Abstract

The technical and practical way that educators appropriated popular cinema for pedagogical purposes, primarily with the technical interest driving the practical application and under the orientation of the various combinations of Speaker/Other/Intersubjective, demonstrates how Habermas’s framework can be helpful in characterizing dominant trends of thought in this empirical area. The educators’ Technical/Practical reflection or instrumental rationality was captured in our study by coding reflective moments regarding planning and implementing classroom use of film. These moments appeared in the three expressive modalities: cinematic journals, cinematic essays, and cinematic learning experiences. The educators saw popular film as a tool that provides ways to control and manipulate one’s teaching environment.