Reel Diversity

Book excerpt: Reel Diversity: A Teacher's Sourcebook is a resource manual for teachers who want to infuse the concepts of diversity and social justice into their secondary and college courses. Lecturers and workshop presenters will also appreciate this text for its practical uses. The authors present proven guidelines for teaching diversity using a framework that deconstructs national opinion and culture from both majority and minority perspectives. Emphasizing the development of a shared language among teachers and learners, the text provides a list of important definitions about difference and power. It discusses the role of the teacher in minimizing cultural dominance, prejudice, and discrimination in society. The text includes an extensive section on designing a diversity education course, and teachers will benefit from the suggested instructional activities, readings, assignments, and advice on creating a classroom atmosphere for these issues. More than just another book on film literacy and criticism, this manual stands out from the competition for its practical, user-friendly mini-lessons using film clips from mainstream Hollywood feature films to illustrate the 25 diversity definitions provided in the text, and develops a list of questions following each clip that can be used to encourage cross-cultural dialogue.