The Critical Analysis of the Construction of Teacher-ness Identities in Contemporary Thai Films

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze the construction of teacher-ness identities in contemporary Thai films. The Thai teacher-ness identities represented in films were a unit of cultural analysis in contemporary popular culture, a methodological approach informed by British Cultural Studies. The researcher analyzed the texts of nine teacher-related films released in cinemas between 1977 and 2017, under the theoretical framework of the construction of social realities. The findings indicated that teacher representations were presented in three ways: 1) the ideal teacher-ness, 2) the negotiation with the ideal teacher-ness, and 3) the non-ideal teacher-ness. In general, teacher characters were created to exhibit consistent and different from the social realities. However, the representations of teacher-ness identities that appear in films have not kept pace with the changes in teacher-ness identities in the real world, due to the political, socio-cultural, and ideological landscape in Thailand, which has undergone enormous changes. The representations of teacher-ness identities thus need to be transformed in accordance with those changes. The influence of changing social realities of teacher-ness as well as competing for hegemonic discourses in the teaching profession, in particular, and teacher education, in general, plays a critical role in shaping the representations of those teachers. In addition, film, as one of the socio-cultural institutions, tend to produce and reproduce teacher-ness identities to be in line with social norms and expectations.