Movies and Teacher Development
An Experiment in Reflective Practice at Agastya
One’s outlook on life, worldview, and values, which are deeply personal to an individual, play a significant role in shaping a teacher’s professional outlook and behaviour in the classroom. An effective teacher development programme, therefore, should not focus only on subject knowledge, pedagogy, assessment, and classroom practices. It should also create spaces for teachers to pause, look inward, examine their assumptions, and perhaps even question some of their long-held beliefs and values.
But how does one facilitate this without preaching, prescribing, or putting up another PPT?
One possibility is through carefully curated opportunities for self-reflection. And good movies offer a surprisingly rich resource for this. A movie can pose questions without demanding immediate answers. It can unsettle us gently, make us see the familiar differently, or simply leave us with something to think about.
An Experiment at Agastya
Agastya’s Teacher Transformation Program began a small experiment four years ago, making teachers watch movies with their peers and reflect on them. We were excited by the possibilities, though we were also unsure of how teachers would respond.
We were fortunate to have among us people who were passionate about movies - Ajith Basu, our team mentor and a movie critic; Tejas, a filmmaker by profession; and others. Educationists such as Dr. Ramkumar and Dr. David Penberg, who knew the potential, encouraged us to explore the idea. A spacious and inviting auditorium with good audio-visual facilities at the Agastya campus made this ongoing experiment a little easier to carry out.
Over the years, teachers who came to Agastya have watched films from different parts of the world. Some of them include Children of Heaven (by Majid Majidi, Iran); Malgudi Days (By Shankar Nag, Hindi); Tutturi (by P Sheshadri, Kannada); Flow (by Gints Zilbalodis, Latvia), Madadayo (by Akira Kurosawa, Japan); Perfect Days (by Wim Wenders, Japan); Monsieur Lazhar (by Philippe Falardeau, Canada). We have also screened short films such as Adrishyam – The Invisible Strand (by Anand Ekarshi, Malayalam); The Other Pair (by Sarah Rozik, Egypt); Two (by Satyajit Ray), Kappe Raga (by Prashanth Nayaka, Kannada); and Do Flowers Fly? (by Prosenjit Ganguly).
The point is not that every movie must deliver a specific “educational message”. In fact, that may defeat the purpose. The value lies partly in the thoughts and feelings that remain with the viewer.
A Few Guidelines That Evolved
As we experimented, a few principles gradually emerged.
Selection: We generally choose films outside mainstream Hollywood and Bollywood. This provides teachers with a glimpse into other cultures. We look for films that have received critical appreciation, have artistic merit, offer possibilities for reflection, and expand their thinking horizon. We also consciously avoid films with political overtones.
Facilitation: A brief introduction—usually a couple of paragraphs about the film—is shared with teachers in their own language (thanks to AI), a day before the screening. This helps them to get connected to the movie better. The screenings usually begin around 5:30 in the evening, after a short walk or stretch in the evening sun. A few prompts or questions are shared before the film. These are not intended as questions to be “answered” later, but simply as lenses through which teachers might watch the film. One decision we have made consciously is not to hold a discussion immediately after the movie.
The silence after a meaningful film can be valuable. We want to give teachers some time to absorb what they have experienced rather than immediately converting it into a discussion or a set of conclusions.
Of course, this is easier said than done! At the end of screenings, teachers feel so moved or overwhelmed that they want to share their thoughts before even leaving the auditorium. Perhaps that itself is a sign that something meaningful has happened.
A group of teachers watching the movie - ‘Perfect Days’, at Agastya’s Sangamerium
What Happens Afterwards?
The interesting part is often what happens later. The movie continues to run in teachers' minds long after the screen has gone dark. During dinner or the following day, teachers spontaneously talk about a particular scene, a character, a piece of music, a small detail, or an idea that stayed with them. Sometimes they discuss the philosophy behind the film; sometimes its beauty; sometimes simply the emotions it evoked.
There is something quite different about watching a philosophical or deeply human movie together with a group of colleagues. There is no trainer and trainee, no right answer, no worksheet, no assessment. Just a story, a shared silence, and many individual interpretations. And that, perhaps, is the real purpose of the exercise.
A teacher’s beliefs about children, discipline, success, failure, poverty, intelligence, authority, relationships and learning, inevitably find their way into the classroom. These beliefs are often much deeper than what can be addressed through a training session on pedagogy.
Perhaps movies offer a gentle way of entering that deeper space.
Ananthnag M
Agastya International Foundation
(Ananthnag has been with Agastya’s Teacher Transformation Program since 2016. He enjoys reading and long walks in nature)
