has yielded a restructuring of the habits of communication which makes it necessary to set new priorities.

Summarizing analysis of the lesson-observations

Introduction

On the basis of the eight lesson-observations which stood to our disposal similarities and tendencies can be worked out. As not all of the observed lessons showed the usage of media, a media-pedagogic assessment is difficult. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis is tried here.

Description of the lessons

The observed lessons can roughly be divided into four groups: 1. Watching films made of novels; 2.Staging scenes; 3. "pure" work on the text; 4. Internet-project.

Connection with the curriculum

In general, the contents of the lessons follows the guidelines. The internet-project was carried out in a philosophy-class since the guidelines for German do not allow for such a project; According to the teacher, it would, however, have been possible for the project to take place in a German-class.

Goals of the instruction

Groups 1 to 3 (cf. part 2) aimed at fixing results as well as analysing the realization concerning contents as well as characters. Similarly, the courage to defend one's own opinion should be encouraged.

With respect to the internet-project, the teacher had no particular objectives but he mentioned the courage to independent work and the contact with computer and internet as general goals of his project.

Significance of the objectives

It was important to virtually all teachers to develop a sensitivity in their students which would enable them to handle the texts they were reading or films they were watching critically. The students also should develop and present their own points of view. Along with a critical access to what was read, a technical and critical access to the "new" media was of primary importance in the internet-project. This was supported by independent work in the form of openly structured lessons ("open instruction"). The teacher's role was only that of "backing".

Media-pedagogy (media-use) in class

Unfortunately, the teachers hardly commented on the media-pedagogic relevance of their classes. Often, the use of media failed due to technical failures (defective cameras, overhead-projectors) or organizational ones (insufficient VCRs or computers). There were also too little media-pedagogic 49 concepts which could actually be translated into practice; the schools would have to work more closely together on this level.

Overall Impression

It is difficult to judge the usage of media in German-classes on the basis of 8 lesson-observations. Nevertheless, tendencies can be determined. An intentional use of media could hardly be observed. There was only one teacher who worked with the "new" media, these being the computer and the internet. In some cases, the good will of the teachers was stopped by organizational or technical problems with the media. Next to the medium book, films made of novels seem to be the most popular medium; it has in fact a set place in the curriculum. Therefore, one of the main focuses of a mediasupported instruction is the analysis of and critical confrontation with a text in pictures. Nevertheless, computers and the internet seem to break through the stiff structures of the German-classes and more and more to make their way into the classroom.

General conclusions

Teaching-Schemata

Teacher-centred teaching based on books, respectively texts, still seems to be dominating (not only in Media Education) in German-classes. Occasionally, there are, however, also forms of project-oriented learner-centred work; their "secret syllabus" is fixed through the task of a treatment and transformation of a text so that finally the objective, for example to do a talk show or to produce an internet documentation, is less serving media-educational goals than serving the confrontation with a set text.

Can one therefore speak of a "pseudo-independent work of groups of students" caused by predetermined tasks referring to texts, which are set by the teacher?

Gaps in practice

1. A lot has been written, postulated and planned regarding scholastic media-pedagogy. In contrast, the actual fixing of Media Education in scholastic practice in German-classes has remained behind considerably. The research in the ESG, which is based on interviews and lesson observations, essentially confirms the results of other research, as for example that of Tulodziecki; Schoepf 1992 or Marci-Boehncke; Gast 1997.

2. Until now, the media-pedagogic qualifications of teachers of German have not been mediated systematically during the studies or the student-teacher period. During the studies, scientific knowledge of the subject (here: German), knowledge about education and optional courses remain unconnected. Furthermore, that German courses at university, like those of other sciences, too, are not sufficiently directed towards the teaching profession. Topics of Media Education are hardly taken into account, and elements of didactic studies are marginal and apparently do not refer to questions of the Media Education in the German-classes.

3. The systematic integration of Media Education in the scientific and didactic studies of German for teachers-to-be has been demanded repeatedly – apparently without resonance. Offers of courses on Media Education at the Departments of Education of the universities (of Lower Saxony) do exist but usually they do not discuss Media Education in subjects such as German German classes. The interviewed teachers have usually not acquired their media-pedagogic qualifications during their studies or the student-teacher period but – if they exist at all – by self-education.

4. Media / materials for Media Education are available and easily accessible – for German-classes, too. Textbooks for German-classes also include media(-pedagogic) topics. In the internet, numerous ideas of how to integrate Media Education into German-classes can be found.

5. Media Education has not yet been sufficiently systematically integrated into the guidelines of Lower Saxony for German as a subject (Secondary level I). Nevertheless, there are possibilities for teachers of German to systematically include media-pedagogic topics.

6. Most of the interviewed teachers, in their German-classes, try to educate students to be critical users of media. In their opinion, an important, if not the most important, aspect on the way there is to make students capable of working with (literary) texts. Possibilities of achieving this goal through the reflected use of the various "new" media seldom come into perspective. Traditional media like books and texts and new media appear to be taken as alternatives between which one can and must decide and not as possibilities which can and should be connected meaningfully.

7. An overall concept for integrative Media Education (in German-classes) at schools in Lower Saxony is not available. However, there are numerous initiatives to qualify teachers and to enable them to realize Media Education (in the German-classes of the Secondary level I). (Guidelines)

8. Teachers of German still direct their instruction mainly to texts and the medium book; a medium that is usually no leading medium in the everyday world of the students. Students get their bearings more strongly by the new media. This discrepancy seems to be too little reflected. When teachers of German use new media, these usually seem to function as vehicles in the mediation of "traditional" contents of teaching.

9. Initiatives and projects that are directed towards a stronger inclusion of media and Media Education into school reach only few schools. Exchanging experience with Media Education from school to school takes place too rarely.

10. Teachers seem to use too few of the available possibilities for further qualification in media pedagogy.

11. Media Education is presently still not included systematically but only in a selective, isolated, and un-coordinated form into the German-classes of the Secondary level I. Whether and how it will take place depends, above all, on the preferences, likings and the attitude of the individual teacher. Therefore – qualitatively and quantitatively – only a small number of students is reached

Issues and problems

12. Teachers to not seem to be aware of the fact that the integration of Media Education into the German-classes does not mean that they have to give up the typical objectives and tasks of the German-classes.

13. The ESG-research gives evidence for the fact that Kübler's demand is still valid: "It should be a goal to convince and to make plausible to teachers of German that nowadays they cannot give up-to-date, appealing and didactically productive German-classes if they do not put media-pedagogic concerns and topics into the centre of the learning process... on the one hand. On the other hand – and this alone is the other side of the coin – media-pedagogic goals and areas of learning must be designed and formulated as close to as urgent for the subject as possible so that they cannot only be looked at and mediated without problems but in fact become an obligatory part of the subject, here: German." (Kübler 1992, 154) This is to say that the patterns of interpretation which teachers use to orient themselves during their employment change so that Media Education gets a fixed status/ position in it. Teachers should get a clear concept of mediapedagogy and its areas of responsibility. A reflection of their own learning-experience with media can contribute to this in order to avoid unconscious/ un-reflected slipping in of this in their vocational activities.

14. There are constantly more schools working on the development and integration of a media-pedagogic profile. If such a concept is primarily oriented towards single media/ information- und communication- technologies and does not integrate a pedagogic framework, it will be too limited and could cause problems ( for instance, a media-centred perspective instead of a goal-oriented reflection).

15. The integration of Media Education into school, here especially into the German-classes, can also contribute to questioning traditions of which one has grown very fond and to reform school.

16. Cooperation and the exchanging of experience (also with reference to the experience with and possibilities of Media Education in German-classes) between teachers of German, usually either do not take place at all or much too rarely. Incentives for a more intensive exchange of experience and for more cooperation should be should be offered.

17. Only some of these (cf. above) tasks of Media Education (Tulodziecki 1997) appear to be thought of by teachers of German when they are planning or giving their lessons. In-service training of teachers in the media-pedagogic area is utterly necessary.

18. Media-pedagogy is to be integrated systematically into curricula, studies, and the student-teacher. For the education of teachers, a minimal curriculum should be agreed on as it has, for example, been proposed by the University's Network for In-Service Training of Teachers and New Media (Bertelsmann-Foundation; Heinz Nixdorf-Foundation). Additionally, teachers should be less involved in routine-tasks in order to help them with the training in media- pedagogy.

Implications

Future development of Media Education in Germany

One can assume that considerable financial efforts will continue to be undertaken in order to establish and to intensify scholastic Media Education. Related changes in the teaching courses at university and in the student-teacher period will only have effects on a medium-term basis, however. A lot also depends on the question whether the German-courses, particularly the didactics of the subject, will be integrating media-pedagogic elements for students of education. In how far Media Education in school will be reduced to the economic needs of the working world is hard to predict. Fears relating to this, however, do not seem to be unreasonable.

Limitations of the research

The qualitatively oriented project that has been presented here is restricted to a few individual cases in Northern Germany and thus cannot claim to yield representative results. In other federal states (for example Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia) the situation is presumably somewhat different if only for the fact that overall concepts of scholastic Media Education and corresponding curricula are available there. The research should be extended to other federal states and all leading subjects of Media Education. It has turned out that it is essential not to generalize the experience and attitudes of teachers too hastily but to examine individual cases because considerable differences in the interpretation of mediapedagogy seem to exist. Further research therefore should be analysed with special regard to individual cases in order to be able to look at the undistorted point of view of teachers.

Perspectives for future research

Future research should aim at including all leading subjects of scholastic Media Education and also at observing longer sequences of instruction. It should also aim more strongly at supporting teachers in establishing the Media Education in their subjects by, for example, making them consider and change Media Educational concepts and their reference to the respective subject. Furthermore, this could lead to make them recognize that new media and traditional media, like for example books, in the instruction and as topics in class do not represent alternatives excluding one another. Nevertheless, it would be unrealistic to assume that this could and had to be achieved solely on the basis of research. Rather, an in-service training closely connected to actual practice and more intensive exchange of experience between teachers are necessary. Still, the extracurricular experience with media and the perspective of the students need to remain at the attention of research and teachers. This research should increasingly turn to the changes in the scholastic learning-culture which is among other reasons initiated by the usage of media.

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Schill, W.; Tulodziecki, G.; Wagner, W.-R. (Hrsg. 1992): Medienpädagogisches Handeln in der Schule, Opladen

Schill, W.; Wagner, W. R. (1997): Wie wirklich ist die Medienpädagogik in der Schule? In: medien und erziehung (merz) 41.Jg., , H.5, S.282-287

Tulodziecki, G. u. a (Hg.; 1997)): Neue Medien – neue Aufgaben für die Lehrerausbildung. Tagungsdokumentation. Gütersloh (Bertelsmann-Stiftung)

Tulodziecki, G.; Gallasch, U.; Moll, St. u.a. (1995): Neue Medien als Inhalt und Mittel der universitären Lehrerausbildung. Ergebnisse eines Modellvorhabens im Rahmen der Initiative "BIGBildungswege in der Informationsgesellschaft" www.uni-paderborn.de/extern/fb/2/tulo/big/bericht/index.htm

Tulodziecki, G. u. a. (1995): Handlungsorientierte Medienpädagogik in Beispielen. Projekte und Unterrichtseinheiten für Grundschulen und weiterführende Schulen, Bad Heilbrunn, 1-38

Tulodziecki, G. (1998): Medienpädagogik in Schule und Lehrerbildung, in: Von der Bildungsplanung zur Schulentwicklung, Neuwied, 2 Tulodziecki, G. (2001): Schulprofil Medienkompetenz. Konzepte, Erfahrungen, aktueller Stand in Deutschland, Zukunftsperspektiven, in: Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (Hg.): Denkräume, Szenarien zum Informationszeitalter, GMK-Rundbrief 43, Bielefeld 2001, 144-150

Tulodziecki, G. (1997): Medienerziehung als Aufgabe des Deutschunterrichts, in: Erlinger, H. D. (Hg.): Neue Medien, Edutainment, Medienkompetenz. Deutschunterricht im Wandel, München, 39-51

Tulodziecki, G.; Mütze, Chr.(1996): Lehrerausbildung im Bereich neuer elektronischer Medien, in: Neue Medien in den Schulen, Gütersloh (Bertelsmann-Stiftung) ,143-163

Tulodziecki, G.; Schöpf, K.(1992): Zur Situation der schulischen Medienpädagogik in Deutschland: Konzepte, Materialien, Praxis und Probleme, in: Bertlesmann-Stiftung: Medienkompetenz als Herausforderung an Schule und Bildung. Ein deutsch-amerikanischer Dialog, Gütersloh, S. 104

Wermke, J. (1997): Integrierte Medienerziehung im Fachunterricht. Schwerpunkt Deutsch, München

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C. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank everyone who supported the work of this study, especially a number of teachers of German. In particular, I am grateful to those students of the University of Hanover who took part in the study and have supported it in different ways, for example by looking for materials and analysing these, by the execution and evaluation of interviews or lesson-observations, or by the translation of texts.

About the Author

Horst Lohl is Senior Lecturer in Education and Director of the Centre for Audio-Visual Media at the Institute of Education, University of Hannover, Germany. He teaches Education for M.A. phil- and Teacher-Students. Main focusses of his teaching and researching activities are (international) media education, practical media work and "new education".

Publications about Education, Media-Education, Instructional Research. Recent Publications: Verzeichnis der (AV-) Medien über reformpädagogische und alternative Schulen in Europa – erste Ergebnisse eines Dokumentationsprojektes, in: Klaßen, Th. F.; Skiera, E. (Ed.): Handbuch der reformpädagogischen und alternativen Schulen in Europa, 2. Auflage 1993, S.233-293; Themenzentrierte Interaktion in Film, Fernsehen und Radio. Erste Ergebnisse eines Projektes zur Dokumentation elektronischer Medien, in: Themenzentrierte Interaktion. Theme-Centered Interaction (April) 1999; International comparisons in Media Education research: experiences with a small-scale project and perspectives for further research, in: Media Education Centre (University of Southampton) (Ed.): Frankfurt Papers. The Media Education Symposium at the European Conference an Educational Research, MEC Collected Research Papers 1, Southampton,1999

Horst Lohl, A. Dir., Institute of Educational Science, University of Hannover, Wunstorfer Strasse 14, D-30453 Hannover, Germany, Email: lohl@erz.uni-hannover.de ;Tel.: +49 51 7623139; Fax: +49 511 7625610, Websites: http://www.unics.uni-hannover.de/medienpaed/index.htm http://www.expage.com/page/tci

Iconic Communication Today and the Role of Media Education

Chrysoula Kosmidou-Hardy

Introduction

The emergence and continuous development of the Internet signifies the arrival of a new era. The creation of a new society, mainly through the cultural symbols transmitted at a unique speed, is one of the most serious consequences. It is suggested (e.g. Webster, 1995) that the creation of this new society is connected with the consequences of modern communication methods and practices. Information society is the result of the revolution in information technology (Castells, 1998). Through the use of the Internet, and electronic communication media in general, interpersonal communication and direct interaction between people is being limited thus increasing isolation and creating a sense of loneliness. It seems that modern communication is both unifying and homogenizing but also fragmenting the social world. The shrinking of face-to-face communication and its gradual replacement by the iconic text promotes communication with amorphous and abstract societies in the cyber space and it is often supported (e. g. Arendt, 1973) that this has negative effects on public and private life.

Faced with this situation people often feel shocked, lost, unable to understand rapid changes, and vulnerable in the midst of the flux created around them causing insecurity and anxiety. McLuhan (1964) has already suggested that we live in 'an anxiety era', whereas today Giddens (1994) uses the term 'manufactured uncertainty', which has been developed in the last four decades and needs to be analyzed in the context of globalization. In this context -that is in the process of connecting the local with the global through the new methods and channels of communication- new forms of uncertainty and risk are emerging and anxiety is intensified, whereas, according to Habermas (1987), the extension of interaction in the time-space context may lead to further anxiety which creates a sense of loss.

In our globalized world Mass Media continually play an important role concerning the construction of identities at a personal, social and cultural level, while 'training' audiences in a 'crowd silence' (Sennett, 1978, p.282) through the linear communication model they promote. This linear model, usually facilitated and/or supported by the linear models on which school teaching is generally based, involves individuals in a power relation through the one-way flow of information with the powerful transmitter of messages on the one end of communication and the passive receiver, who seems unable to react, on the other.

The decrease of interpersonal communication, combined with the increase of interaction with electronic and Media communication in general, increases the complexity of communication and this implies that users or receivers of messages require education for the use of new forms of texts and new communication skills in general. In the Media and electronic communication era, in the era of 'post literacy', it seems that traditional ways of learning and education need to be problematized. Within this context, Media Education can play a vital role in all educational programmes and in school curricula. It is our view that Media Education (M.E) should not only be one of the most important subjects at all levels of education (primary, secondary, tertiary) but also inform and influence the methodology and didactic approach of all school subjects: its themes, philosophy and methodology, based on a holistic communication model, should constitute cross-curricular elements. While in many European countries M.E is at least a part of the curriculum, in Greece this subject is non-existent and, some years ago, we had quite a few difficulties in finding even an appropriate term to translate 'Media Education' into Greek.

Since 1985, we have worked in different contexts and through different ways (e.g. through lectures, seminars, European projects, research and publications) in order to introduce this subject in Greek literature and reality. However, despite the positive results our work has had, we believe that a more systematic and comparative project like the EuroMedia project can have more immediate results concerning the official introduction of Media Education into Greek educational reality.

A brief outline of the Greek educational context

The educational system of modern Greece has been centralized for a long time. As Dimaras, (1988) the present president of the Centre of Educational Research, pointed out years ago, Everything – despite certain initiatives and responsibilities which are left to the local authorities determined and inspected by the national government. This strictly centralized organization will remain a permanent characteristic of modern education always accompanied by the theoretical, classicist character of the studies offered which has been transplanted from Bavaria and favoured by the native climate.

This centralization of the Greek educational system can be better understood if one takes into consideration modern Greece's historical development which has been characterized by turmoil and socio-political instability in which interventions of foreign powers played a role as well, due to Greece's geo-politically important position, especially during the existence of the Soviet bloc. Among other repercussions for Greece (mainly of an economic nature) this instability led to a centralized educational system through which the national identity was accentuated in different ways and the need to establish a common educational system, which would not be threatened by different sources, was and still is obvious, albeit –to a certain degree at least- understandable. Because of the centralized nature and bureaucratic organization of the educational system, decisions about almost all educational issues (i. e. curricula, syllabi, school timetables, teachers' appointment, way of payment and promotion, school establishment and general functioning) are made by the Ministry of Education and introduced uniformly into all schools, leaving little room for creativity and autonomy to teachers at the micro level of the classroom and school. There have been attempts recently (e. g. through bill 1566/85, 2525/1997) towards the organization of a more decentralized system but in general the situation remains the same with the Greek educational system maintaining its traditional, hierarchical, centralized and bureaucratic structure which does not facilitate innovative changes.

The basic bill which defines the general organization and function of the contemporary educational system for Primary and Secondary Education is bill 1566/85 which is still valid for the broader context of education to which it refers and the details it provides about the functions of the persons and bodies involved in the educational process as well as the educational structure. Acts 2525/97 and 2640/98 developed in the context of recent educational reforms are complementary to the above bill. Recent educational reforms have introduced important changes mainly to do with the upper level of secondary education (the Lyceum), assessment and evaluation aims and processes as well as pupils' introduction to Higher Education. In the context of this work we will only refer to basic issues.

The Greek educational system consists of the following levels:

Primary Education:

• Kindergarten, which is of two years duration, and

• Primary School, which is of six years duration.

Secondary Education:

• The Gymnasium, which is of three years duration and is compulsory,

• The Lyceum (General – now called 'Unified' [Eniaio] and Technological), which is of three years duration also.

Tertiary Education, divided into:

• Higher Education Institutions (i.e. Universities)

• Technological Education Institutions

In the 1980s a number of reforms were introduced in the Greek educational system aiming at its democratization and modernization. Some of the main structural changes connected with secondary education are the following: i) the establishment of the comprehensive Multilateral Lyceum, whose aim was the combination of general with technical and vocational education, ii) the abolition of examinations for upper secondary school entrance (leading to Lyceum), and iii) certain changes related to the selection system for entering higher education. Some main changes connected with school curricula are the following: i) introducing new subjects (e.g. information technology, technology and production, political economy) and writing up of relevant syllabi, ii) supporting low achievers with supplementary teaching, and introducing optional courses and educational activities into the curriculum of Comprehensive Lyceum. Below we will briefly refer to the aim, objectives and curricula in Secondary Education because this is the context in which the present research took place. According to bill 1566/85, the general aim of Secondary Education is its contribution "to the holistic, harmonious and balanced development of pupils' spiritual and psychosomatic capabilities", while among its objectives are for pupils to:

• acquire deeper knowledge and self-knowledge, to become conscious of their potential, aptitudes, skills and interests so that they can make correct choices for their further studies and vocational settlement,

• enrich their cognitive, linguistic and aesthetic background,

• develop creative and critical thinking.

In the recent educational reforms (bill 2525/1997) holistic development and the development of critical thinking have been emphasized and efforts for finding ways of promoting this development have been made. Some main changes connected with secondary education are the following: i) the establishment of the Unified Lyceum (Eniaio Lykeio) as the only type of Lyceum, ii) the reformation of the evaluation system of pupils, and iii) the new system of entrance to higher education institutions. In the context of the above reforms emphasis is given to the provision of general education combined with knowledge on technology, as well as to a broad range of skills. Among the highest priorities of the recent educational reforms is the development of a new national curriculum and school syllabi. The new National Curriculum aims to (Kassotakis, 2000, p.192):

• Secure coherence in subject matter among the different school grades thus abolishing verlapping information and knowledge discontinuities;

• renew and update the content of education;

• allow regional educational authorities to adjust a part of the national curriculum to local needs;

• reinforce the interdisciplinary character of various subjects, and

• integrate related separate subjects into wider thematic areas.

However, all these efforts are still going on and changes are still being introduced. Therefore, any concrete evidence for the effects of these changes is lacking. As we have seen, a general characteristic concerning education is attempts for reforms. A common criticism concerning reforms in general has been that in the history of Modern Greece almost all Ministers of Education have wanted to introduce a kind of reform. However, although this is indicative of the fact that the educational system does need reforming, there is a broader argument supporting the view that no politician so far has managed to come up with an effective and holistic educational approach. As it is often supported, such an approach would need brave interventions at different levels of education, especially higher education, and this would have political costs. Deep changes also cause resistance and avoiding resistance needs at least three prerequisites:

1. serious and in-depth studies about the present reality,

2. working groups consisting of personnel which have been selected on purely scientific and not political-party criteria, and

3. genuine dialogue with social partners.

With regard to one of the basic social partners, that is teachers, in the Greek educational reality there is no real dialogue. Teachers as well as other important partners involved in the educational process [e.g. school advisers], so far are excluded from decision making, curriculum development and evaluation processes. It seems that their decision making and freedom is mainly related with the micro level of the classroom where they are partly autonomous [especially because there are no evaluation procedures for teaching yet (Kosmidou-Hardy et Marmarinos, 2001) to experiment with new ideas and even extend the curriculum creatively. Yet, experimenting with and developing creative approaches is not so easy for at least two fundamental reasons, especially for the Lyceum:

• Teachers' preparation and development in higher education institutions and training centres is generally based on a traditional model which does not really equip them with the qualities required for the new educational and social reality.

• Educational processes are still exam-oriented and everything is – directly or indirectly - connected with Tertiary Education entrance. Therefore, whatever is not examined is considered to be of lower status and tends to be neglected.

• The subject matter that is included in the syllabi is quite a lot, the time is limited and usually teachers are anxious to 'cover' this material thus neglecting the importance of other important issues.

One of these issues is Media Education. Media Education is not included in the school subjects of this country. Therefore, in the Greek context and with regard to the present Media Project, we were not trying to analyze how Media Education as a school subject was approached but the ways in which Media were analyzed in the context of teachers of Greek (language and literature).

Selection of participating schools and teachers

During the last 17 years we have been trying to introduce Media Education concepts, aims and processes in the Greek educational reality through:

• The Careers Education and Guidance (CEG) curriculum, syllabi and practices because of our position in the Greek Pedagogical Institute in the past. For example, in the syllabus developed for the first class of the General Lyceum we then developed a unit (both in the teacher's and pupil's books) with a simulation exercise and theoretical support. This unit was connected to one of the fundamental aims of CEG in Greece, which is Information. The emphasis was on the critical reading of information, texts and sources, based on a holistic model of communication (Kosmidou-Hardy, 1995a, 1995b).

• Training CEG teachers (who are teachers of various school subjects) in seminars organized by the Greek Pedagogical Institute and/or in cooperation with the European Community and, later on, through the role of School Advisor of CEG teachers in Athens.

• Work at the University of Athens since 1991 and the training of teachers in the context of a model of Critical Paedagogy for Teacher Education that we have developed,

• Work at the role of School Advisor of teachers of English as a foreign language since 1998,

• Research and publications,

• European projects at a national and transnational level.

With regard to the selection of schools for this project, we had already explored the situation concerning Media Education at schools in the broader area of Athens in the past years. Therefore, it was decided that this subject should be researched and analyzed mainly in the context of schools outside Athens. It was also decided that cooperation with teachers in researching this subject area could give more validity to the findings through comparing views with collaborators, especially those who were not considered to be experts in this area. In this way triangulation of data would increase validity of observation and interviewing. Thus we collaborated with two teachers. Basic training was given to both of them concerning the approach and tools of this particular research; one of the teachers, who was a teacher of Physical Education⁹ and became very interested in the field, before the research was offered basic training in Media Education. She collaborated with us for the carrying out of the research in ten schools in a city near Athens. Five Lycea and five Gymnasia were selected in this area.

The second teacher was a teacher of Greek¹⁰. This teacher had been trained in the past in the context of our teachings at a postgraduate level in Athens University, as well as in the context of two European projects for initial training which we had organized on the theme of Education for Media and Electronic Communication. This was a forty-hour seminar carried out for twenty secondary school teachers. In the context of the latter seminar Andrew Hart was invited and participated in the presentations and training. This teacher works in an Intercultural Lyceum of Athens and it was agreed that the context of this school would be quite interesting for the research both, because of the different school context as well as because the emphasis in this school is not on marks and evaluation for securing Tertiary Education entrance as is usually the case in other Lycea. The collaborating teacher herself, after her training, had been already using material from her training and gave emphasis to Media Education issues in her teaching of Greek. We suggested to her to collaborate in the context of a Critical Active Research¹¹ project where we would strategically try out a systematic programme of organized interventions aiming to promote Media Education in the context of Greek language (modern and classical) as well as history. She was enthusiastic about it. However, we received the specific research methods (for observation and interviewing) from Southampton University and thus the above approach was left for later on. Three teachers were observed and interviewed in the context of the above school. Thus 13 teachers were observed and interviewed. Below follows a summary of the main findings.

Findings

The above thirteen teachers approached Media Education in the context of teaching Greek language as follows:

• For the Gymnasium classes (5 teachers) in the context of the chapter of the school syllabus entitled: "The Press".

• For the Lyceum classes (8 teachers) in the context of the syllabus entitled: "Composition and Expression". This syllabus gives more room for the role of the Media and, therefore, pupils were more familiar with the subject and teachers felt more comfortable and free to devote more time on the issue.

The basic concepts and terms used in the context of the above subject were the following:

'objective vs. subjective', 'journalism', 'news and comments', 'exactness in information', 'information and propaganda', 'news structure', 'decoding', 'transmitter's responsibility', 'yellow press', 'freedom of expression', 'pluralism', 'democracy', 'private life', 'citizen's responsibility', 'critical thinking'.

The sources used were: newspapers, periodicals and advertisements. There was no use of Technology because it was not available. Even in cases where this was available it was supposed to be used by teachers of Information Technology only (Gymnasium). The role of the teachers was rather directive and, more so in the context of the Gymnasium, where it was even dominant. Interaction was mainly developed between teacher and pupils and group work or pair work was minimal while independent work and collaboration was encouraged outside the school classroom, where pupils produced a school newspaper in two schools. The newspapers were not developed as an activity of Media Education but it was obvious that pupils used knowledge acquired in the context of this subject area.

Some of the characteristics defining their approach to Media which teachers gave were: experimental,coincidental, revealing.

With regard to teachers' long-term goals most of the participants mentioned the promotion of critical thinking, open-mindedness, protection from political and economic power, timely and valid information, knowledge of Media functioning to be used for career orientation.

Pupils were very interested in the subject while most teachers considered Media Education a necessity for the benefit of citizens and society at large because through this subject empowerment of individuals as well as informed citizens can be promoted and, as it was stated, 'an informed citizen is the best citizen' for a democratic society. They supported the view that if Media Education is introduced in the school curriculum then the approach to this subject will be more systematic and, therefore, more effective.

They also stated that their involvement with Media Education – although at a general and minimal level – already positively influenced their approach to teaching their usual subjects and – as one of them put it –, 'especially the teaching of classical Greek' and the study/evaluation of information in the context of 'historical and rhetorical texts'.

From what has been discussed so far what can be deduced is that:

Media Education is not an independent subject or course in the context of the Greek curriculum. Basic themes are included in the contents of other school subjects and this is evidence that Media Education is a subject whose importance can 'cross the boundaries' of the all school subjects. In their attempt to teach certain issues about the Media and their role today, teachers emphasise thinking critically and the critical deconstruction of Media and social reality. For the implementation of such an enterprise teachers mainly analyze advertising texts and news broadcasts. In rarer cases discussion takes place on popular television serials and soap operas. Developing a school newspaper gives students the opportunity to critically deconstruct social reality as well as suggest ways for its creative reconstruction. Teachers are given the opportunity to discuss Media issues through the syllabus but what they do with the material they find there and how creative they can be depends on their own initiative and previous education. In this attempt they are not facilitated by colleagues and, in certain cases, they are even inhibited by the headteacher who may consider such approaches (e.g. analysing and even producing iconic texts) as 'not serious' academic school work. Relevant educational material is non-existent and teachers would like to have such material. For the moment they try to use their creativity or simply limit their approach through discussion. Theoretical, practical and methodological support concerning Media education is a necessity. Taking the above into consideration, we support the view that the Ministry of Education should itself analyze the present situation concerning Media and electronic communication and introduce Media issues at least across the curriculum. As the teachers who participated in this project stated, the introduction of Media Education in a systematic and official way into the Greek educational system is a 'must'.

Yet, because of the bureaucratic and centralized functioning of the Greek educational system, we believe that higher education should do something about the filling of this gap in education, recognising the social responsibility of universities and the importance of this subject. Teacher education curricula and practices should more effectively prepare teachers for facing their role in the new reality influenced by globalisation and electronic communication.

General Conclusions / Implications

At the beginning of this project one might wonder what the use of carrying out this research in Greece would be for a subject, which is non-existent. As already stated, a critical active research approach was initially considered to be more suitable for this reality. However, we found this project, and the experience acquired through it, to be very important for the following reasons. It has given us the opportunity to systematically study a part of this reality and compare the findings with those of other European countries.

• - It has given participating teachers some basic experience and insight on the vital importance of issues they usually teach as a routine school subject.

• It has created expectations on the teachers' part concerning the introduction of Media Education in a systematic and official way into the Greek educational system. It has offered a degree of conscientisation on the part of teachers and pupils about the importance of Media Education.

• It has prepared the ground for a critical active research project which we will carry out in depth in the near future.

• It has shown the inadequacy of teacher education curricula and practices to prepare teachers for facing their role in the new reality in the context of globalisation and electronic communication. In today's world Mass Media and electronic communication play the role of a 'significant other' under whose influence identities are constructed through the values, myths and stereotypes presented at a unique speed and complexity. Recognition of the role played by Media and electronic texts in general can be considered as a fundamental step in a process of self and social awareness and development.

For such a development we believe that:

• Media Education should be a core subject in the school curriculum

• Media Education concepts, themes and processes should be promoted across the curriculum as well,

• Teacher education should include Media Education in its own curriculum and prepare teachers for their role today following an interdisciplinary approach.

TRANSITIONS and the role of MEDIA EDUCATION Today:

A Perspective based on a Model of Critical Education

The recent educational reforms in Greece, to which we referred earlier on, need to be viewed in the context of the general attempts in the educational systems of Europe to prepare students for the new information societies characterized by rapid changes and subsequent transitions requiring new skills for facing risk and uncertainty. This uncertainty should also be seen in the context of changes at a European level where the free circulation of capital and goods combined with employee mobility in the single European labour market and the institutional changes subsequent from the Treaty of Amsterdam have started creating a new socio-political, economic and cultural reality in Western Europe. Taking into consideration the social role of education and, in particular, the link between education and production, changes in the socio-economic reality demand changes in the educational systems through investing in people and human capital. The present conditions at a European and global level require the holistically educated person and the development of critical thinking and it is not coincidental, therefore, that emphasis is given on personal development and the development of skills needed today through projects funded by Europe, assessment and evaluation programmes, and educational reforms in general.

Facing uncertainty today requires individuals to develop qualities which conventional, traditional approaches to education do not provide. Uncertainty, either 'manufactured' or 'natural', is a reality which we cannot escape, and two fundamental prerequisites for coping with insecurity, changes and transitions are critical self and social awareness (Kosmidou 1991, Kosmidou-Hardy 2002). Self awareness is a process through which we can undertake a project of personal, lifelong development based on self and other acceptance. The Delphic 'Know thyself' could never be more important than what it seems to be today. Positioned in the middle of a changing world, it seems that the only steady or secure centre we can find in a de-centred and decentralizing social milieu, is a centre within ourselves. Knowing ourselves is not an easy enterprise, but in our view, research and experience, it is one which can facilitate our journey through life choices and transitions. Social awareness is very important since we do not live in a social vacuum. This kind of awareness requires critical analysis of external, social reality which influences the construction of our identities but which we can also influence through informed choices and critical interventions in the social web. In order to promote critical social awareness we need to learn how to critically read or deconstruct social reality and for such a purpose we need the use of a holistic model to communication practices, in the context of which a special kind of 'alphabet' is needed and an important element of this 'alphabet' is semeiology. The majority of today's texts are electronic and iconic. For iconic texts to be critically read or deconstructed 'receivers' of information and texts need to be supported through education in order to become active and critical readers who can read texts systematically and inter-textually, so that, equipped with the appropriate cognitive and communication skills, they can better understand reality and prepare dynamically for changes and transitions.

Self and social awareness are dialectically related (Kosmidou 1991, Kosmidou-Hardy 1990, 1996, 1999, 2002a). The more, that is, critical self awareness is developed, the more a person can define her/his life choices and orientation. On the other hand, the more one reads social reality critically the more one can understand it and successfully adjust to changes with assertiveness and without fear of alterity or for the unkown.

For the successful implementation of self awareness, which promotes personal development, and of social awareness, which promotes social development, we have developed a model of Critical Paedagogy¹² which, through its interdisciplinarity, synthesizes sciences: it is, therefore, a Synthetic Model (Kosmidou-Hardy, 2002b) aiming at the strategic promotion of a creative profile of the teacher as a professional. For such an aim the teacher –among other things – is necessary:

• To recognize the dialectic relationship between theory and practice, which also means that s/he

• needs to become conscious of her/his personal theory, analyze it critically and enrich it interdisciplinarily,

• but also critically analyze the teaching practices in which s/he is involved so that both theory and practice can be enriched and/or differentiated.

• To become conscious of and critically analyse her/his view concerning the 'individual-society' nexus and promote a relationship between them which is also dialectic. This means that s/he realizes that, to a certain degree, individuals are influenced by social structures and conditions but they have the possibility of also influencing the construction of social reality, through responsible interventions, provided that they are in a process of critical self and social awareness and development (Kosmidou 1991, Kosmidou-Hardy 1999, Kosmidou-Hardy and Marmarinos 2000).

• To use experiential learning critically (Kosmidou and Usher, 1992), and

• To adopt an interdisciplinary approach to teaching.

Our Synthetic model draws mainly from the following fields:

• Counselling, through which pupils' and students' personal development as well as the development on their part of counseling skills (i.e. active listening, positive regard for others, empathy and congruence) can be promoted. Teachers' information and knowledge in Counselling can effectively help them to adopt the role of a counsellor in the teaching/learning encounter (Kosmidou-Hardy et al 1996, Kosmidou-Hardy 1998). The role of the teacher as a counsellor is necessary in the context of education and can contribute to the promotion of an educational movement towards "Psycho-development' rather than 'Psycho-therapy' (Kosmidou, 1991). The teacher, as a 'significant other' of students, can and should support them in their attempt to know themselves better and undertake a process of lifelong development.

• Communication – verbal and non verbal – and in particular Media Education. Self awareness is more effectively promoted when we recognize that we construct our identities through the influence of our significant others. Media today play and will continue to play the role of a particularly 'significant' other under whose influence identities are constructed through symbols, values, stereotypes and messages re-presented at a high speed and in a complex way. Recognition of the role of the Media, and technology in general, requires specific ways of education so that we can become conscious of the way in which they influence us through the techniques, methods and 'language' used for this purpose. In the era of iconic communication we urgently need the 'alphabet' which can help us critically read or deconstruct iconic texts and society (Taylor and Saarinen, 1994/6), and proceed to their creative reconstruction.

• Critical self and social awareness as well as the role of the pupil, the teacher and the individual in general as a critical reader and producer of meaning, can be strategically promoted through a Critical Active Research process. In our attempt to critically deconstruct and reconstruct the personal and the social world it is important that we develop research skills so that the process of inquiry concerning the above can strategically bring about change.

Epilogue

As we have seen, in Greece Media Education as a school subject is absent. We believe that in the context of electronic and iconic communication this subject should be a core subject in the curriculum of every educational system that supports personal development and the development of critical thinking. We therefore hope that the Euro-Media project will contribute towards this direction. For some years our personal attempts have focused on this aim.

However, it is our view that the importance of this issue is such that it should also become a crosscurricular issue systematically informing the philosophy/theory and methodology used in other school subjects and by all teachers. For such an aim we consider it necessary that Media Education should be included in the curricula of higher education for pre and in-service teachers at an undergraduate and postgraduate level. The pedagogy of today needs a different approach to teaching and learning; an approach that should take into consideration new developments at a socio-economic and cultural level and the developments in Information Technology in particular. Teachers need to be equipped with the knowledge that will facilitate their role as educators today and that will help them to promote personal and social development. For such a purpose, their own personal and social development is a prerequisite and it is to this purpose that our Synthetic Model has been developed. The experience from the use of this model in Greece at Athens University as well as in other training centers is positive and promising. In the last three years we have coordinated a Transnational European Project entitled SYNTHESI (SYnergetic New THesis for European education SImera¹³).

Fundamental aims of this Project are Active European Citizenship and Intercultural Communication based on self and social awareness. The focus of our project is the teacher and our approach is based on our synthetic model of critical education, a fundamental part of which is Media Education. We hope that through Euro-Media this subject will be systematically promoted in all countries and, of course, in Greece.

References

1. Arendt, H. (1973), The Origins of Totalitarianism. San Diego: Harvest.

2. Castells, E. (1998),. "End of Millenium", vol.3. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.

3. Dimaras, A. (1988, vls 1, 2), The Reform that has never taken place. Athens: Hermes (in Greek)

4. Giddens, A. (!994). Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.

5. Habermas, J. (1987). The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 2: The Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Cambridge: Polity Press.

6. Kassotakis, M. (2000 edn.), in C. Brock and W. Tulasiewicz (eds), Education in a Single Europe. London: Routledge: 184-205.

7. Kosmidou, C. (1989), "Active Research: Towards a genuine, liberating education". Sinchroni Ekpaedeusi. 48: 22-33 (in Greek).

8. Kosmidou, C. (1991), Successful Careers Teachers in Greece: Collaborative Enquiry for a Critical Approach to Careers Education and Guidance. Southampton University: Ph.D. thesis.

9. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. (1990), "Careers Education and Guidance in Greece: A critical approach", International Review of Education. 36: 345-359.

10. Kosmidou, C. and Usher, R. (1992), "Experiential learning and the autonomous subject: A critical approach", in D.Wildermeersch & T. Jansen (eds), Adult Education, Experiential Learning and Social Change: the Postmodern Challenge. The Hague: VUGA: 77-91.

11. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. and Marmarinos, J. (1994), "The Teacher and Active Research". Sinchroni Ekpaedeusi. 79: 51-60 (in Greek).

12. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. (1995a), "Education for Media of Communication and Information: Towards the critical reading of texts". Counselling and Guidance Review. 36-37: 56-71 (in Greek).

13. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. (1995b), "Critical reading of sexist vocational stereotypes: Emphasis on the electronic text". Paper presented in the international conference organized by the Hellenic Ministerial Organisation on the theme of "Equality and Education". Published by the Ministry. Athens: 281-301 (in Greek).

14. Kosmidou -Hardy, C. (1996) «A critical, developmental model for Careers Education and Guidance: A luxury or a necessity? Counselling and Guidance Review. Minutes of International Conference. 38-39. 25-52 (in Greek).

15. Kosmidou -Hardy, C. & Galanoudaki, Á. (1996). The Theory and Practice of Counselling: With Activities for the Development of Self Awareness and Counselling Skills. Athens: Asimakis (in Greek).

16. Kosmidou -Hardy, C. (1998), «The teacher as counsellor in the teaching – learning encounter». Counselling and Guidance Review. 46-47. 33-63 (in Greek).

17. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. (1999), "The contribution of developmental counselling for the promotion of Intercultural Communication: Emphasis on the teacher's Self and Social Awareness». Counselling and Guidance Review". 50-51: 21-57 (in Greek).

18. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. and Marmarinos, J. (1997), Critical Self and Social Awareness and the Teacher: Towards a Model of Critical Paedagogy in Higher Education. Paper presented in the 7th European Conference for Research on Learning and Instructon.

19. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. and Marmarinos, J. (2001), "La Peur de L' Evaluation: Evaluation de L; Enseignement ou du Sujet?". International Review of Education. 47 (1): 59-75.

20. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. (2002a),"Transition and Iconic Communication: The Role of Counselling and Media Education", in Kassotakis, M. (ed.) Counselling and Careers Education and Guidance: Theory and Practice. Athens: Gutenberg (being published, in Greek).

21. Kosmidou-Hardy, C. (2002b), "Promoting Heuristic Teaching: a Synthetic Model". In SYNTHESI: Promoting Heuristic Teaching.Third International Encounter of Educationalists. Minutes of International Conference held in Athens University (edited by C. Kosmidou-Hardy and Z. Bella). Athens: Prisma. (in Greek).

22. McLuhan, M. (1964), Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-Hill.

23. Sennett, R. (1978), The Fall of Public Man. New York: Vintage Books.

24. Taylor, M. C. and Saarinen, E. (1994/96). Imagologies: Media Philosophy. London: Routledge.

25. Webster, F. (1995), Theories of the Information Society. London: Routledge.

About the Author

Chrysoula Kosmidou-Hardy is Doctor of Philosophy with a Postgraduate Diploma in Guidance and Careers Education as well as studies at a Masters' level in Media Education. She is an author and a School Advisor/Teacher Trainer of Teachers of English as a foreign language. She teaches at a postgraduate level in Athens University (Department of Philosophy, Paedagogy, Psychology) where she also collaborates as a research associate. She has developed a model of Critical Paedagogy for Teacher Education based on an interdisciplinary approach. She has published much of her work, mainly in Greek and foreign scientific periodicals. She has organised European Projects (at a national and transnational level) mainly related to Teacher Education and Development, as well as Counselling and Media Education. She has coordinated the transnational European project SYNTHESI (SYnergetic New THesis for European education SIimera =today). She is the President of the Transnational Society: SYNTHESI: The Heuristic Teachers' Society.

Dr. Chrysoula Kosmidou-Hardy: Schools Adviser, Teacher Educator in Athens University

Address: 52 Skyrou St.,

113 62 Athens – GREECE

Tel./Fax: 003 01 8234354

Mobile: 003 093 7044615

e-mail: hardcosm@otenet.gr

MOTION PICTURE AND MEDIA EDUCATION IN HUNGARY

Imre Szijártó

Outline of the report

1. Hungarian society and education from the 60s to today

2. Motion picture and media education in Hungary: 1960-2000. Outline of the history of the subject; central (national) and local curricula; necessities for teaching; the theoretical background of the education of the subject; the methodology of the education of the subject; assuming of roles by government institutions and civilian organizations

3. Projects and research 1: Cultural Knowledge an Schools at the Turn of the Millennium; Projects and research 2: Teacher interviews and classroom observations. The flow of the research; the model; the methods of research; the local modifications of research aids; portraits of motion picture and media education teachers; the requirements of learning; the general characteristics and local practices of teaching; goals, plans, future outlook.

4. Case study of motion picture and media education in school

5. Summary of Hungarian motion picture and media education

1. Hungarian Society and Education from the 60s to Today

1. The Hungarian history of motion picture and media education is the parallel story of government and civilian desires. Up to 1995 motion picture and media education was characterized by individual initiatives and – to a certain extent – the state of toleration and outlaw (though regulations sometimes preceded pedagogical/professional ideas). Through documents it can be seen how groups concerned with the subject made their will be known from the beginning of the 90s, and how these ideas gained government approval and acknowledgment. During the time of the change in regime (1989-90), validation of interests could be achieved though showing the experiences of teachers who followed the dictated curriculum in the past thirty years (60s and 70s), then took initiative steps of lonely curriculum writing and application sending (80s), and later producing local curriculums.

2. The document »Curriculum and Order« published in 1965 contained required knowledge for teachers of all institutions. However, soon it became obvious that since no preceding social debate was exchanged before the creation of the subject of film esthetics (taught for four years in an annual four class hours in Hungarian language class), serious divergence between ideas could be detected. As other socio-economic progressions of the age showed: central (political) powers forced their »reforms from above« deemed to be innovative onto detached society made to execute their will. This situation didn't change much with the introduction of the 1978 Curriculum. The loss of the Curriculum's authority was the sign of the gradual decline and disintegration of the socialist government's educational direction. The rules of the game which were quietly accepted were now invalid; the relationship between the Power and society based on mutual concession in the Kádár regime no longer worked. All Hungarian schools were characterized by the strong presence of high culture. Hence, motion picture education concentrated only on film, and within that, only so-called »art films«. Subjects connected to mass culture and mass communication have only appeared in the last fifteen years, making today's education form complete.
   The years following the change in regime is characterized by swiftly varying governmental desires. In 1992, during the time of the first conservative administration, the third draft of the National Basic Curriculum (Nemzeti alaptanterv, NAT-3), which did not represent the educational-political ideas of this administration was outlined. In 1994 the Curricular Ideas of the National Basic Curriculum was issued with the motive to »override« the NAT-3. This document was imbued with the idea of protecting threatened high culture: the elitist, yet national interpretation of cultural values. The left wing government that came into power in 1994 repealed the Curricular Ideas at the end of 1995, and a new draft of the NAT was approved. We will look more closely at this document in section 2.3. In 1998, the voters chose a right-wing party. The educational politics of the conservative party coalition in power until 2002 slowed down and reinterpreted the NAT approved in the previous government. The Frame Curriculum contains different regulations for different types of schools (elementary, high school, technical high), and breaks the educational fields contained in the NAT into different subjects, not leaving individual schools to decide for themselves.

3. Film education, and later motion picture and media education in Hungary has never touched every level of public education; it was generally taught in high school. On an elementary level, children attend eight-year elementary schools from ages six to fourteen. The four-year high school is based upon the eight-year elementary school: years 9, 10, 11, 12. High schools and technical high schools last four years ending in a cumulative graduation exam, while training schools last two or three years ending in a mastery qualification exam. In the past decade, some high schools have made the transition to the so-called six- and eight-year high schools, where students can start in either grade 5 or 7. The major financial supporters of schools are the local governments, but there are parochial and private schools as well. We will discuss the place of motion picture and media education in the school system in the next chapters.

2. Motion Picture and Media Education in Hungary 1960-2000

2.1. A short outline of the history of the subject

The Hungarian educational system was quick to realize the importance of audio-visual culture. One author writes aptly about the introduction of film-esthetics education and its position: »In Europe there is not one example of film being listed in the general curriculum in any of the school systems.« We may divide Hungarian film, and later motion picture and media education, into five sections within the schools. The first section started in 1957 with the foundation of the first film clubs, and lasted until 1965, when the Central Curriculum decreed film to be a part of required education in high schools. The second section is defined by the Curriculum of 1965, lasting until 1978, when the new Central Curriculum was issued. From 1965 to 1978, motion picture education appeared under the name of »film esthetics« and was taught in the frame of Hungarian language and literature. No one prepared the teachers for this field of education. The third section lasted from 1978 to 1980: during this time the curriculum began to lose its legitimacy, causing film education to come to a complete halt. The fourth section lasted from the '80s to 1995, characterized by alternative, local devices and experiments working parallel to the decentralization of educational direction. The fifth section is characterized by the National Basic Curriculum (Nemzeti alaptanterv, NAT) ratified in 1995. This document established the required national frame of public education and gaveMotion picture and media a place under the subject heading of »Arts«, along with visual arts, music, and drama/dance. The Frame Curriculum was issued in the summer of 2000 and will be incorporated in the 2001/2002 school year. The 1985 education law was–if not quite directly–of great importance for motion picture and media education; experts see the rebirth of the 19th century Hungarian liberal tradition in it. During the decline of the soft-dictatorship of the Kádár era, the greatest positive change in the law was declaring the professional independence of teachers and school autonomy. After the change in regime, the deconstruction of the government's school foundation and financial support monopoly began based on this change; the race between schools and educational programs could develop. The most important points of the public education law modified in 1996 expanded the space of those involved with schools. In 1998, the second conservative legislature prepared the Frame Curriculum along with the modification of other laws to regulate proceedings; it made further decisions concerning the setup of qualification and exam centers.

2.2. Central (National) and Local Curricula

Two kinds of curricula regulated the Hungarian education system in the previously discussed years. The 1965 and the 1978 curricula were centralized: they were not goal, but subject oriented; the organization of the material was characterized by building from the qualities of each subject; the material applied to every school and every student excluded individuality and differentiation. In these curricula, film esthetics had a separate number of hours (four class hours per year), but in all cases, 67 this subject was taught in Hungarian language and literature class. After a six year(ten, according to some people) controversy, the National Basic Curriculum (NAT) was issued as a government regulation supplement aimed at establishing a two-pole, many-leveled regulation, if in support of the balance of central (national) and local curricula.

In the NAT, Motion Picture and Media is one of the ten subjects falling under the category of The Arts. In harmony with the general structure of the NAT, the subject was organized into four main parts (Motion Picture Writing and Reading, Artistic Familiarity, Cultural History, and Communication Systems), and each has a Curriculum, Developmental Requirements (competency, skills), and Minimal Achievements. The NAT prescribed Motion Picture and Media for the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grades. The document does not specify the number of hours to be devoted to this subject; it only states the suggested percentage proportions of class hours for each area of study. After the approval of the NAT, several local curricula were drawn up, because the education law required the schools to make up their own curricula. After the new conservative turn in the elections of '98, however, the NAT didn't have a chance to develop its true potential; schools could not even begin to move in the direction of the real outcome of the new regulations.

The result of the professional and political debates surrounding the NAT was the creation of the Basic Curriculum with the following statement: »In between the Basic Curriculum and local regulations there must be a regulatory level inserted.« The Basic Curriculum, therefore, is the curriculum which mediates between the NAT and the various pedagogical systems and curricular ideas. The basic curriculum contains the following class hours (meaning stricter regulations than the NAT): in grade 8, of the 980 class hours, Motion Picture and Media are to be taught in 37 (meaning 1 hour per week); to this can be added further class hours from the 37 undesignated class hours. In grade 11, of the total required 762 class hours, 18 hours, which can be complemented by hours from the 148 undesignated class hours. In grade 12, of the 800 required class hours, 16 hours, plus some form the 160 undesignated class time (less, because of the final examination). According to the law modifications ratified in 1998, the development of the exam system was also begun. According to present legislative proposals, students will be able to write a so-called »two-level« final exam from 2005 on. In other words, Motion Picture and Media can be chosen as a fifth subject and the exam will contain requirements of elementary knowledge; those who would like to study the subject on in college or university can place their exam on a higher level. According to present information, the form of the exam will be a so-called »project exam«.

2.3. Necessities for Teaching

We have highlighted the following learning aids: Printed learning aids: textbooks, workbooks, teachers' results; visual aids: television broadcasts, video cassettes, and digital, multimedia learning material.

1. Table: Three generations of published textbooks on motion picture:

Three generations of high school textbooks have been published during the Hungarian history of motion picture and media education. We are also familiar with other textbooks written for elementary school students. The table below illustrates the types of textbooks. At the moment, students in high school in general use the László Hartai – Klára Muhi textbook entitled Motion Picture Culture and Media Knowledge for Ages 12-18 (Hartai-Muhi 1998). The textbook goes beyond the requirements of the NAT and was written for grades 7-12. It contains material to be studied in a module form. It is different than the other two textbooks in the sense that it varies the Basic Curriculum, while the other two strictly follow the Basic Curriculum of the schools. In the early stages of teaching this subject the programs of Sulinet (School TV) were used. Among the more modern audio-visual material is Motion Picture Language Practice with János Herskó I-II.–a methodology video series–and Film Classes, Media Classes, which is also a cassette series. The CD-ROM dealing with the Works of Miklós Jancsó, one of the most important Hungarian film directors on an international level, was compiled partly for use in schools. Each of the three materials was compiled and edited by László Hartai.

2.4. The theoretical background of the education of the subject

We will study the theoretical frame of the education of the subject along the following lines: 1. How did the thinking of the textbooks' authors develop concerning the characteristics of audiovisual communication? 2. How did the illustration of motion picture's general education form? The first generation of textbook author's ideas stemmed from the mimetic characteristics of art; hence, examples of so-called »film realism« are presented. Its normative values are closely related to contemporary literature education: the content-form dialectic relationship. The second generation textbook has the stability of the knowledge of film sciences in its background and certain basic semiotic standpoints can be detected; the third generation textbook contains the main idea of the dual quality of motion picture: the duality of technical reproduction and audio-visual presentation. The three generations of motion picture general knowledge show expansion and process of differentiation. The textbooks used today place great emphasis on mass culture and the wide range of film types, as well as questions of mass information and the social definition of communication and media representation.

2.5. The methodology of the education of the subject

Along with the three generations of textbooks, four generations of regular methodology publications have been published. They are four while the textbooks are three, because no textbook appeared in the fourth period (1985-1993) about the history of the subject, but a methodology publication has appeared. The first, second, and fourth regular methodologies were written by the authors of the textbooks, while the third was written by the author writing these lines.

The main idea of László Hartai's presently used methodology entitled, A Teacher's Manual to the Education of Motion Picture Culture and Media Knowledge (1998), is that other types of curricular logic can be added to the NAT. Modern methodological thought establishes curricular blocks as the theoretical and practical lines of curricular structure. The chapter entitled, Class Planning: Class examples – Exemplary Classes was written to help teachers learn how to teach this class, and also contains possible class-plan outlines. Since the Frame Curriculum contains stricter regulations compared to the NAT, the Teacher's Manual... can be adapted to the systematically incorporated regulations of the Frame Curriculum.

As far as educational goals are concerned, we quote the statement of the author: the goal of the study of motion picture culture and media knowledge, » as a school subject predominantly serves the development of the understanding of the language of motion picture (film, television, video, computer games, web) and the clarifying of the social function and operation of audio-visual material.« The didactic goals are stated by the author to adhere to the text of the NAT: »the mastery of the skills of proper 'language understanding' and comprehensive 'language creation'[...] the conscious understanding of the flow of creation and acceptance« (Hartai 1998).

Hungarian film and media education is constantly confronted by the problem of integration. Since usually the real professional connection of certain fields are hardly ever discussed, and only logicalpractical class structure problems come up, it seems to those dealing with the development of the field that it would be better to have motion picture and media education follow its own independent class structure rather than have it integrated into another class, no matter how easy integration sounds.

2.6. Assuming of roles by government institutions and civilian organizations

In the early years of motion picture and media education, a social cooperation concerning the tasks of the subject within schools developed. The Young People's Film Committee was founded in 1961 which contained several organizations and institutions in the interest of education. However, we cannot speak of true civilian organization in those days; even such organizations were under close control of political powers.

In the '70s, during the decentralization of education direction, the continuing education cabinets, along with the county's municipal councils, formed professional workshops out of municipal institutions, and hence, became the single base for pedagogical innovation. The legal inheritors of the continuing education cabinets are the still functioning local pedagogical institutions, which work within the same institutional frame in some counties as public cultural education institutions. The internal makeup of the pedagogical institutions are the following: the institutions have a full-time staff which deal with the professional upkeep of nurturing in schools, the execution of ordered calculations, the organization of student competitions and teachers' continuing education, as well as the publication of professional material. The counsel group is made up of the local teachers based on field and profession; they deal with the development of school work. The counsel groups have no right to check and supervise; they visit schools at the request of the schools. Today there are some counselors who can be asked to comment on tasks concerned with the subject of Motion Picture Culture and Media Knowledge. On the national level, one section of institutions based on a scientific background of the Ministry of Education, deals with the development of the subject in a project structure.

After 1996, the newly formed »Regional Media Education Centers« worked together with pedagogical institutions also working as interest-protecting groups in certain regions; they are linked to their environment in other ways as well. The Regional Media Education Centers include all possible institutions, organizations, and individuals connected to motion picture education (i.e. cinemas, local newspapers) in an informal system, excluding any kind of internal hierarchy, while securing the possibility for interest harmony and teamwork between schools and its social environment (supporters, parent organizations, possible outside sponsors, high education institutions, inquiring individuals etc.). Among the tasks of the Media Education Center staff is to gather information about programs at work in their districts. Most likely it will be easier to assess the work of the Regional Media Education Centers after the full incorporation of the Frame Curriculum in 2005.

An important role was taken on during the 1985 Hungarian Film Festival by the Hungarian Film Club Association. This group builds from the bottom up; it is self-supervised and has self-appointed tasks dealing with the interest groups of the country's film clubs. It is also concerned with the technical tasks of providing copies of films, the continuing education of the organizers of film clubs, and the facilitation of information exchange between them. From 1990, this group bears the name of The Association of Hungarian Film Clubs and Friends of Film.

In 1996, teachers dealing with the education of Motion Picture and Media Education founded the Union of Motion Picture and Media Educators. They organize national conferences and edit the Motion picture/media website, and are of key importance in the integration of the subject into public education.An important fountain of innovation in the last decade was the government funded Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation, which helps out motion picture education with fund applications.

3. Projects and research

3.1. Cultural Knowledge and Schools at the Turn of the Millennium

We would like to highlight two projects from the work of the past few years. One of them is the so-called »1+1 School Base Program«, which we will elaborate on in Section 4 of our National Report.

The other project is the research entitled Cultural Knowledge and Schools at the Turn of the Millennium.We began the latter research in 1998: its directors were Judit Bényei and Imre Szíjártó (Bényei-Szíjártó 2000). The research consisted of three parts: 1. the study of the content of educational aids on a comparative basis. 2. Questionnaire study with the participation of elementary school children from and around the area of the city of Debrecen. 3. Interviews of teachers. Here we will discuss the summary of Part 2., in which high school students were asked with the help of a questionnaire.

Our hypotheses were the following: 1. agents of socialization (parents, school, television) affect the views of students in different ways. 2. Not all functions of television work the same in shaping the attitudes of the students' mass culture absorption. 3. In accordance with their social background, students »use« television in different ways.

Our table below shows what role parents, TV, and school play in the acquisition of knowledge according to the judgment of the students.

2. Table: Information sources according to gender

We studied the same from the point of types of schools:

3. Table: Information sources according to school type

We summarized the results of our two studies in Hungarian journals in the following way: girls generally place greater emphasis on the more traditional socialization agents of school and parents. Boys place greater emphasis on TV and use it predominantly for entertainment. Boys are more influenced by all manifestations of »monitor culture« more than girls. The social prestige of the parents (college degrees, type of school attended) is inversely proportional to the effects of television on their children.

Projects and research 2: Teacher Interviews and Classroom Observations

3.2. Summary of the research

3.2.1. The flow of research, the model

In this chapter we will summarize what we have learned from a project which can be said to be one of the greatest endeavors of teachers since the start of film and media education in 1965. The importance of the project lies in the fact that it is based on the conjoint work of motion picture education and its social environment. Almost all Regional Media Education Centers took part, as well as several county and district professional groups. The site of the meetings were 28 schools in Hungary. The main idea of the 1+1 School Base is: in the 1999/2000 school year, twenty-six motion picture/ media teachers in 13 schools recorded every individually made class-outline and experience for the sake of research. These individual pedagogical journals contained the teacher's personal and methodological comments about the classes, about its successes and failures and their supposed reasons. Both elementary and high schools took part in the research; all of the schools had different levels of facilities at their disposal. Thirteen moderators (»tutors«) with motion picture and media teaching experience chose someone from their area working as media teachers; together they held show-classes and consultation four times during the school year. During these consultations, they presented two classes at a time. The participants discussed the methodology questions about the 71 class, and looked at the materials used during the show. According to our experiences, usually 8-10 teachers attended one consultation, so nearly five-hundred teachers had an up-close look at motion picture/media education. One guest – from among the motion picture/media teachers with the greatest amount of experience – took part in all of the consultations and gave a summary for the leaders of the program of the more important methodology and thematic problems mentioned at the demonstrations.

László Hartai directed the research of the 1+1 School Base program. The work is still in progress: processing the nearly five-hundred incoming class outlines, pedagogical journals, and summary studies made by the teachers.

We used the following materials and observations for our study: personal experience gathered at the consultations as well as all the class outlines, work journals, and closing comments of twenty-six teachers. In addition to this, during the summer of 2000, after the closing of the school year, we made interviews with ten participating teachers with the help of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was drawn up at the Media Institute of the University of Southampton for international comparative media education research.

We have established this model of ten interviews according to the following ideals: We did our best to develop the proper proportion between teachers working in elementary and high schools. In accordance, we interviewed 4 high school teachers and 6 elementary school teachers. The main subjects taught by them (the school subjects these educators teach the most) generally agree with the national proportions of those who teach motion picture and media education classes: we interviewed 5 Hungarian teachers, 4 art teachers, and 1 history teacher. The 6 interviewed women and 4 interviewed men do not represent the gender proportions among teachers, since most of the educators in Hungary are women. During the interviews, half of the teachers had already acquired some sort of knowledge in teacher continuing education or had been a moderator with a greater amount of media education experience, while five were initiated by teachers whom they chose. Among the interviewed educators, 3 teach in Budapest, 1 teaches in Pécs _ one of the five Hungarian cities with a population of about 200,000 _ 3 teach in Székesfehérvár, Szolnok, and Szombathely _ cities with populations of about 100,000 _ and 1 teacher works in an industrial city (Salgótarján), two in small areas in the region of Debrecen (Hajdúböszörmény, Nyíradony). (The other participants of the School Base Program were from the following settlements: Balassagyarmat, Bokros, Csongrád, Miskolc, Paks, Sajószentpéter , Tata, Tengelic, and Vác.)

We attempted to balance the lower representation of teachers from smaller settlements by conducting the case studies in this report at a village school The interviewed teachers were chosen by the leaders of the program, and their interviews were conducted personally, generally at the workplace of the interviewed individuals. We have numbered the interviewed teachers from 1-10.

3.2.2. The methods of research, the regional modifications of research

We had to alter the questionnaire made in Britain to fit Hungary, since questions like, »How much was the class structured upon the foundations of media knowledge and/or the teaching of the mother tongue?, Did teachers dealing with media education within the frame of the mother tongue class have to spend more time...?, Which theme interests you the most within the teaching of the mother tongue?« cannot be interpreted under the circumstances of Hungarian media education. We either omitted or altered similar questions so that they did not include the close relationship of motion picture education and mother tongue education characteristic of the British system. The wide scale of written material used in our active research made it possible for us to gain a wider spectrum of how motion picture and media education is taught in Hungarian schools. Based on the interviews, we were able to discover a wide range of ideas in the practice of teaching this subject.

The experience of the ten interviewed individuals, however valuable, were not enough to map out all educational manifestations. Hungarian law and curricular regulations offer a wide space for individual

ideas to be realized in every school. Therefore, in order to give a complete account of Hungarian teaching practices, the analysis of the work of a few teachers is not enough; many other, equally valid practices have also developed. Hence, in order to establish a real model of the practice of motion picture and media education in schools we would need to conduct a greater number of interviews and make several case studies. However, it is an unquestionable fact that Hungarian development is moving towards unification and standardization.

3.3. The Results of the Research

3.3.1. Portraits of motion picture culture and media knowledge teachers

The ten questioned teachers seem to represent the three characteristic fields that Hungarian motion picture and media teachers were trained in: five were Hungarian majors, four were Art majors, and one was a History major. The teachers represent three waves concerning their ages: the oldest began teaching according to the 1965 Curriculum, the middle began theirs at the end of the 1980s around the change in regime in 1989, and the third began teaching in the past few years. We might also add that the ratification of the 1995 NAT inspired several older teachers to start new programs such as Motion Picture and Media Education.

In studying characteristic paradigms (»preventive injection-protection«, »the model neutralizing the discrimination of mass culture«, »critical-representative attitude«) it seems that only a small number of teachers' viewpoints are decidedly affected by the traditional »preventive injection« model, though all teachers are affected in some way by this attitude. We believe that this is in accordance with the high-culture-following tradition of Hungarian education. Hungarian schools are structured on the contents of elite culture, because of historical reasons the desire to protect and preserve traditional values is very strong. The strength and position of Hungarian schools functioning even today can be traced back to those points which are enveloped by the traditional identification and values of schools. Of the ten teachers questioned, the »critical-representative« model was not highly supported, but the views of the one person who did support this model are characterized by the intention to study cultural codes. In addition to this teacher, we found one more who supported this attitude in an implicit way.

We are talking about two young male teachers who are perhaps more sensitive to the hidden representations of (media)power.

The majority clearly and strongly supported »the model neutralizing the discrimination of mass culture«. Often it is tinted by the attitudes of the other two models; nevertheless, it seems like this is the paradigm most characteristic of the attitudes of Hungarian motion picture and media teachers.

The attitude of the teachers appears in the following way: The minority, especially those older teachers whose main subject is Hungarian can be characterized by the "preventive vaccination" attitude. This is why, for example, interviewed teacher No. 6 is averse to the manifestations of television and popular culture. It is interesting to note, however, that this teacher greatly emphasizes media work in practice. During one of the classes we observed, for example, the students made video portraits of one another with the help of a video camera.

Teacher No. 2, represents the "critical-representative-semiotic" model. He had his students analyze a film about the friendship of a wealthy businessman and a handicapped little boy. This teacher told us that he does not adhere to choices of films characteristic to Hungarian practice (usually the films chosen are important from a historical or esthetic point of view). He chose this film even though it did not show any obvious traditional value. The media work background of the teacher was based on the school radio and newspaper and the effect of his past is apparent: he analyzes motion picture texts with the students through the social problems appearing in them. In a class conducted by teacher No. 7, his students drew adults in different roles, as for example in the role of a father.

The model of "dissolving discrimination in popular culture" is can be see with three teachers. Two of these (No. 3 and No. 4) take their students to see popular films, and one of them (No. 10) places emphasis on the evaluation of television programs.

3.3.2. The requirements of learning

The third group of questions from the first section of the questionnaire focuses on the technical and organizational background of motion picture education. The answers lead us to believe that all the schools are equipped with basic tools: television, video player and recorder, video camera, slide projector, and in some places they are preparing to purchase a film projector as well. In some places editing machines and photo developing tools are also at the disposal of the teachers. In judging the social environment of the requirements of motion picture education, it is important to know how schools acquired these tools. Most institutions run a foundation to help keep up the school's resources, which provide for the required aids of motion picture education in all the schools.

Another basic resource is support from outside foundations. These are either national (Public Education Modernization Public Fund, Hungarian Motion Picture Public Fund ) and county institutions or district public funds often used by municipal governments for public education. Some schools rely on money flowing in from professional training funds. The civilian community also plays and important part in providing for the required aids: benefit concerts, gathering and selling of recyclable garbage, gifts from individuals. Sometimes it is a parent who lends the things needed. Many teachers mentioned the libraries of pedagogical institutions, the video libraries of certain settlements, and the book and video library of the Regional Media Education Center. Many students from schools use the facilities of local television and radio studios. Some schools find it important to be in the vicinity of higher education institutions, since they provide places for practice in the classes of these institutions, and the schools may also use the technical tools. Others mentioned the help of a cinema or video rental store close by. Large roles were taken on in supporting the schools by Sulinet (Schoolnet) – a governmental project supplying computers and programs – and the Soros Foundation. In sum, we can say that the schools' social environment greatly effects the characteristics of the motion picture education taking place within. No doubt the subject needs supplementary assistance and has to take advantage of the provisions of its environment, but it is also apparent that among the greater number of schools where media education has not yet begun, the importance of aids and tools are stressed too much. Using the excuse of the lack of tools and facilities, some schools put off the incorporation of the subject until the education directors require them to take these steps.

3.3.3. The general characteristics of teaching and its local practices

All types of class structures could be detected in the schools we asked about motion picture education. It is impossible to categorize these into blocks of separate types, therefore we will relate each one briefly. Valamennyi pedagógusnál kiemelünk néhány, az órai munkára leginkább jellemzõ mozzanatot.

Teacher No. 1 integrates motion picture education into art class, about twice a month. Two things can be learned from this: motion picture education can be integrated very well into art class, but if there is no other motion picture/media teacher in the school, other students not taking this course are excluded from this subject. I would like to emphasize here that the proper atmosphere for developing creative incentive was apparent in the classes of this teacher. This mood was especially obvious in the class about introducing and comparing of soap opera heroes. Teacher No. 2 teaches the subject on its own as a regular class, but does it on Fridays after school. The same solution is present in many schools, where they have media clubs that interested students can attend. This teacher likes to work with larger texts (feature films, television programs) and hopes to tune the students into the most important social problems though these. Solution No. 3 also presents the subject as an individual class, but only for two study groups. One of them is contained within the faculty of art and visual art, the other is extra-curricular. An especially important class of hers dealt with comedy, in which she brought up examples from the work of Charlie Chaplin to Roberto Benigni.. The school of teacher No. 4 is special, because working together with a colleague this teacher can »reach out« to every class in the seventh and eighth grades. Therefore, in this school every student without exception studies motion picture and media and the subject appears as part of the curriculum. The main idea behind the work taking place in her classes was to liven up the "usual" routine and blandness of a Hungarian class. To see more on the work of this teacher see the case study under the 4^th point.

The situation of teacher No. 5 is similar, only the students can choose how they want to study: either in a curricular integration system, in two special field faculties or one extra-curricular activity. The interesting thing about the 6th form is that it is an individual class without set class hours. The subject is studied in an annual eighteen hours of class integrated into Hungarian language and literature class and homeroom class. This solution is interesting because this is a six-year high school where they can distribute classes more freely and therefore stretch the classes over a longer period of time. In accordance, there was enough time left to actively study the production of various motion picture texts.

Teacher No. 7 teaches motion picture partly in art class and partly as a club project. This teacher greatly emphasizes the students' own experience on discussed ideas. One such class included an exercise in which they studied people's sense of space: closing your eyes and finding your way or describing an object from memory. No. 8 works with small groups mainly dealing with video and animation.

It is an interesting program because it would be difficult to integrate it in other schools. The class is held one a week for a whole class. This teacher is one of the art teachers taking part in the project. She also likes to study the nature of materials used in works of fine art. They practiced producing the illusion of movement by building a "movement structure" together. Finally, teacher No. 10 leads a club and a school cinema in addition to a media workshop, and also teaches motion picture in a curricular class as well. Some of her other classes were also very interesting. They studied the characteristics of communication: talking to someone on a "toy phone" and telling a story with bodylanguage. In her class entitled "Together on the Net" they studied the possibilities of accessing information on the internet.

3.2.4. Goals, plans, future outlook

Since the schools in question all place greater emphasis on motion picture education than regulation demands, the answers they gave about the future of the subject were very informative. Most of the teachers asked regarded the preserving of already achieved goals to be the most important: the number of hours devoted to it in the curriculum and educational frames. They imagined further possibilities on three levels: first, the establishing of real mass education, in other words, making it possible for all students to study motion picture, since the NAT and the Frame Curriculum also directs them to do so. Second, starting up new clubs, extra-curricular classes, and school cinemas would be important.Many teachers connected this to ideas about signing up for contests in this field, in preparing students for the final exam, as well as possibilities for continued study. It is obvious that faculties in institutions of higher education may strengthen the public education position of motion picture. A third important idea would be starting up film clubs and groups dealing with cultural and creative work within schools; partly, connection to local media would become an every-day thing.

We tried to asses the teacher's views of the future with the question, »How do you see the development of media education in the next ten years?« We asked them not to talk about the future of their own schools but about the country's expected future in general. The most pessimistic response was given by teacher No. 1, who said, »the whole project could just simply die off in the next ten years, because there is no incentive for the teachers, there is no unified idea, no unified methodology knowledge, the teachers don't understand the text of the NAT and the Curriculum (!), and the whole cause is endangered by the thinking of teachers completely detached from motion picture«. According to this, the subject may be doomed to the fate of other experimental projects. Teachers No. 5 and 9 were also somewhat skeptical of an optimistic future. The other extreme was presented by teachers No. 3 and 4; according to them, the subject will have greater rights, parents will accept it, demand for the subject will increase, and law will rule that all children should study it in school. However, they also mentioned that the weakest point in the project is the lack of properly trained teachers. Many of them said that the future of the subject depends on the Ministry of Education; if we follow the history of the NAT we will see how divergent the central ideas are. One teacher explains that, »because of the instability of education politics, school work is also full of confusion and randomness. Teachers would like order, peace, and safety.« At the same time, the incorporation of the Frame Curriculum will mean that some schools will be hindered, since the new order will cut back on motion picture education. Here we must note that most teachers have a unique relationship with government regulations; since the regulations change so quickly and it is difficult to investigate whether they are followed or not (and no one makes any effort to check anyway) schools have their own world, and the teachers can simply detach themselves from the regulations (»from the moment I shut the classroom door...«).

Many others felt that modernization techniques may come to a halt as they have in past instances, since the schools may sabotage the enforcement of these rulings; in this case, this might seriously influence motion picture and media education. At the same time the teachers are hopeful, since it is precisely the new curriculum that guarantees the continuation of their programs. Teacher No. 10 responded very sensitively to this issue: this teacher thought that the situation is very lopsided, since there are groups of teachers who have already begun training themselves. This teacher also found the work of a certain lobbying group very important, which helped bring about the incorporation of the subject into education documents and education policies: the »people in the Ministry have also acknowledged this subject«. The teacher thought that the future of the subject depends on the performance of lobby groups and school directors. However, most teachers are rooted to the ground and are uninterested. This opinion also shows what we have already alluded to before: programs have been established by individual accomplished work on a high quality level, but their circle of effectiveness is small; a large and strong layer of teachers is missing who might spread motion picture education far and nationwide.

4. Case study on a possible way of teaching about the media
following the National Curriculum

In this section we analyzed a class based on the structure, the applied methods, as well as teacher-student interaction.

The class was held by teacher No. 4. We are talking about a female teacher who teaches in an eastern Hungarian village elementary school. She graduated from a teachers college. This can be 75 seen in her close connection to the students and through her active participation class structure. She continued her studies in the Hungarian department and finished a continuing education course of the Pedagogical Institute in motion picture and media education. She is one of the teachers who believes professional advancement to be very important. I would also mention that her husband is a artist and teacher who helps in constructing the illustrative materials she uses during her classes.

The title of the class is The Characteristics of the Technical Picture. I would like to emphasize that she prepares each class by assigning questions and problems to the students beforehand. This helps lead the children into the topic, prepares them for cooperative work, and makes the work during class simpler since the students arrive already with some ideas about the subject. For this class, the students had to make their own photographs or select one from the family album. The teacher established a feeling of a experience when she asked the students why they selected or took the photo they did. (The students photographed their favorite animal, friend, or the objects in their room.) Starting from personal experience they summarized the question, "why do people make visual depictions?" After that they studied the nature of the photo: how does the photo "resemble" the original and how does the photo "lie." In order to take the picture certain objects had to be rearranged or the cat had to be told to stay in one place, etc. The analysis of each picture was begun: what sort of composition does the object in the picture appear in, where is the person who is taking the picture, what lighting techniques does the photo use? The students connected this topic to their knowledge of art history very well. This class can be said to have created the proper balance of experience and theory. After that they studied the technical sources of photography. They watched an educational film about the history of photography. The teacher chose this film very well, since it was about a topic that was connected to the personal experience of the students and added to their knowledge. The class ended by drafting a group outline. In the outline written on the board they summarized everything they had talked about in class. This was also applicable in formulating general conclusions. In the next class they continued with the technical line of discussion. The students looked forward to the following class where they were told they would be taking apart a camera.

5. Summary of Hungarian Motion Picture and Media Education

1. By illustrating the most important aspects of Hungarian motion picture and media education we can say the following: between 1960 and 2000 motion picture and media education was gradually freed from under the jurisdiction of the subject of Hungarian language and literature. Cuncurrently, it lost its revolutionary movement characteristic, lost the charm of uniqueness and became more professional, moving into the sphere of professional training. In the past few years a new kind of teacher has emerged who will execute the standardization flow according to empirical research and who will be able to validate the need for originality and innovation within an institution.

2. Our empirical research based on two kinds of questionnaires as well as observation of the 1+1 School Base Program has also shown the anti-mobility forces in the system of today's motion picture education. It is an interesting contradiction: it is exactly the innovation which aims to »domesticate« tools of mass communication and the unity of the consumers that awakens segregation-strengthening effects. According to the most general goal of motion picture, this subject should help students who are now only media consumers become media participants. This goal is hindered when motion picture education goes against its own nature and becomes »elitist«. We will use the following points to summarize the Hungarian motion picture and media education model: 1. The theoretical base of education. 2. The character-defining element of the goals of motion picture and media education. In other words, what nurturing aims is motion picture education »used« for? 3. How, and to what extent, has motion picture and media education become integrated in the public education of Hungary?

Analysis of Hungarian motion picture and media education will be done from a I. historical and II. parallel point.

I.

1. From a historical point, looking at the theoretical background of Hungarian motion picture and media education: it has moved from the exclusiveness of an esthetic approach (section 1 and 2) to a symbolic-theory approach (section 3) to the functional interpretation of audio-visual elements. From this point of view we can observe the gradual shift from a symbolic-theory/aesthetic approach to a social-science/sociological approach.

2. The following trend in the goal system of motion picture education can be discovered: in sections 1-3, motion picture was subordinate to the pedagogical goals of artistic education in gradually less proportion and weight. In sections 4 and 5, the media- understanding model gradually gained space as the cultural history- based goal system was forced into the background by the loss of 1978 Curriculum's authority, and the emergence of a new curricular direction (the NAT). The democraticsocialization goals of motion picture education prevail on a very minimal level in Hungary.

3. The embedding of motion picture and media education in the system of public education can be illustrated in the following way: section 1 and 4 can be characterized by a revolutionary movement attitude. In section 1, the background is the film club, while individual solutions and private experiments are prevalent in the 4th section. In sections 2,3, and 5, motion picture education is part of regular school work, part of »mass education« in various and contradictory ways.

II.

1. In the parallel view, we get the following picture: theoretical teaching in the Hungarian model tries to balance the text-centered symbolic-theory/aesthetic approach and the representative-social science/ sociological approach.

2. With regards to nurturing goals, media text understanding and the elements of cultural history are mixed. Concerning text reading and writing, there would be a need for a development of sensitivity and democratic-socialization goals, especially important in reaching children from detached social layers.

3. Today's situation of integration into public education points to characteristics of an integrated professional frame. However, several civilian organizations take certain roles upon themselves, representing educators as well as the film and mass media profession. Hungarian education has a great need for the work of such organizations.

3. It is possible for the Hungarian model of motion picture education to have a place among international models with the help of government backing, the regulation of the curriculum, the market of local curriculum, the initiative of the examination system, the first signs of the development of school supplies, the elimination of extremes in approach, the given elements of methodology experience and pedagogical innovation, and the participation of the social environment. Still the weakest point of Hungarianeducation is the education of the teachers. However, regulations (in process) directing the continued education of teachers and the monetary funds set aside in the national budget for this goal might very well paint an optimistic picture of the future of motion picture and media education.

Sources:

Bényei Judit – Szíjártó Imre 2000: Mûveltségkép és iskola. In Iskolakultúra, 2.

Hartai László – Muhi Klára 1998: Mozgóképkultúra és médiaismeret 12-18 éveseknek. Budapest, Korona Kiadó.

Hartai László 1998: Tanári kézikönyv a mozgóképkultúra és médiaismeret oktatásához. Budapest, Korona Kiadó.

The research project was organised and led by László Hartai, born in 1954. He is a film director, cameraman and one of the chief Media Education specialists in Hungary. He has wide experience in the field of "teaching about the media" at different levels of the education system. He is one of the founders and the chairperson of the Hungarian Moving Image and Media Education Association. Also he is a lecturer (Media and Film Studies) in the ELTE University of Budapest. He has taken a leading role in the process of developing and implementing ME into the National Curriculum. He conducted various research projects, created teaching materials and wrote important articles connected to ME.

e-mail: hlacko@elender.hu

Author of the paper: Imre Szíjártó, PhD

Address: H-4033 Debrecen

Buzogány u. 3, Hungary, e-mail: imre_szijarto@hotmail.com

Born in 1962, Imre Szíjártó graduated from the Humanities faculty of the University of Debrecen in the Hungarian, Russian, and Polish department in 1988. As a high school teacher he took part in devising the educational material, illustrative devices, and curricular structure of the exam system of motion picture and media education as a school subject. He is a professional advisor on commission from the Hajdú-Bihar County Pedagogical Institute in Hungarian language and literature and motion picture and media education. He gives lectures on media pedagogy and conducts courses in communication.In 1998, he completed his Ph.D. studies in the Schooling and Cultural Sciences department of the University of Debrecen. His doctorate dissertation was on the history of motion picture education in Hungary.

Starting October of 1998, he also spends his time as a Hungarian lecturer at the pedagogy faculty's Hungarian language and literature department at Maribor National University. His written publications are encompass the themes of literature, film, and pedagogy. He speaks Polish, Russian, Slovenian, and German.

Teaching the Media in Ireland

Brian O'Neill/ Helen Howley

Introduction

This chapter presents an outline of the context, provision and future prospects for Media Education in Ireland with particular reference to the junior secondary cycle. The research, carried out by as part of the Euromedia Project, was co-ordinated by the School of Media, Dublin Institute of Technology and was carried out between January and June 2001. To date, little if any formal research has been carried on provisions for media education in Ireland. O'Halloran (1992) and Lynskey (1990) both identified the need and proposed methodologies for media education in Irish primary and secondary curricula respectively and O'Neill (2000) describes the historical context for media education in Ireland. However, no formal evaluation has yet been made of media education developments that followed during the 1990s and this chapter, it is hoped, will contribute to the long-awaited assessment of the place of media education in Irish schools.

The study involved a general analysis of the development and current situation of Media Education in Ireland. It examined the specific national context as well as empirical research in secondary schools with teachers of fourteen to sixteen year old students. While it was originally envisaged that about twelve schools would be involved in the survey, a national teachers' strike during the period of the research resulted in the project being limited to just three participating schools. Therefore, the findings reported here are preliminary and can only be considered as a pilot study for future research into this area.

National social, political and economic context

The development of Media Education in Ireland is a relatively recent phenomenon. Despite the fact that the Irish educational system is a widely celebrated one, both at home and internationally, it is also a notoriously centralised one and it is only in the last decade that the reform necessary to facilitate the growth of new curricular areas such as Media Studies has been instituted – an area in which Ireland lags substantially behind our European counterparts.

The post-primary sector within the Irish educational system is for historical reasons complicated in structure. It comprises secondary, vocational, community and comprehensive schools. Secondary schools, educating sixty-one per cent of second-level students, are privately owned and managed, largely by religious communities, but are predominantly funded by the state. Ninety-five per cent of such schools participate in the 'free education scheme' and receive capitation grants and allowances. The remaining five per cent are fee-paying schools. In addition to the historically dominant secondary school system, twenty-six per cent of secondary level students attend vocational schools and the remaining thirteen per cent attend community and comprehensive schools, all of which are publicly funded.

Much of the impetus for curriculum innovation in Irish education stems from the landmark 1992 publication of the government discussion paper Education for a Changing World (1992). The Green Paper articulated what had long been expressed by all partners in education. The educational experience, which had remained largely unchanged for many years, was an examination-intensive system, unsuited to many, and biased towards a fact-acquisition academic approach to the neglect of the development of critical thinking, The education system as a whole was over-centralised making curriculum innovation enormously difficult. A wide-ranging debate on the future of education, its content and structures, developed and culminated in such events as the National Education Convention held in 1993, a government White Paper Charting Our Education Future (1995), and The Education Act of 1998. The direction of educational development was clearly charted and a number of key targets identified. The key target for secondary level education was to attain a completion rate of ninety per cent by the year 2000 from the seventy-seven per cent in 1995. Reforms of the junior- and senior-cycle curricula were to be continued, catering for the wide range of ability levels now participating in secondary level education and preparing students fully for effective participation in a rapidly changing society. The work of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCAA) was also to be underpinned by law thus ensuring a greater responsiveness to curricular change and innovation. How Media Studies has fared and what its future prospects may be within this general environment of change is considered in the remainder of this chapter.

Media Education context

Development

The entry of Media Education into the mainstream curriculum in Ireland has been a late, cautious and piecemeal one, much to the disappointment of the pioneering teachers of Media Studies who with their counterparts in the United Kingdom, have campaigned for a critical and empowering educational response to contemporary media culture. The most progressive forms of Media Education have been developed for more marginalised areas of the curriculum, such as vocational programmes, where teachers have traditionally been given a large degree of flexibility to develop new approaches. For the core secondary curriculum, however, Media Studies has been introduced as a segment of the junior English curriculum and as a Film Studies option on the senior cycle English syllabus. Historically, the response of Irish education to the media has been an 'inoculatory' one. O'Halloran (1992) notes how the original Primary Curriculum handbook (1971) pointed disapprovingly to the 'parallel education' which children received through:

the flood of information stimuli and exhortations conveyed by sound and image by which the pupil is assailed outside the school through posters, cinema, television, strip cartoons, radio and popular songs (1971: 20).

Mc Loone (1983) linked this tendency in Irish educational thinking with the neglect more generally of the arts and creative expression. The relatively late arrival of television in 1961 was symptomatic of a more general fear of technology in general and the potential of film as an expression of culture, for example, was not recognised until the mid 1970s. Equally, a xenophobic nationalism combined with the cultural conservatism of Irish Catholicism exerted strong influence on Irish education at least until the 1960s. Ironically, however, some of the earliest initiatives in Irish Media Education were promoted by the Catholic Communications Centre, founded in 1968, which in addition to publications such as Introduction to the Mass Media (Hunt, 1985) also ran training programmes in well equipped studios for teachers and students in media production techniques.

The origins of Media Education in Ireland can be traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s when the education system was recognised to be under severe pressure and in need of reform. At that time, Ireland had one of the youngest populations in Europe, with over fifty per cent of the population under twenty-five. The demographic pressures on an ancient system, coupled with cut-backs in public spending and poor job prospects for many school leavers, placed the entire system in crisis. At the same time, cultural change, the opening of Irish society, as well as the obvious centrality of popular culture in young people's lives, made the contrast between in-school and out-of-school life all the more apparent. Isolated efforts by teachers to develop Media Studies were galvanised and co-ordinated to some extent by the Education Department of the Irish Film Institute (IFI) which, in the absence of any other body, assumed responsibility for the development among teachers of a culture of media education. In addition to offering seminars and courses in Film and Media Studies, the IFI acted as a catalyst for the promotion of media awareness not just in schools but amongst the Irish public generally. A number of high-profile joint conferences and summer schools between the IFI and Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE), the state broadcaster, created an environment in which the media's contribution to and representation of Irish life was critically debated. A well attended National Media Education Conference held in Dublin in 1985 and addressed by leading UK Media educationalists such as Len Masterman, David Lusted and Eddie Dick created the impetus for the setting up of the first Teachers' Association for Media Education (TAME). The purpose of TAME was 'to support and encourage teachers of media education in both primary and post-primary schools' and to act as a lobbying group for curriculum provision, in-service training and the development of teaching resources for Media Studies. It was partially successful in each of these aims, though once the modest provisions for Media Education in the Junior Certificate English syllabus were instituted (see below), the activities of the organisation fell into abeyance. A contributory factor was also the financial crisis experienced by the IFI and the winding down of its Education Department between 1986 and 1990. As noted above, it was in the vocational area that Media Education made its first formal entry into an Irish curriculum in 1978. The Vocational Preparation and Training Programme (VPTP), designed for early school leavers, included in its Communications syllabus a requirement to study 'media among other elements of communications' (1978:145). An expanded version of this programme in 1984 listed 80 among its aims for Communication Studies 'to develop an awareness of the nature and function of communications in contemporary society' and to enable students to 'acquire greater social competence' (1984:78). The objectives of this programme indicated that 'in addition to competence in the basic communication skills, an ability to cope with the various systems of communication, including mass media, would be required'. Students should know, furthermore, about the different kinds of mass media, processes of production, decision making, truthfulness, objectivity and bias. Students would also be encouraged to engage in practical production of news sheets, radio programmes, video magazines programmes etc. to give them an insight into media processes as well as developing their communicative abilities.

This admirable and well-balanced syllabus was a successful element of the programme as a whole and gave many teachers a long awaited opportunity to introduce a more relevant engagement with contemporary culture into the curriculum. The difficulty from the point of view of those who had campaigned for the recognition of Media Studies in the school curriculum was that it had been restricted to the vocational area and not seen as something that was fundamental to all education. This distinction between the traditional curriculum in the secondary school and the vocational sector was perpetuated throughout the rest of the 1980s as the system itself expanded in an unplanned way to cater for the needs of industry and a bulging youth population with too few places in higher education. A range of vocational programmes was developed sometimes locally and with uncertain certification as post-Intermediate Certificate and post-Leaving Certificate courses, nearly all of which incorporated some elements of applied Communication Studies but for which skills acquisition was the primary emphasis. These efforts culminated eventually in the development of a new senior cycle programme, the Leaving Certificate Applied, whose integrated, modular and cross-disciplinary approach gave considerable emphasis to communications studies as a core element of personal development.

The campaign to incorporate media studies within the mainstream of the academic curriculum was led by the various interests of the IFI, TAME, and the Association of Teachers of English. In the context of an overall review of the curriculum at primary and second level, some measure of success has been achieved, with a media component being incorporated into the English syllabus in the first instance, and in varying lesser degrees in the Visual Arts and Civic, Social and Political Education (CSPE). The transition year programme which allowed schools to develop their own curricula also received a boost with the setting up a Transition Year Curriculum Support Service and many schools have offered media studies as an integral element of such a programme. Such curriculum reforms see elements of Media Education at strategic points throughout the educational system: from junior cycle to transition year to senior cycle. While notable inclusions have been achieved, the result is also a disjointed one and the failure to establish Media Studies as a curricular unit in its own right at any level must remain a disappointment.

Curriculum spaces

The principal curriculum space provided for Media Education within the Irish secondary system lies within the revised English syllabus at both junior and senior level. The secondary level curriculum consists of a three-year junior cycle followed by a two or three year senior cycle. The Junior Certificate programme, introduced in 1989, provides a single unified programme for students aged between twelve and fifteen years, emphasising knowledge, understanding, skills and competencies. It also emphasises qualities of 'responsible citizenship in a national, European and global context'. It is in this context that the majority of students encounter Media Studies as a formal element of the curriculum.

The traditionally academic senior cycle programme which prepared students for higher education has also undergone restructuring, in part due to increased participation rates, and in response to its outmoded university-oriented approach. An optional Transition Year programme has now been introduced offering students opportunities for personal and social development. Its interdisciplinary and student-centred nature has provided interested teachers with extensive opportunities for the development of Media Education modules. The established Leaving Certificate examination is the terminal examination for the majority of students in the fifteen to eighteen age groups. Students take at least five subjects, though in practice seven to eight is the norm. Significantly, the revised Leaving Certificate English syllabus now includes the study of film.

A vocational orientation to the senior cycle programme was introduced with the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP), first introduced in 1989 and expanded in 1994 to include link modules for preparation for work. The Leaving Certificate Applied is a new self-contained two-year programme 81 involving a cross-curricular approach rather than a subject-based one with a strong vocational and personal development emphasis. It incorporates modules in Communication Studies with Media Studies elements.

Provision and formal curriculum frameworks

The major responsibility for Media Education in the secondary level curriculum falls on English language teachers. The first step towards a universal provision for media studies was made in the revision of the Junior Certificate English programme in 1989 when it was suggested that English, while 'retaining the best elements of English teaching would allow teachers to introduce new elements such as adolescent literature, classroom drama and media studies' (1989: 1). The Junior Certificate, representing the final phase of compulsory schooling, aims at breadth and balance in its curricular approach and aims at relevance to the cultural, economic and social environment of the individual in its curriculum provision. The teaching of English at Junior Cycle aims to develop the personal proficiency of the student in the arts and skills of language defined as 'personal literacy, social literacy and cultural literacy' (1989: 1). While Media Literacy has become one of the defining principles of Media Education, the elaboration of the principles of literacy in social and cultural dimensions in the syllabus are clearly more functionally oriented and mass media literacy is defined in this context. The syllabus refers to reading newspapers, having a critical consciousness with respect to language use and writing within the discipline of media forms such as radio and television and does create a specific curriculum space for the study of media. Teachers are given a high degree of freedom to develop syllabus units within the overall programme combining literary and media genre in a variety of ways, choosing their own texts and materials to achieve the objectives of the programme. Units can focus on a central text (e.g. novel or Shakespeare play) or group of texts. Alternatively, a Unit can be structured around a theme or cultural topic (Heroes and Heroines, Conflicts and Contrasts, Advertising) (1989: 6).

The Teachers' Guides elaborate on how a Media Studies unit can be incorporated into the programme. Introduction to Media Studies, for example, is an introductory unit for 1st year students (age 12-13), and encourages them to think and talk about the media as products/processes. Through linguistic exercises, students can begin to approach such media-specific concepts as visual communication, selection, construction and develop an awareness of their own interaction with the media. The context for such this introduction is articulated in a 'protectionist paradigm'. Features highlighted include the persuasiveness of the media, the power of the image and the significance of selection/construction in media news making. Students, it is suggested, "could take a 'nasty' character form a novel or story and write a sympathetic description of him/her. Construct a sensational news item from a selected poem" (Junior Certificate English – Draft Guidelines for Teachers, nd: 85). A unit on Advertising follows the Introduction to Media Studies Unit and introduces basic visual literacy/semiotic concepts of denotation, connotation, anchorage, preferred reading, target audience and representation. Less 'protectionist' in description, it enables a wide discussion of knowledge and interaction with advertising in the media and encourages an awareness of the 'range of media products in society, media as a source of pleasure and personal consumption of media products' (Junior Certificate English, Draft Guidelines for Teachers, nd: 86). It also opens possibilities for creative, practical work in advertising construction in order to illustrate principles of audiences and targets and extends its analysis to television programme opening sequences analyses of the moving image and film. More negatively, a section on representation in advertising images looks at how stereotypes represent and attract audiences and has been a frequently repeated theme in the examination of the course.

While the openness of the new English syllabus has been widely welcomed and its inclusion of Media Education an important, if limited one, a major drawback to the entire approach, as acknowledged by teachers, is its mode of assessment. As Coy (1997) notes, 'The biggest obstacle to teaching the Junior Cert. course is the Junior Cert. exam. It has reduced English, once again, to a written subject despite the promise of the syllabus' (1997: 96). In one of two examination papers, Media Studies is now formally examined but in a textual way in the form of written responses and analysis of visual elements. Thus, the exam paper of 1998 used a newspaper Kellogg's advertisement depicting a teenager's bedroom and asked questions such as: (1) What image does this advertisement portray of the lifestyle and values of teenagers? (2) Do you feel teenagers are being exploited in this advertisement? And (3) Do you think it is an effective way of promoting the product? (1998) In 1999's examination paper, following a transcribed segment of The Simpsons, students were asked, "From what you observe in your own home and elsewhere list the bad and good effects of television on family life in general and discuss whether its use should be regulated by parents" (1999). This is not representative of all the opportunities that Media study at the junior cycle allows, but much of it in this vein is unnecessarily restrictive and limiting.

The transition year programme (TYP) is a unique phenomenon in Europe with a year-long programme allocated to personal and social development and maturity, structured between the junior and senior elements of the second level system. Seventy-five per cent of schools now offer a TYP and thirty per cent of those schools have now made it a compulsory element for their students. A unique feature of the TYP is that schools are free to develop their own local approaches and with the support of a Transition Year Curriculum Support Service can integrate a variety of cross-curricular modules on offer around a core of General Education units. The emphasis of the programme is on education for maturity, for developing skills of self-directed learning as well a general process of personal and social development. A work placement is an integral part of the TYP. Media Studies has been a popular element chosen by many schools for inclusion with transition year (Kelly, 1998). The freedom that the TYP offers represents a significant opportunity for teachers to develop ambitious projects, new forms teaching and learning and modes of assessment without the constraints of a formal examination syllabus. Studies of media representation, of visual awareness and education, film analysis and processes of media production have been typical elements used by teachers in such programmes. Teachers of English often develop the introduction to media offered in the junior cycle and introduce in the transition year the type of social and cultural analysis required of the new Leaving Certificate Programme. Experiential learning through the production of magazines, videos and films, as well as work placements in media and cultural industries have been valuable experiences for many students. Despite the proven contribution of a transition year to the enhancement of overall student performance, the weakness of the TYP remains its optional nature. The programme has suffered by reputation of being 'a year out' in the context of an otherwise competitive academic environment and some schools have marginalised the programme by aiming it towards weaker students. At the senior level, the most significant innovation has been the introduction of film as a prescribed element alongside the traditional literary genres of poetry, drama and fiction. The syllabus develops the Junior Certificate emphasis on literacy and oral skills in personal, social and cultural domains (Leaving Certificate English Syllabus, 1995: 2). The term "language" is acknowledged to include visual forms of communication and the role of media, film and theatrical experience are seen as significant (1995: 2). The programme also introduces a more sophisticated approach to the analysis of all texts which looks to their 'embedded nature in history, culture, society and ultimately personal subjectivity' (1995: 3). The designated areas of language use are now defined across 'lines of information, argument, persuasion, narration and aesthetic uses of language'. Areas of development to encourage media analysis are clearly outlined so that students should study documentary films and media accounts for the language of information, political speeches and advertising for the language of persuasion and films for the language of narration. Similarly, in the traditionally privileged literary section of the aesthetic use of language, teachers and students are also encouraged to 'view films as complex amalgams of images and words' (1995: 13). Students must still study one literary text in detail but at higher level are now also required to study texts in a comparative way, taking into account historical and cultural contexts. Film as text is included as part of this comparative study, which must also include other literary genres.

The Leaving Certificate Applied is the latest curricular innovation in Media Studies at second level. It marks a new departure for senior cycle education and offers an alternative to the traditional subjectbased approach of the dominant examination programme. It results from what is now viewed as a major achievement in Irish education that virtually all the seventeen to eighteen cohort now remain in full time education. The programme is now offered in approximately 200 schools and is aimed at those whose needs are not met by the academic Leaving Certificate programme. Thirty per cent of the programme consists of General Education, thirty per cent Vocational Education and twenty-five per cent for Vocational Preparation. Communication Media represents one module in a broad-based and cross-curricular approach to communications which emphasises social and cultural skills of literacy, discrimination and awareness. Units on Newspapers, Radio, Television, Film and Advertising aim to give students an understanding of the different media, develop critical thinking and communicative skills and to enable them to learn media techniques and technologies. Much of the emphasis is on engagement with a range of media content – newspaper coverage, radio and television programmes, advertising – learning the critical terminology to describe and analyse it, and to examine some of the underlying conditions of its production. Other modules in the Social Education curriculum likewise draw on media as a learning resource and a tool in the study of the social context of contemporary issues, the social and political process and the centrality of the media to active citizenship. A process 83 of Media Education permeates the programme and seeks in an integrated way to stimulate critical thinking and active participation by using the readily available resources of media.

Study procedures

Research Design and sample selection

The purpose of this study was to examine approaches to the teaching of media within the English curriculum for 14-16 year olds in Irish secondary schools, i.e. within the curriculum space of Junior Certificate English, the only compulsory formal curriculum framework for Media Education in Ireland. The research design followed closely the framework outlined by Hart and Hicks (1999). A sample of twelve schools in the Dublin area was initially selected, comprising a mix of single sex and mixed secondary schools, both public and private, reflecting the principal types of school within the Irish system. Unfortunately, a period of intense industrial action in Irish schools during the period of the research frustrated this plan and to date only three schools have agreed to participate (see p. 1). These cases are discussed here.

The research involved both classroom observation of media teaching and structured interviews with teachers. Classroom observation focussed on the aims of the media lesson in question, its content and methodology, and the resources utilised. Sessions were not recorded but detailed field noteswere kept. Teachers were also interviewed in relation to their involvement in media education and asked a range of structured questions concerning their background and approach to the teaching of media, the context and available support for media teaching as well as their personal aims and objectives. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and subsequently analysed using NUD.IST qualitative data analysis software.

The three schools included in the survey were as follows:

Findings

Background

The teachers interviewed were experienced and enthusiastic teachers of media and were passionate about the need for Media Education. None had received formal training or qualifications in Media Studies. Teacher C had first become involved teaching Media while teaching General Studies in England and Teacher B had been teaching the Junior Certificate English media component since its inception. Their personal interests in media favoured film, music and radio listening over television and they recognised that their tastes were different to their students. None professed any expertise or particular interest in computers or new media.

Each teacher felt that Media Education was very necessary given the pervasive presence of media in Young people's lives and expressed concern at what they perceived to be their manipulative influence.Teachers felt that the everyday traits of contemporary youth culture, such as the wearing of designer labels and use of mobile phones, were largely due to media influence. There was a clear suggestion in teachers' concerns that the purpose of Media Education was in part protectionist and stemmed from a distaste for the commercial intentions of many media messages. The focus on advertising and persuasive communication within the curriculum also appears to reflect such a concern. However, teachers also recognised that pupils were experienced users of media and very comfortable with media language and as such generally responded positively to media in the classroom

Aims, Objectives and Key Concepts

Favoured concepts and topics in the classes observed dealt with agency (the people behind the media message, point of view in journalism), the power of media institutions, representation and target audience. As such, the aims of the media lessons observed were framed as attempting to engender a critical awareness of the constructed nature of media messages. Popular topics for Media teaching included analysis of advertising images with a particular focus on stereotyping and how ideological meanings could be encoded in media texts. Similarly, teenage magazines and popular television programmes were used to illustrate notions of audience targetting and representation of particular issues. Teachers tended to deny that their approach was 'protectionist' in nature but were clear that pupils were generally unaware of the processes involved in the media or the agendas that may lie behind particular media messages.

There was also a strong discriminatory aspect present in approaches to Media teaching. In addition to wanting their students to be critically aware of the power of the media, teachers also hoped that they would be able to evaluate media content critically. As one teacher argued:

I want the students to be able to evaluate a media text so that they can appreciate the values of say a film or a piece of journalism. I want them to be able to see value in a film, to be more discriminatory, instead of looking at something purely for entertainment value. (Teacher C)

The same teacher subsequently described evaluation and discrimination as the key concepts of Media Education. The discriminatory paradigm, a distinctive feature of the senior cycle where Film Studies is provided as an option alongside works of literature, features less prominently in the junior cycle curriculum but nonetheless remains a key aim of Media Education as articulated by media teachers. The sense of developing a critical awareness of media was likewise couched in the language of the protectionist paradigm. Teacher A, for instance, when asked to outline his long term aims for his pupils said:

To be able to approach the media with a healthy degree of cynicism and to arm them with the ways or approach that would help them to understand the various agendas that are going on. To give them the critical capability to be able to fully understand the media and how it works (sic). (Teacher A).

Teachers want to encourage this questioning approach to the media and to give their students confidence in being critical, independent consumers less amenable to either peer or media pressure:

I think it is important to equip students with enough knowledge so that are aware of the language of persuasion as found in the advertising message. I think it is important that students have the ability and confidence to evaluate a media text. The crucial phrase is 'to evaluate'. If students can critically evaluate a film or media text, this will increase their ability to make informed choices about the media. (Teacher C)

Teaching Approaches and Resources

In contrast perhaps to other sections of the English curriculum, Media teaching has the potential to be a genuinely learner-centred activity. In the lessons observed for this study, there were many examples of classroom discussion, debate and student-led activities. However, in the main, hierarchical approaches to teaching dominated. Classroom discussion tended to be led by the teacher and while students had opportunities to contribute to class debate, their input was restricted by a teachercentred pedagogy. Teachers did try to open a space within the classroom framework for students' interests and concerns to emerge and, indeed, students frequently displayed their expertise in discussion of media through their familiarity and knowledge. Classroom assignments and group projects also appeared to allow for more independent learning though limitations of time and the demands of the curriculum repeatedly acted as a constraint on such activity.

Another constraint on student initiative in their exploration of media was the over-reliance by teachers on the prescribed English textbook which provided the structure and content for discussion. Teachers explained by referring to the pressure of time and the lack of availability of other resources for teaching about the media. Students were encouraged over the course of their studies to collect and introduce their own materials for classroom discussion, though again the constraints of the syllabus being followed did not allow sufficient time for independent project work. The lack of resources is frequently cited by teachers as adding to their frustrations in developing more interesting and exciting approaches for teaching about the media. The schools concerned, all publicly funded, supported media activities as much as they could within limited budgets. It was felt that private schools enjoyed an advantage in being able to afford better facilities and specialist teachers. Against this, the work of the IFI was singled out for special praise both for the study materials they had produced as well the special student screenings they regularly organised. Teachers felt the lack of other relevant support networks whether in the form of teachers' associations or in-service training. There is no provision for practical Media work within the English syllabus and this was acknowledged by teachers as a shortcoming. Where practical Media work did take place, it was an extra curricular activity such as a photography club within the school or a special video project supported by interested teachers.

Curriculum

One of the features that has an overbearing influence on how the media are taught is undoubtedly its mode of assessment by written examination. The exam consists of two papers, the first of which has four sections. Media studies are examined in the fourth section, with a total of thirty out of the available one hundred and seventy marks apportioned to paper one. As such, teachers reckon that they spend no more than ten per cent of their teaching time on media. In an examination year particularly, teachers are forced to concentrate on approaches that will maximise students' performance in these sections. The teachers agreed that such an approach was very narrow and went totally against the spirit of media education. They felt, however, that they had little choice:

We are dictated to by the exam, we're given very little scope or freedom. The fact that you can break down topics into the ones that you saw me do on the board – see handout – shows that it is a very narrow focus. (Teacher A)

The teachers interviewed recognised that the way Media Education had been incorporated into the Junior Certificate English syllabus was limited and neither interesting nor sufficiently challenging for students. They were more positive about the film studies option in the Leaving Certificate, which they felt offered greater scope for analysis and for engaging students' interest. Transition Year programmes also afforded more opportunities for more ambitious Media Education programmes though not all schools had the resources to offer Media as part of their Transition Year. Teachers supported the idea that Media Studies should be a far more significant part of the secondary level curriculum. They were in favour of the curriculum as a whole opening to diverse new developments and that media should have a strong cross curricular influence. At present, they felt that the burden of Media Education fell squarely on their shoulders and that the only interaction with media that other subject teachers would have is through the showing of videos. They also strongly supported the idea of Media having a distinct and separate place in the curriculum. Its peripheral location within the Junior Certificate English syllabus did not do any favours for the cause of Media Education and in fact might succeed in turning students away from the subject. Teachers realised how popular Media courses were at third level and for this reason felt that a separate subject at Leaving Certificate level would be a very positive development. With regard to the close relationship between English as a subject and the teaching of Media, they agreed that in principle this was a worthwhile development for the subject and provided a more relevant curriculum. However, as English teachers, they also recognised the shortcomings of adopting a wholly literary based approach to the study of media. While film study was increasingly a popular option at Leaving Certificate, this allowed only for the application of literary methods of textual analysis and left out whole areas of media studies to do with context, agency and institutional analysis.

Conclusions

The main conclusion to be derived from this research is that the formal introduction of Media Studies as part of the Junior Certificate English syllabus has to date only been a partial and qualified success. It has introduced concepts of media analysis to wide school going population but in a limited way that restricts students' exposure to textual analysis with an overemphasis on concepts of persuasion and advertising. There is insufficient time or space within the current curriculum to explore other aspects of media or to engage in a more fundamental way with processes and content of contemporary media and popular culture. The development of more sustained forms of analysis at Leaving Certificate level offers greater opportunities for such an exploration but in this instance are confined to the relatively 'aesthetic' area of film studies.

The approaches to Media teaching shown by our teachers displayed strong influences of both protectionist and discriminatory paradigms. Couched in the language of engendering a critical awareness of media processes and products, in fact much of the approach to Media Teaching could be said to derive from a quite negative view of contemporary media culture and its supposed influence on young people. The curriculum as outlined by the Department of Education reinforces this approach and it is perhaps unsurprising that asking teachers of English to take on the burden of Media Education with little formal training in the academic discipline of media studies results in a defensive and very cautious approach to youth culture.

Another consequence of the examination-dominated and restricted Media syllabus allowed within the Junior Certificate is that there is no opportunity for any exploration of changing media forms of communication, and in particular no consideration given to the textual, technical or cultural impact of new media. This can be seen to be a major omission, given the interest of young people in computers and screen-based new media culture. It also stands in contradiction to government policy to prepare pupils for the Information Society and with the extensive programme to provide computers and fast internet connections for all schools.

Further research is required to see if the above issues are representative of experience across the school system, for instance in the better resourced private sector or in the public comprehensive and community schools. It would also be useful to study Media Education at Transition Year and Leaving Certificate levels to examine how different and less restricted curriculum frameworks impact on teaching approaches to the media. At the same time, a crucial area for future research in Media Education provision is some study of pupils' own responses to Media Studies classes and of how Media Education has affected their approach to media consumption.

References: Government publications

(1971) Primary Curriculum Handbook. The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1978) Vocational Preparation and Training Programme. The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1989) Junior Certificate English Programme. The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1992) Education for a Changing World, The Green Paper in Education. The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1995) Charting Our Education Future, White Paper in Education. The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1995) Leaving Certificate English Syllabus, The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1998) The Education Act., The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1998) Junior Certificate Examination. The Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(1999) Junior Certificate Examination. The Department of Education and Science, Government of

Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

(No date) Junior Certificate English, Draft Guidelines for Teachers. National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCAA) and the Department of Education and Science, Government of Ireland, Government Publications Office, Dublin.

Other References

Coy, J. (1997) 'Language, Literature and Literacy', Issues in Irish Education, Vol.2. Hart, A. and Hicks, A. (1999) Teaching Media in English – Full Report, Media Education Centre, University of Southampton.

Hunt, P. (1985) Introduction to the Mass Media. Dublin: Veritas Publications.

Kelly, D. (1998) 'Media Studies and Transition Year', TAME Newsletter 1998. O'Halloran, Jean (1992) The New Literacy: the Case for Primary Education. Unpublished MA Thesis, Dublin City University.

O'Neill, B (2000) 'Media Education in Ireland', Irish Communications Review, Vol. 8, pp. 57-64.

Lynskey, E (1990) Media Education and the Irish Second Level Curriculum: Problems and Possibilities. Unpublished MA Thesis, Dublin City University.

Masterman, L. (1985) Teaching the Media. London: Comedia.

McLoone, M. (1983) Media Studies in Irish Education. Dublin: Irish Film Institute. O'Halloran, J. (1992) The New Literacy: the Case for Primary Education. Unpublished MA Thesis, Dublin City University.

About the Authors

Brian O'Neill is Acting Head of the School of Media, Dublin Institute of Technology. He was a founder member and chairperson of the Teachers' Association of Media Education and co-organiser of the first conference on Media Studies for teachers Ireland. He is Course Director for the MA in Media Studies at DIT specifically aimed at teachers of the media. He is also a member of the editorial board for the Irish Communications Review. Email: brian.oneill@dit.ie

Helen Howley is researching a PhD on critical pedagogy and narrative in media education in Ireland. Helen is a graduate English and History from Trinity College. She has a Higher Diploma in Education and has taught media and drama studies in Irish schools. She also has a Masters in Samuel Beckett from University of Reading. Email: Helen.howley@dit.ie

MEDIA EDUCATION IN NORWAY

Elise Seip Tønnessen

"think of it, wish for it, will it, you know; -
but do it! No fear; can't see that's inviting"
(Henrik Ibsen: Peer Gynt.)

Research resources and acknowledgements

This research has been carried out as part of my academic work in my position as Associate Professor at Agder University College. I would like to thank my institution for encouraging such work. Also I would like to thank the teachers who enthusiastically let me into their classrooms and spent time with me discussing the present and future position of Media Education in Norwegian schools. These classroom experiences and the opportunity to reflect on them in a comparative context will hopefully benefit the future education of teachers in Media as well as Norwegian at Agder University College. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Andrew Hart for sharing his methodology and experience with the rest of the research group.

On an ideological level, the necessity of Media Education in Norwegian schools seems to be more widely accepted than ever – though purists can still be found who want to use the school system for preserving and transferring 'high culture' (i.e. literature). At the same time, new challenges from the international media industries and new technologies appear at a rate which the established school system can hardly keep up with.

The challenges for Media Education in this high speed culture are abundant. There is a risk that the gap between the global commercialised media culture and the heavy tradition of school culture is widening. Even if school curricula were up to date with developments in the media, a central question is whether teacher competencies and classroom practices, including resources, infrastructure and the ideology of teaching and learning, are able to keep pace with the challenges from outside. Classroom research aims at investigating how the ideas and visions of the curriculum are translated into everyday classroom practices. The research method in this study, combining teacher interviews with classroom observations, focuses on both, as well as on how they interact within a school context. Theoretically, the assumption is that what happens in the classroom cannot solely be understood from the perspective of one of the participants in the school context. What the teachers say they want to do in Media work, is not necessarily what they actually do, and in the next instance the learning that takes place may look quite different from the students' point of view. In the classroom, teachers' personal preferences as well as their interpretations of curriculum intentions, meet with all the restraints of the practical world: school traditions, habitual thinking, available equipment, the architectural and organisational structure of lessons and time schedules. Furthermore, the issue of young people's relationship to the media cannot be understood exclusively from what happens in the classroom. More than in most other teaching areas, learning and understanding develops as much in leisure culture outside school as within the classroom. Bridging this gap between popular and educational culture is one of the enormous challenges facing the Media teacher. When it comes to Media Education within Mother Tongue teaching, it raises additional questions about how a new subject area is integrated in long-established traditions of teaching and learning, where differences in prestige and outlook on the world are at stake.

Outline of report

This report is based on interviews with and observations of Norwegian teachers teaching the Media in the top grades of the compulsory school system (grades 9-10 for students aged 15-16), mostly within the Mother Tongue teaching (Norwegian). In order to give an understanding of the context of these teaching practices, a brief presentation of the Norwegian school system and the development of Media Education within it is given initially. This will account for differences between the Norwegian system and the other countries participating in the Euromedia project.

In order to enable comparison of Media Education in several European countries, the questions in the teacher interviews have been kept as close as possible to those originally posed to British teachers in the Southampton study (Hart and Hicks, 2000). However, some of the questions are not as relevant in the Norwegian context. The application and adjustment of the research procedures are discussed in the second section of this chapter.

The findings of the study include the teachers' perceptions of the aims and procedures of Media Education, as well as observations of the activities in the Media classroom. The gap we sometimes find between what teachers "think of, wish for and will" and what they actually do, provides an interesting area for discussion. What are the factors that may facilitate the kind of Media Education the teachers envisage? And what obstacles of a personal, habitual or institutional kind do we need to work on to fill in the gap between intentions and practices?

National social, political and economic context

The Norwegian school system is, in principle at least, extremely égalitarian. Almost all children participate in the same public school system. In order to ensure similarity throughout the country, the National Curriculum gives quite extensive regulations, offering perspectives on ideology, content and teaching methods. The control functions on the other hand, are not as well developed and rigid as, for instance, in Britain. The main idea seems to be that teachers should be given a certain freedom within a given national framework. The system then trusts them to be loyal and do their best. This may have provided a necessary flexibility within teaching conditions that vary from very small rural schools where a few students are taught in one classroom across the grades, to city schools with class sizes up to 30.

Control comes into effect mainly through a centralised examination system for the lower secondary school (grades 8-10). The examinations by the end of grade 10 are the same all over the country, and the examination boards are appointed on a national level. Until the new National Curriculum of 1997 (L97) this was true only about written examinations in Norwegian. From 1997 there has also been oral examination in Norwegian, based on a booklet of texts used all over the country. It is well known that the content and methods of the written and oral examinations ricochet back into the classroom, setting standards for everyday teaching practices. In addition to the final examinations, there is a system of National Standard tests in central school subjects, designed to set an equal standard of grades throughout the country. It is, however, up to the schools whether they want to use these tests. Through the 1990s the educational system in Norway went through an intensive period of reform. The National Curriculum from 1997 replaced the former one from 1987 (M87), introducing a marked change in organisation as well as in ideology. Compulsory schooling was expanded from nine to ten years, starting at six, one year earlier than previously. The reform also contained an introduction stating the ideology of the entire educational system in Norway from kindergarten to continued education. This part is new, and underlines the values and potential of human beings in modern society.

Even the form of the various subject descriptions was changed in 1997, giving much more detailed instructions than in M87. Whereas M87 gave a broad framework, encouraging local variation within each key stage, L97 lists a number of learning outcomes in detail for every grade. Another change that relates to Media Education was that an overarching chapter in M87 stated the position of certain cross-curricular topics, one of them being Media Education. The responsibility for teaching the media was primarily shared between Norwegian, Social Studies and Arts and Crafts, but in all, the media were mentioned as a relevant topic in 22 of the 37 chapters in M87 (Erstad, 1997, p. 40). Information Technology was the dominant new-comer placed mainly within Mathematics and Natural Sciences in this cross-curricular chapter.

In L97 this chapter was replaced with a preferred organisation of school work. Thematic and projectbased work is meant to fill a substantial portion of school work. For the lower grades, up to 60% of the time is to be spent on thematic work. For grades 8-10, this kind of work should take up 20 % of the teaching time. This is where the local school can define its own agenda and work with the National Curriculum from a local perspective.

This way of organising teaching time has led to a move from subject teachers to all-round teachers. Some schools still give teachers a special responsibility to follow up each of the central school subjects, but the tendency now rather leans towards organising the staff in teams sharing the teaching responsibilities within a class or grade level. This may, in effect, have led to a weaker regulation of work within every single subject.

Previous research

Previous research on Media Education in Norway has focused on the theoretical analysis of curriculum development (Dahl, 1984) and on the effects of Media Education from a student perspective (Erstad, 1997). Only the latter includes an empirical study of Media Education, designed as a comparison of students in upper secondary school who do or do not follow the course in Media Education. Erstad interviews the students about their media habits, attitudes and interpretations before and after the Media Education course. His work also includes an interview with the teachers about their aims and objectives in Media Education, but no classroom observations. The information from the teacher interviews is combined with a historical and theoretical analysis of Media Education in the Curriculum, in order to describe the variable that is expected to produce a change in the students' relationship to the media.

Focus on educational institutions, policies and curricula has been dominant in other Scandinavian studies. Stigbrand (1989) surveys the implementation of Media Education in Swedish schools, and points to the dependency on individual enthusiastic teachers and the lack of planning, direction and systematic teacher training in the field. Tufte (1995) gives a broad presentation of historical and ideological perspectives on Media Education in Denmark. Closest to the realities of the classroom is Ana Gravis Machado's thesis on the pedagogical problems of implementing Media Education in the school system. Her empirical data are collected in Uruguay, but she gives an interesting comparison to Media Education in Sweden. Her conclusions point to the distance between implementation at the macro level and practical adaptation on the micro level of everyday classroom work. The policy of implementing Media Education remains unfinished in Sweden, whereas in Uruguay it seems to be made more explicit and more closely linked to the development of Teacher Education and to the local school system. From this background, the need for empirical studies of what actually goes on in the classroom, where ideas and curricula are turned into teaching and learning, is only too obvious.

Media Education context

The roots of Media Education in Norway can be found back in the 1920s and 30s, when film first entered the classrooms. The perspective was on teaching with films, rather than teaching about film; the medium was used for motivation and as an extension of the learning material in textbooks. The 1950s and 60s brought a rising awareness that leisure time and cultural influences outside school had to be taken into consideration in order to give a full understanding of young people's learning processes (Erstad, 1997).

Critical and communicative

In his curriculum study from 1984, Asle Gire Dahl points out how the debate on the aims of Media Education tended towards a bi-polarity. On the one hand, a critical perspective is strongly underlined:

Media Education should protect children against the potential danger from the media. Dahl expands this concept of critical learning to include critical reflections on media use and on the role of the media in society, as well as a critical attitude to the media message. On the other hand, the need to learn how to use the media, in production as well as reception, is underlined. This communicative pole is seen as complementary to the critical pole when experiences in production contribute to textual competencies that may also be applied in critical analysis. But it also entails a reaction to an élitist critical view of the media, foregrounding a democratisation of the communication processes in society (Dahl, 1984, p. 92-98).

As pointed out above, the National Curriculum from 1987 (M87) meant a substantial step forward for Media Education in Norway. The main idea was to spread Media Education across the curriculum, combining critical, communicative and creative perspectives on the media in several contexts (Erstad, 1997, p. 38). The media were no longer seen only as useful teaching resources, but as interesting objects of study in themselves. According to Ola Erstad's thesis on Media Education in Norway, the problem turned out to be how to connect all these little drops into a forceful stream of Media Education. The curriculum gave a series of well intentioned ideas, but did not provide a consistent system of methods and teaching materials. In addition, Erstad points to the lack of teacher qualifications, and the fact that most resources were used to upgrade the schools on Information Technology. In comparison, what was spent on equipment for reception and production of Media texts was next to nothing (Erstad, 1997, p. 42-43).

Media texts

In the present National Curriculum (L97) the major responsibility for Media Education is placed within Norwegian, turning it into primarily a textual subject. In general, the Curriculum states that the lower secondary students should be able to interpret and assess the content and form of texts in different media, and also be able to express themselves through these media. They should also reflect on the effect of the media on the individual and in society. Table 1 gives an overview of the learning outcomes stated for the nearest equivalent of K4, grades 8-10, within the three subject areas of the Curriculum for Norwegian.

Table 1: Media within the Curriculum in Norwegian for lower secondary school

For grade 8 the focus is on youth programmes in radio and television, and on image and verbal text in comics. The following school year focuses on aesthetics as well as ethical aspects of popular youth culture in the media. Furthermore, the students are to assess television debates and work on advertising in terms of critical reception as well as creative production. Work with feature films and also with newspapers and the genres applied in this medium, carries the weight of Media topics in grade 10. Throughout the curriculum, the use of information technology for searching information and for communication is underlined.

In addition to Norwegian, subjects like Social Studies and Arts and Crafts still focus on some aspects of the media. Still, it seems fair to say that L97 places less emphasis on the social and institutional aspects of the mass media than previously (Erstad, 1997, p. 44). Media Education has become predominantly a textual matter, focusing on critical and formal analysis of media texts. At best, the textual approach also involves the practical and creative skills of production. When it comes to optional courses in Media Education at this level, the thematic and project-based work has also taken over for a variety of optional subjects in the former curriculum. While M87 opened up to local enthusiasts, among them Media teachers, the opportunity to create their own optional courses, L97 has tied up all the lessons of the week in mandatory work. The other side of the coin is 92 that L97 opens up this kind of optional activity within project based work. The initiative for such projects is moved gradually from the school to the individual student through the school years. In grades 8-10 the students can work individually or form groups of interest across the classes and grades for a certain amount of the teaching time. The school provides an option for students who cannot decide what they want to do with their optional project time. In the schools visited in this study we found examples of groups producing video or analysing feature films within this framework. This means that L97 holds a potential for Media enthusiasts, but this plan has not made Media Education less dependent on the single interested teacher or student.

Another effect of the new National Curriculum is a thorough revision of school text books. No text books in Norwegian after L97 can pass without one or more chapters on the media. This is seen even in the title of the most commonly used text book in our material: From saga to CD (Jensen and Lien, 1997).

Teacher Education

New curricula for Teacher Education marked the start (in 1992) as well as the conclusion (in 1998) of the intensive reform period in the Norwegian educational system. In 1992 Teacher Education expanded from three to four years. The 1998-reform expanded the compulsory part of Teacher Education from two and a half to three years, leaving less time for optional courses. In both versions it is/was possible for trainee teachers to include a full year course of specialisation in Media Education. In reality, however, only 100-120 students complete this study yearly, out of a total of approximately 2500 students completing their pre-service teacher training every year. This low number is due to a shortage of study places, rather than lack of interest among the students. About half of the Media students trained within Teacher Education, go on to other kinds of work than school teaching. This means that only 2-3 % of the newly educated primary school teachers in Norway have a specialisation in Media. Most of the teachers have to make do with the bits and pieces of Media Education included in the compulsory subjects, such as Norwegian, Educational Theory, Music, Arts and Crafts, Social and Environmental Studies. The situation is hardly any better for teachers with a university degree as their basic education. There are no statistics showing how many students with Media as part of their academic degree who go into teaching. The Diploma of Education course has just recently included some perspectives on the media, and the emphasis tends to be on the use of media in the classroom, rather than teaching about the media as such.

Political interest in Media Education tends to follow waves of public concern. In 1995 The Norwegian Government's Campaign to Combat Violence in the Visual Media (KD, 1995) was launched by the Minister of Cultural Affairs and the Minister of Justice. Among the stated objectives of the campaign were: "to create awareness of the public's power and responsibility" (KD, 1995, p. 14 ) and "to prioritise children and adolescents as a target group" (ibid.). Through the three-year period of the campaign, these objectives were given increased emphasis. Projects focusing on media awareness and Media Education were financed with a considerable amount of money. As a result, teachers were offered in-service training courses, and material for teaching was developed. After the end of the campaign the responsibility to follow up this work was given to the Norwegian Film Institute, which remains the major national source of teaching materials and short-term courses for teachers. The Media Violence Campaign provides a clear illustration of how the motivation for Media Education in society still relies heavily on an inoculatory or protectionist perspective. It is interesting to see how this perspective develops in projects allowed to continue into a broader cultural scope, where the media are seen as an essential aspect of culture and communication in contemporary society. In contrast to the concern about the visual media, the use of Information Technology has been embraced everywhere in the educational system. Practically all the subject curricula contain a statement about learning how to use Information and Communication Technology. In some ways, this repeats the predominantly instrumentalist perspective in the early 20th century (mentioned above), when the media first entered the classroom as a teaching aid. The critical perspective involving analysis of how the various media affect our culture and our textual, educational and communicative practices, seemingly has not yet reached the use of Information Technology within schools. Summing up, the ideology surrounding Media Education in Norwegian schools can be related to the paradigms outlined in Hart and Hicks (2000, p.11). The traditional 'critical – communicative' dichotomy (Dahl, 1984) combines educational thinking from the 'inoculatory' paradigm with the 'representational' paradigm underlining critical thinking and communicational empowerment as a means to protect young people growing up in a media culture. This paradigm has prevailed, and is strengthened from time to time by public debate and politically motivated campaigns. Along with this, there has been an increasing acceptance of 'popular art' as the cultural reality relevant to young people today. This acceptance is followed up by an understanding of the potential for personal growth, as mentioned in the Cox report, which can be linked to the creative sides of media production. A fourth paradigm that could be added is the instrumentalist perspective that has returned to the Curriculum along with the use of new technologies in teaching and learning. This perspective is in line with the 'cross-curricular' view mentioned in the Cox report.

The analysis of the empirical data will show to what extent these paradigms have won through in the teaching practices in the classrooms visited in this study.

Study procedures

The data for this study were collected from January to December 2000. Since the purpose was to observe lessons that were not specially designed for the study, but part of normal teaching practices, it was necessary to find a time that fitted into the term's lesson plan for the class to be observed. It seemed like the activities within Media topics were normally placed in the Autumn term, perhaps indicating that these topics are considered less relevant for the final examination in May than many other topics within the teaching of Norwegian.

The sampling procedure started out with a formal request to the school leaders within a medium sized city in Norway, in order to establish contact with teachers of Norwegian in the relevant key stage (grades 9-10). The aim was to pick out an even spread with regard to gender and age/teaching experience. This approach to get in touch with the teachers was not very successful, since the school leaders did not want to impose extra work on the teachers' busy schedule. Still, some names were obtained this way, along with permission to contact the teachers to ask them to participate in the project. The rest of the sample was recruited through personal contacts. If this has resulted in a biased sample, it is towards a dominance of relatively recently educated male teachers. At the end of the day, the teachers in the sample had to be the ones willing to let the researcher into their classroom, and to spend time answering the interview questions. In return, they were offered advice on Media Education, and some of them received some teaching resources after the data collection was concluded. Nine teachers were interviewed and observed in the project, six men and three women. Since this is not a representative sample, they cannot be expected to represent anything but themselves. Still it would have been better to have a more even distribution of gender, since this might have given a fuller picture of ideas and practices in the Media classroom. Six of the participating teachers had been teaching for 3 – 7 years. This means that the majority of my informants had completed their Teacher Education in the 1990s, after the Teacher Education reform of 1992 but before the 1998 reform. The three remaining teachers were more experienced, with between 9 and 30 years of teaching experience. The oldest and most experienced teacher in the sample had recently finished his Master's degree in Norwegian language and literature. Only two of the teachers had specialised in Media Education (the one year course for teachers), some of the others were Norwegian specialists. There was also a mixture of teachers with a university degree and those educated within Teacher Education. Both groups have at least four years of University studies, but the educational perspectives are integrated throughout the four years in Teacher Education.

Most of them were teaching a number of subjects in the same class, based on the idea of team teaching across the curriculum described above. The teachers involved in the project worked in five different schools, all medium-sized schools in a relatively urban setting. Two of them worked together on the same project in different classes at the same class level. In this case, the one was observed in the beginning of the project, the other in the concluding lessons. One of the teachers held a part-time position especially targeted at teaching Media topics and oral story telling. Unlike the other teachers in the sample, she did not give regular lessons to the same class throughout the year, but was brought in to all the classes in the school for project-based work (within Norwegian, Music, Arts and Crafts and Religion) on her specialised topics. This way, the whole school benefited from her expertise in Media Teaching, but the follow-up and connections to other parts of the curriculum depended on her cooperation with the main class teacher(s).

In every class, the period spent on Media topics that day was observed in full, whether this was one lesson (45 minutes) or two consecutive lessons (90 minutes). The interviews were conducted before the observation of the lesson(s), on the same day or the day before. The questions for the structured interview were translated as accurately as possible from the Southampton study research design.

Amendments to the questionnaire

As mentioned earlier, some of the questions in the English study (Hart and Hicks, 2000), or the particular way they were framed, were not totally relevant for the Norwegian context. In the section 94 about school context and available support, the questions about who prescribed Media work did not fit very well with the organisation of Norwegian schools. In the Norwegian system prescriptions come from the National Curriculum, and whatever choices there are within that framework tend to be made by the individual teacher or the team responsible for one class or grade level. Neither are there any alternative syllabuses to choose between. The Norwegian schools have no system of inspections to control Media (or any other) teaching. The influence of central control, as mentioned earlier, comes through the formulation of examinations or centrally given tests. The final question in this section was adjusted accordingly. The question on how teachers distinguish between Media teaching and teaching about non-fiction texts stems from particular British concerns and did not make sense to the Norwegian teachers.

In the third section on long-term aims the notion of 'Key Concepts' in Media Education was not familiar to the Norwegian teachers. When this question was posed, examples of key concepts were given as an illustration.

The answers from the teachers were not tape-recorded, but written down by the interviewer during the interview. The interviews were then transcribed in full, and sent to the teachers for review and supplementary comments. Two of the teachers delivered such additional comments. The classroom observations were documented in two ways. Firstly chronological minutes of the activities were written down during the observations. Secondly the Lesson Observation form was filled in from the first impressions in the classroom, and then completed immediately afterwards, using the minutes as a supplement. Extra teaching materials that were distributed to the students in the lessons were collected and attached to the observation forms.

Findings

The majority of lessons observed were in the 9th grade, the medium level of the three grades (8-10) at this key stage in Norway. The content of the lessons included music video, feature film, advertising and media effects, interview as a newspaper genre, and the students' media use and preferences. The aims of these lessons can be defined as predominantly related to Media Education. This clear dominance may be an effect of the research process. When arrangements for data collection were made, the teachers had probably been on the look-out for a lesson that would be sure to qualify as Media work within the Norwegian curriculum. Throughout the school year the dividing line between Media and Norwegian topics may not always be that sharp. When the teachers were asked to give an estimate of how much of their teaching time was given to Media work, they were not always able to distinguish clearly. Most of them estimate the Media element as 5-10 %. The figure may be low because it only includes the topics that unambiguously related to Media Education. One of the teachers gave an estimate of 25 %, and finally one of the Media specialists gave a very much higher figure of 30-40 %. One explanation may be that he had a special interest in Media Education. But an equally valid explanation may be that he was much more aware of how Media work could be integrated in many topics. He specifically mentioned the role of media as a source of information as well as a means of reporting in project-based work.

The key concepts in focus in these lessons were first and foremost related to textual analysis. The lessons were designed to shed light on the content as well as formal features of different media genres, as can be seen from the list of lesson content above. The basis of this approach seems to be a wish to give the students' an understanding of 'how the media work'. This understanding can be used in critical assessment of content and form in the media, as well as in production. There are a couple of exceptions from this tendency. One of the lessons gave an overarching introduction to the mass media, working on their mode of communication, and especially on the audience's uses and gratifications. Another class was working with the production of music video, focusing mainly on technical and organisational solutions in the lesson observed. But in both of these instances, there was a link to textual analysis, in the first case, analysis of the preferred genres, in the second, analysis of the student products.

It may be fair to say that in this sample, Media work acted primarily as an extension of Norwegian as a textual subject. The societal context came in as a supplementary key concept in many cases. This may mean that media texts in the Norwegian Curriculum contributed to an understanding that texts are shaped by their context and the act of communication they enter into.

Resources, expertise and school support

The most important resource for Media Education in this study seems to be the competence of the teachers themselves. Most of the teachers in the study stressed that they had no formal education in 95 this area; most of what they knew had come out of personal interest. When asked about their interests within the subject of Norwegian, all except one foregrounded literature. Even the teacher with a recent Master's degree in Norwegian, specialising in linguistics, gave priority to literature because he had experienced that it was easier to motivate the students in this subject area. Other interesting parts of the subject mentioned by the teachers are writing and grammar, and two of them mentioned Media work as a special personal interest. Only three of the teachers in the study had been to in-service training courses in Media Education. Support and expertise for Media Education was mostly found in the team of colleagues working at the same level and among the students. Three of the schools had appointed one teacher as head of Norwegian teaching (including Media work), but he or she primarily acted as part of the team, as a 'primus inter pares'. The school management as a source of prescriptions or inspiration when it comes to teaching content and practices was not mentioned directly by any of the teachers. Relevant management decisions that were mentioned were on the organisational level. One was the arrangement described above, were management had appointed a Media specialist teacher to circulate in the classes. In one of the other schools, management had given priority to extending the school library into a 'mediateque'. These answers point to a tendency in Norwegian schools for management to deal with budgets, learning spaces and lesson plans, while the team of teachers deals with the content and methods of these lessons. In current debates the school leaders complain about the bureaucratisation of schools that ties them up in so much administrative work that their role as pedagogical leaders suffers. From another point of view, these findings support the claims in Ana Gravis Machado's thesis from Sweden about the unfinished process of implementing Media Education in schools. The gap that she finds between the macro level of policymaking and Curriculum statements, and the practical implementation in the classroom, is illustrated by the absence of management involvement in Media Education in this study. This can be interpreted partly as a lack of engagement, partly as lack of opportunity, since it is a deeply rooted tradition to leave most pedagogical decisions to the individual teacher or the department. In some ways, however, the gap mentioned by Machado seems to be decreasing, thanks to more explicitly stated learning aims about Media Education in L97 than in previous plans. Questions concerning resources and equipment may belong in the space between management and teaching. All the schools had appointed a person in charge of audio-visual equipment. The teachers mentioned this function as a sort of technological security, rather than a potential for advice and inspiration. However, looking at the resources actually used in the classrooms during the lessons observed they seemed to be quite traditional. In most cases, the teachers leaned heavily on the media they were most familiar with: paper and pencil, blackboard and chalk or overhead projector, and the textbook. Concepts were presented in writing, often in combination with examples. Tasks were given in writing, and mostly the students' responses were oral or paper based. What distinguished these examples of Media work from other tasks in the Norwegian classroom was mainly the examples given. In half of the cases, the teacher used a video player to display examples. Only in one case did we see a video camera in the classroom.

The lack of functional equipment, especially for production and editing, is frequently commented on by the teachers in this study. The most profound change they expect for Media work in the future is that editing equipment will become more available and easier to use. A video player mostly leads to receptive use of moving images. A more productive approach requires easy access, not only to a camera, but preferably also to editing. Many of the teachers mention the central city a-v-resources ('AV-sentralen'), where schools can book in for editing time. But use of these resources is limited because it requires flexibility, and often teachers (and students) have to spend out of school hours editing. To some extent, the question of easy access also goes for the use of video player or computers within the school. In some of the schools this equipment was placed in special rooms that had to be booked well in advance. In others, video player and projector were placed on a trolley that could easily be brought into the classroom. Only one of the teachers, a Media specialist, had a video player available in his classroom all the time. This may be one factor encouraging him to integrate Media work in much more of his teaching than the other teachers. In addition, he could use two trolleys with video equipment for group work.

Visions and methods

As we have seen, the teachers in this study had varied backgrounds, in terms of education as well as teaching experiences. However, their ideas and approaches to Media Education seemed to be influenced as much by the prevailing ideas of the school system and level they worked in, as by their educational background. An obvious exception was the specialised Media Education course, providing motivation as well as competence for classroom work in this area. In their descriptions of the process by which they became involved in Media Education, they all stressed that this was part of the National 96 Curriculum. In addition, three of them connected this involvement to their own preferences and interests, and a belief that this kind of engagement would benefit their teaching. In line with this thinking, they pointed to student interests as a motivation for Media work in the classroom. The oldest and most experienced of the teachers underlined a sense of responsibility to society in this as well as in other questions. Since the media play such an important role in society, they should be taken equally seriously in school, he claimed. This way of thinking was a dominant idea in Teacher Education when he went to college around the time of the student uprising of 1968. He had carried it on through his teaching career, adding more recent trends concerning the importance of student activity.

All of the teachers commented on how Media Education benefits from student engagement and motivation. The possibility of basing their teaching on what the students know and like, seemed to be important to them. These statements echo the development towards accepting a 'popular arts' paradigm for Media teaching. Another aspect of this student-centred perspective was that they all defined their approach to Media Education as one based on student activity. On the other hand, the teachers studied seemed to take for granted that a central activity in Media work is the textual analysis of image, word and sound. One of the Media experts in the sample gave an explicit reason: most of them will end up as media users, not producers. The production side was seen as a valuable supplement, creating a sound dialectic between critical and communicative perspectives. Media Education should be more than just talking about the media, one of the youngest teachers said, adding that his dream was to organise an animation workshop for his students. This point was even more stressed by the other Media specialist in the sample. He said that he would have preferred Media Education to be a separate subject with multiple opportunities to work with media production. Another side of this emphasis on student activity and engagement is pointed out by one of the other teachers who emphasises the importance of taking aesthetics into account. His view was that traditional textual analysis in school only looks to the logical and cognitive sides of media reception, whereas fascination and 'seduction' is an equally important part of the media experience.

These impressions from the responses in the structured interviews are mostly confirmed by the teachers' responses to the five statements on Media Education. The clearest response relates to the first statement. All but one of the teachers agreed with the statement that "Media Education should help pupils to judge what represents quality in the media". This focus on a discriminatory perspective is supported in statement 4, where an equally strong majority agrees with the statement: "In practical work, understanding the process is far more important than the quality of the work". The textual focus is underlined in statement 3, where half of the teachers in the sample support the idea that "Studying film treatment of literary texts is one of the most effective forms of Media Education.". The responses to the remaining statements are more evenly distributed. There is a somewhat weak tendency to support the fifth statement: "The teacher of Media within Norwegian should pay more attention to language and text, and less attention to media institutions." There may be a problem of interpreting this statement, since "pay more attention" could mean 'more than we do today'. Within teaching practices mainly focusing on textual approaches, even more attention to language and text could mean a complete disregard of media institutions. Taken together with the interview responses, I interpret the teachers' views as predominantly supporting the focus on language and texts, but not as a rejection of the institutional perspective. The second statement was commented on by the teachers in our sample because it really contains two statements. It is possible to agree with the last part:

"children aren't easily fooled", but still disagree with the first part: "Children don't need Media Education as a form of defence against the media". When the responses to this statement spread evenly across the options, I take it as a support for a mild protectionist perspective, not necessarily a distrust of children's critical abilities.

Lessons

Comparing these ideas and visions with the teaching practices in the classroom, it is important to bear in mind that most of the teachers pointed to the lack of technical equipment in the school. A majority of them expressed a certain unease with handling the technology (for production, not reception). Still, most of them claimed that they could always find a student able to solve technical problems, and they viewed this as a positive pedagogical situation.

Nevertheless, the lessons that were observed showed a considerable degree of teacher activity, compared with student activity. Though none of the lessons was completely dominated by teacher exposition, the teachers mostly led the way, especially in the introduction and the conclusion of the lesson. There is always a possibility that this may be due to the presence of an observer. It would not be surprising if the teachers were eager to keep control and to show their insights when they know that their teaching is going to be observed.

Two of the lessons observed involved production activities. In addition, some of the others involved production in written genres, i.e. newspaper interviews. In one case a group of eight students was planning the production of a music video. This was a group of girls, all dreaming about playing the lead role of Britney Spears. The teacher tried to make the group concentrate on an initial introduction to how to use the video camera, but very soon had to give way to a bursting activity of planning costumes, make-up, dancing etc. Since only one camera was available in this case, the class was divided in two groups, one group using the camera while the other (the boys in the class) was working independently on exercises in English. This flexible organisation was possible because the teacher covered several subjects in the same class, and could reverse the group tasks in the following lesson. The other case of production was part of a project on advertising, run parallel in two classes. After an initial period of theory and analysis, the classes were divided into groups. The task was to invent a product and make an advertisement for it in print or on video. Finally, the advertisement was presented to the whole group of the two collaborating classes, followed by a reflection on which arguments and effects were applied in the advertisement. In this case, the students used private cameras, causing some problems of format when all the products were to be displayed in the classroom.

This project was an example of how Media work typically seems to go through three phases, where the teacher tends to hold the beginning and the end firmly in his/her hand, giving more space for student activity and creativity in-between these frame-setting activities. This model seemed to hold even for the analytic activities that dominated our sample. The typical analytical procedure also seemed to follow a three-phase model: The teacher started by introducing the topic and perhaps some basic concepts. This theoretical introduction was followed up by examples, in many cases supplied by the students. The movement from monologue to dialogue was followed by student activities, individual or in groups, giving the students more freedom to chose examples and perspectives. In some cases, the teacher concluded the analytical work by summing up in a plenary dialogue, in other cases the students' analytic activities were allowed to stand alone without teacher interference or closure. Analysis seemed to be given more freedom than production in the sense that the students were to a greater extent left alone to draw their own conclusions. Thus, in these classrooms, in the most traditional activity the teacher was pre-occupied with modelling the activity in itself, leaving the final content to the students, whereas in the more untraditional activity the teachers seemed to feel a greater need to control the result of the activity.

The gap that we have seen between the teachers' visions of what Media Education should and could be, and their own teaching practices, was partly bridged by the teachers' comments on the methods they applied in the classroom. This question from the fourth section of the structured interviews asked for