One World, Two Classrooms, Thirteen Days : Film as an Active-Teaching and Learning Tool in Cross-National Perspective

This study assesses the pedagogical value of film as case material, and whether that value is affected by the different national and institutional contexts of the students engaging that text. We test whether students in two different Theories of International Relations (IR) classrooms—one in Brazil and one in the United States—demonstrated a statistically significant, different level of increased knowledge, understanding, or ability to apply theoretical frameworks to real-world cases. Students in each class cover the same theoretical approaches using the same focused readings on theories of foreign policy decision making, and then they view the same film, Thirteen Days, to which they apply these theoretical frameworks. Using a quasi-experimental design, we use pre- and posttest surveys or “quizzes” to directly measure students' knowledge about the case and the ability to apply IR theories to it. We also measure film's utility indirectly by asking questions about students' perceptions of their own understanding of the cases, and their perceptions of the utility of film as a tool in the IR classroom on those surveys. The film selected is a U.S. film about a U.S. case, making the comparative effect of the film on Brazilian and U.S.-based students particularly interesting.