The Harry Potter phenomenon created a surge in reading with a lasting effect on all areas of culture, especially education. Today, teachers across the world are harnessing the power of the series to teach history, gender studies, chemistry, religion, philosophy, sociology, architecture, Latin, medieval studies, astronomy, SAT skills, and much more. These essays discuss the diverse educational possibilities of J.K. Rowling's books. Teachers of younger students use Harry and Hermione to encourage kids with disabilities or show girls the power of being brainy scientists. Students are reading fanfiction, splicing video clips, or exploring Rowling's new website, Pottermore. Harry Potter continues to open new doors to learning.
Given the current educational climate of high stakes testing, standardized curriculum, and 'approved' reading lists, incorporating unauthorized, popular literature into the classroom becomes a political choice. The authors examine why teachers choose to read Harry Potter , how they use the books, and the resulting teacher-student interactions.
Journey through every Hogwarts professor's teaching style. - Can a werewolf teach effective lessons about monsters? - Will prophecies of death put a damper on your class environment? - Can a wizarding celebrity learn to put his students before himself? - Is the Dark Lord on the back of your head technically your co-teacher? Education books are often filled with stories of success, charity and perfection. But they fail to capture the true nature of teaching-it's messy. In The Magical Teachers of Harry Potter, you'll take a journey through every Hogwarts professor's teaching style and compare their experiences with the successes and-more importantly-the failures teachers experience inside a muggle classroom. This is where analyzing fictional characters gives a distinct advantage. Inside these pages are lessons from teachers you won't find in any other education book, including a half-giant who is too insecure to share his passion for magical creatures, a ghost who puts students to sleep, a Death Eater who gives surprisingly great career advice and a toad-like woman who abuses her students. What better way to grow as a teacher than to learn from these familiar professors' strengths and weaknesses? But this book is not just for educators. Any Harry Potter fan can appreciate reading more about the Hogwarts teachers who have already taught us so much. Harry's professors show us there isn't just one spell you can cast to become a perfect teacher-every day muggle teachers of all kinds bring true magic into their classrooms.
Joanne Rowling’s great epic is forming the faith and moral vision of millions of people. If you are reading this book, forming faith is at least part or maybe all of your vocation, as teacher, pastor, parent, godparent, roommate, sibling, spouse, or friend. In baptism we vow to form our faith and the faith of others. To not use this modern epic in your sacred work is to leave on the table one of the most ubiquitous and enchanting tools of our time to awaken and baptize the imagination. Don’t put this wand away.
Before she was a renowned children's author, J.K. Rowling was an educator. Her bestselling series, Harry Potter, places education at the forefront, focusing not only on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's adventures but also on their magical education. This multi-author collection shines a light on the central role of education within the Harry Potter series, exploring the pedagogical possibilities of using Harry Potter to enhance teaching effectiveness. Authors examine topics related to environments for learning, approaches to teaching and learning, and the role of mentorship. Created for scholars, teachers, and fans alike, this collection provides an entry into pedagogical theories and offers critical perspectives on the quality of Hogwarts education--from exemplary to abusive and every approach in between. Hogwarts provides many lessons for educators, both magical and muggle alike.
Explores the true history, folklore, and mythology behind the magical practices, creatures and personalities that appear in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books.
Named a 2023 Honour Book by the International Research Society for Children's Literature Contributions by Christina M. Chica, Kathryn Coto, Sarah Park Dahlen, Preethi Gorecki, Tolonda Henderson, Marcia Hernandez, Jackie C. Horne, Susan E. Howard, Peter C. Kunze, Florence Maätita, Sridevi Rao, Kallie Schell, Jennifer Patrice Sims, Paul Spickard, Lily Anne Welty Tamai, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Jasmine Wade, Karin E. Westman, and Charles D. Wilson Race matters in the fictional Wizarding World of the Harry Potter series as much as it does in the real world. As J. K. Rowling continues to reveal details about the world she created, a growing number of fans, scholars, readers, and publics are conflicted and concerned about how the original Wizarding World—quintessentially white and British—depicts diverse and multicultural identities, social subjectivities, and communities. Harry Potter and the Other: Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World is a timely anthology that examines, interrogates, and critiques representations of race and difference across various Harry Potter media, including books, films, and official websites, as well as online forums and the classroom. As the contributors to this volume demonstrate, a deeper reading of the series reveals multiple ruptures in popular understandings of the liberatory potential of the Potter series. Young people who are progressive, liberal, and empowered to question authority may have believed they were reading something radical as children and young teens, but increasingly they have raised alarms about the series’ depiction of peoples of color, cultural appropriation in worldbuilding, and the author’s antitrans statements in the media. Included essays examine the failed wizarding justice system, the counterproductive portrayal of Nagini as an Asian woman, the liberation of Dobby the elf, and more, adding meaningful contributions to existing scholarship on the Harry Potter series. As we approach the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Other provides a smorgasbord of insights into the way that race and difference have shaped this story, its world, its author, and the generations who have come of age during the era of the Wizarding World.
This book about teachers as characters in popular media examines what can be learned from fictional teachers for the purposes of educating real teachers. Its aim is twofold: to examine the constructed figure of the teacher in film, television and text and to apply that examination in the context of teacher education. By exploring the teacher construct, readers are able to consider how popular fiction and film have influenced society’s understandings and views of classroom teachers. Organized around four main themes—Identifying with the Teacher Image; Constructing the Teacher with Content; Imaging the Teacher as Savior; The Teacher Construct as Commentary—the chapters examine the complicated mixture of fact, stereotype and misrepresentation that create the image of the teacher in the public eye today. This examination, in turn, allows teacher educators to use popular culture as curriculum. Using the fictional teacher as a text, preservice—and practicing—teachers can examine positive and negative (and often misleading) representations of teachers in order to develop as teachers themselves.
For over a decade, the Harry Potter books have become ubiquitous early texts for children, and are also a popular choice for many adults. Indeed, an entire generation of children has now grown up in the midst of "Pottermania." But beyond the books, movies, web sites, and more, this significant cultural phenomenon also constitutes a powerful form of social text, and speaks volumes about the intersections of ideology, popular culture, and childhood. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter provided the first sustained analyses of the iconic status of the Potter books, bringing together scholars from various disciplines to examine the impact of the series. This thoroughly revised edition includes updated essays on cultural themes and literary analysis, and its new essays analyze the full scope of the seven-book series as both pop cultural phenomenon and as a set of literary texts. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition draws on a wider range of intellectual traditions to explore the texts, including moral-theological analysis, psychoanalytic perspectives, and philosophy of technology. The Harry Potter novels engage the social, cultural, and psychological preoccupations of our times, and Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter, Second Edition examines these worlds of consciousness and culture, ultimately revealing how modern anxieties and fixations are reflected in these powerful texts. ("DISCLAIMER: This book is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., or anyone associated with the Harry Potter books or movies.")
