This article examines teaching practices and pedagogies shown in three Hollywood movies. Although some government reports and the media articles may assert that the quality of teaching in public schools is poor, by contrast mainstream movies of the "urban high school" genre often champion teachers who are able to make a difference in…

Over the last two decades in many countries, culturally responsive, multicultural and bilingual approaches to teaching have largely been replaced by standardised curricula and pedagogy, rooted in a political shift toward neoliberalism that has pushed business models of school reform. I argue that neoliberal reforms, by negating the central…