Practice-Based Film Education for Children: Teaching and Learning for Creativity, Citizenship, and Participation

The value of practice-based learning, especially in the case of children and young people, has long been acknowledged. It can be traced back to John Dewey (1859–1962),¹ a pioneer in the “learning by doing” and “problem solving” approach that sought to integrate school with society; and to Maria Montessori (1870–1952),² who saw independence as the aim of a child’s education and realized that to achieve this, the child should take control of at least part of the learning process, with the environment playing a crucial role. And, importantly in Latin America, Paulo Freire (1921–1997) centered his whole model for pedagogy on informed praxis, thereby refusing the split between theory and practice while firmly situating educational activity in the lived experience of participants. The ultimate goal of this pedagogy—initially termed “of the oppressed”³ and later “of hope”⁴—was to achieve emancipation. Underlying all these approaches is the belief that childhood is a central period of an individual’s life, in which the foundations of personality are laid, and that the principles of respect, responsibility, and community are best understood by children through exploration and discovery. Whether we take the view that learning is socially, psychologically, emotionally, or cognitively constructed, practice-based education integrates all these dimensions.⁵ Nonetheless, formal education, especially in the realm of film, has often remained subject-centered and teacher-led. It has also tended to have a sharp focus on theory, whether it was aimed at adults or young adults.