A Leadership Case Analysis (Essay Example)

This paper describes the movie "Dangerous Minds" which depicts issues of leadership and learning in educational institutions. The study examines the educational strategies and practices employed by the instructor in the film, which can help pupils achieve academic achievement and income equality. The views of the teachers and pedagogical approaches based on constructivism improve the quality of life of children, bringing them along a road of consciousness and personality. What matters most in the lives of the students is their internal drive and self-efficacy in relation to themselves and their school organization. By using constructivist educational paradigms and observing these media materials in the framework of an urban school, students may learn more about them. In brief, this paper investigates the educational ideas and practices depicted in the film, which are founded on constructivist viewpoints and are intended to completely develop the capabilities of the students.

The American movie Dangerous Minds is one of the most popular films about teaching. It is based on a true story directed by John N. Smith and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer that was released in 1995. It is about an official biography of pensioned U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson who began teaching at Carlmont High School in  California, where the majority of her students were African-American and Latino teenagers from East Palo Alto, a poor, racial segregation in public, as well as financially disadvantaged city. It is also another one of those inspiring tales in which a determined teacher takes a huge group of wayward misfits and uses an unconventional way to win them over. This type of film is invariably based on a true tale. Louanne Johnson, a retired Marine, needs to apply for a teaching position in high school and is astonished as well as delighted to be awarded the job on the spot. When she arrives the next day to start teaching, she is met with a school environment of tough, sullen kids, mostly from low self - discharge homes, associated with criminal violence and drug trafficking, absolutely rejecting to deal with anything.

They instantly call Louanne "White Bread" because of her color and seeming lack of authority, toward which Louanne replies by wearing a bomber jacket and training them karate following morning. The students decide to take an interest in such activities but are quick to back down once Louanne wants to teach the program. Louanne unveils classroom activities that teach identical ideas to the assigned work, although utilizing topics as well as language that resonates with the kids, in a way to attain the students. She also attempts to inspire them by providing everyone with an A grade at the beginning of the year and telling them that all they have to do now is keep it going.

Louanne utilizes the words of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" to teach symbolism and metaphor before moving on to Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gently into the good night» to expose them to literature. Louanne lavishes chocolate bars, prize incentives, and a vacation to an amusement park for her students. Her tactics pique the interest of the school officials George Grandey and Carla Nichols, who try to persuade her to follow the curriculum. Louanne is drawn to a few pupils in particular because of their personal issues. Raul Sanchero is a young man who is regularly involved in gang fighting and criminal activity on the streets. Louanne attempts to motivate him to concentrate by reimbursing a special visit to his family to personally thank him for his accomplishments and inviting him to supper to promote self-belief. Emilio Ramirez is her particularly difficult individual "project" since he has a greater sense of self-respect that stops him from seeking assistance. When Louanne learns that his life is in jeopardy due to some personal vendetta harbored by a newly freed gangster, she encourages him to seek assistance from Principal Grandey. Following morning, Emilio pays a visit to Grandey, who, unaware that Emilio is in mortal peril, rejects him right away since he failed to walk through the door before attempting to enter his office. 

Emilio quits school after feeling rejected, only to be murdered by his competitor. Louanne reveals to the students that she would be leaving the school at the conclusion of the 

academic year, saddened by her inability to safeguard Emilio and enraged at the inattentive 

school systems for making a contribution to his death. 

The students begin to cry, pleading with her not to leave. She wants to remain since she is overpowered by their uninhibited exhibition of feeling. 

From all this, we can conclude that it demonstrates poor teacher self-efficacy, a notion in the sociocultural theory, because she believes she is incompetent of teaching such children and is unsure about how to treat them. The self-efficacy of the teachers, or their beliefs about their capacity to teach, is linked to a variety of characteristics, like student accomplishment and ambition, job dedication and happiness, and external circumstances that restrict what they can do (Structure and Restructuring, Bolman and Deal). In her interaction with the students, Anne dives further into the constructivist framework. She launches the Dylan - Dylan contest in order to get children to actually comprehend poetry. Her goal was to support learning and growth, so we can see how she began to emerge away from teaching and toward learning. Students began to link their ideas, do research, synthesize, evaluate, and justify them. We can observe that they took charge of their own education and showing responsibility. Since the students worked on this assignment in groups, collaborative learning concepts became clear. "Constructivists think that in order to make complicated knowledge their own, learners must autonomously uncover and modify it across interactions with one another or their setting"(Bolman and Deal). Lou Anne functioned as a facilitator because she understood the value of supporting her pupils. Students participated in consciousness, and critical thinking, and were able to relate what they learned in school to their lives from outside the classroom as a result of this constructive teamwork. We see an impactful discussion between Lou Anne and her students when one student wants to ask Lou Anne, "So what is the award we will be getting for gaining knowledge of this poem?"   Lou Anne's response is highly strong because she highlights the basic goal of the constructivist theory of guiding people to self-empowerment. She was relying on external motivation using chocolate bars as well as amusement parks as positive encouragement. She begins to push the children to become more self-reliant and independent learners at this point. 

This instills internal drive in the kids and teaches them that learning is the reward, that knowing new things offers them a fresh perspective on life and hence empowers them. It has taken on a new meaning in education. Students gained the ability to determine their educational objectives, work together with their schoolmates and instructor, and ask appropriate questions by applying what they studied in school to their daily lives. Her constructivist and social psychological techniques led the students along the path to self-awareness and independence. She was able to positively influence them, which is what constructivism is all about.

We can observe how the film "Dangerous Minds" depicts many learning theories, such as Behaviorism, Social-Cognitive Theory, as well as Constructivism. Nevertheless, constructivism strategies have been most apparent, particularly from halfway through the film until the end, as Lou Anne began by using cause and effect methods and positive feedback, as she gained a better understanding of her students and the environmental conditions, she began to choose more sophisticated techniques to mentor the students on the path to self-discovery and empowerment, and therefore completed her objective. Lou Anne facilitated the education of her students by forming meaningful ties with them. She exhibited genuine faith in the children, viewing them as deserving and worthwhile persons with enormous potential. She wants them to recognize the importance of education. Finally, the students have been able to discover their path to academic achievement thanks to the support of their teachers, who views studying as an internal motivation for self-empowerment. They developed intrinsic drive, great self-efficacy, and a positive outlook on their life.

References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. Jossey-Bass.