Michael Apted's The Up! Series as a Teaching Prompt for Understanding, Collaboration, and New Learning in a Sociology Course Setting

Abstract

The use of film in sociology classrooms is well documented (see for instance, Livingston 2004; Kolmar 2002; Valdez and Halley 1999). Feature films, documentaries, and other visual media are often employed by educators to stimulate students' thinking, engage their interest, and to create an emotional immediacy with the topic at hand (Valdez and Halley 1999:286). Burton (1988) notes that appropriate films can help overcome the individualistic bias of many students by making clear the sociocul tural context (p. 264). This review essay is a result of a conver sation (which continued both synchronously and asynchronously after the seminar ended) between five of the fifteen total stu dents in a graduate sociology course entitled Educational Attainment and Social Mobility in Comparative Perspective. It is a reflec tion on how the use of Michael Apted's documentary, The UP! Series (Apted 2000, affected the classroom experience. It is also a conversation about the use of this particu lar film series as a pedagogical tool which not only serves to expand student under standing of social mobility theories but also grounds the learning in personally relevant