The educative potentialities of film
John McCall (Leeds Trinity University)

5.30-7.00 pm

Note: This meeting can be viewed online using the Teams Meeting link here.

For further inquiries: j.mccall@leedstrinity.ac.uk

This presentation is taken from a doctoral thesis titled ‘The educative potential of film: Philosophical perspectives on the stories of young deaf people through accounting, translation, and voice’. The presentation consists of two parts. First, excerpts from a short film, made with young deaf people (as a vehicle for philosophy), will be shown.

The second part of the presentation turns to the work of the American ordinary language philosopher, Stanley Cavell, to argue that for Cavell, what is ‘educative’ is perfectionist. The first section looks to Cavell’s reading of the Henry David Thoreau’s major philosophical work Walden (1854/2014), to move from a notion of ‘uncommon schools’ to the ‘education of grownups’. The second section builds upon the idea of the ‘education of grownups’ as a perfectionist idea of transformation, which in turn reassesses the ‘education of grownups’ as a form of ‘self-culture’. The final section draws upon Cavell’s philosophical writing on film to discuss film as ‘educative’ rather than ‘educational’. The intention of the paper is to promote reflection and discussion on the educative potentialities of film.

John McCall is a Doctor of Philosophy of Education and is a Visiting Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University. John’s research interests lie in the potential for practical impact that philosophy has in the sphere of education. He is a reviewer for the Journal of Philosophy of Education (JOPE) and also a reviewer for the Annual Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB).
 
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