Educating Frank
“The lecturer was engaging and motivated.” Such probing statements are presented to students in feedback forms used for course evaluations these days. Most of lecturer Frank Bryant’s students of literature would probably have given him a scathing evaluation. In the opening scenes of the play “Educating Rita” (1980) by Willy Russell and in the film adaptation of the same title by Lewis Gilbert, we encounter a disillusioned lecturer with a drinking problem who is bored of his students, disinterested in their interests, and is initially dismissive of the hunger to learn of Open University student Susan White, who calls herself Rita. On the one hand, this is merely dramaturgical staging to kick-start the transformation of Frank (Michael Caine), who finds new enthusiasm for teaching through his confrontation with Rita (Julie Walters). On the other hand, the phenomenon of disillusionment and “inner emigration” is not exactly rare among teachers in schools, universities and further education in the face of strenuous working conditions, high psychological stress or improper career choices. Who among us hasn’t met a teacher who you can instantly tell, doesn’t want to teach anymore.
In the Oscar-nominated film, with the unspeakable German distribution title “Rita will es wissen” (Rita wants to know), it is shown how important working on relationships can be on both sides of the teaching and learning experience. Ostensibly, Frank teaches Rita English literature, and the obvious core motif of the film is Rita’s ascension from lower to middle class through her academic education.
The fact that the educational work, through the lens of working on relationships, also fundamentally changes Frank, can easily be lost sight of. After various trials and tribulations, Rita graduates from the Open University (with honors), and entirely new career opportunities open up for her. Frank is shipped off to Australia on leave for both professional and personal reasons. Ultimately, Rita’s persistence, appetite for learning and increasing maturity taught Frank an important lesson and re-motivated him. Indeed, teachers can be lifelong learners too.
I want to address at least two critical aspects of pedagogical work and point out current need for action. First, burnout in pedagogical professions is hardly rare. What are educational institutions and politics doing to prevent it? In the film, Frank was simply lucky to have run into Rita, yet, coincidence is no systematic solution.
Second, it is incredibly difficult to achieve social relationship work in a digital space. During the Coronavirus pandemic, instructors were forced to move to online teaching. Content can be easily shared online and communicated asynchronously. However, “real encounters” in the digital space that go beyond social niceties, are equally difficult to achieve. In this respect in particular, the pandemic has made it clear just how much digital teaching and learning spaces are reaching their limits — contrary to the market-shrieking promises of IT corporations and tech start-ups that consider everything to be “digitalizable”.
When we discuss continuing education and work 4.0 though, it has to be about more than just content and technology, namely about society at large. This too, makes the film “Educating Rita” still worth watching forty years later.
Bernd Käpplinger is Full Professor of Continuing Education at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and head of the Adult Education Section within the German Educational Research Association (GERA)
Educating Rita, UK 1983, Willy Russell, EN mit englischen Untertiteln
„I’m gonna take ten years off you!“ Rita (Julie Walters) und Frank (Michael Caine) in Educating Rita, 1983, Filmstill
© Russell, Willy (2012): Educating Rita. Diesterweg: Braunschweig, S. 78.
Michael Caine in Educating Rita, 1983, Filmstill
© Columbia Pictures
Educating Frank
“The lecturer was engaging and motivated.” Such probing statements are presented to students in feedback forms used for course evaluations these days. Most of lecturer Frank Bryant’s students of literature would probably have given him a scathing evaluation. In the opening scenes of the play “Educating Rita” (1980) by Willy Russell and in the film adaptation of the same title by Lewis Gilbert, we encounter a disillusioned lecturer with a drinking problem who is bored of his students, disinterested in their interests, and is initially dismissive of the hunger to learn of Open University student Susan White, who calls herself Rita. On the one hand, this is merely dramaturgical staging to kick-start the transformation of Frank (Michael Caine), who finds new enthusiasm for teaching through his confrontation with Rita (Julie Walters). On the other hand, the phenomenon of disillusionment and “inner emigration” is not exactly rare among teachers in schools, universities and further education in the face of strenuous working conditions, high psychological stress or improper career choices. Who among us hasn’t met a teacher who you can instantly tell, doesn’t want to teach anymore.
In the Oscar-nominated film, with the unspeakable German distribution title “Rita will es wissen” (Rita wants to know), it is shown how important working on relationships can be on both sides of the teaching and learning experience. Ostensibly, Frank teaches Rita English literature, and the obvious core motif of the film is Rita’s ascension from lower to middle class through her academic education.
The fact that the educational work, through the lens of working on relationships, also fundamentally changes Frank, can easily be lost sight of. After various trials and tribulations, Rita graduates from the Open University (with honors), and entirely new career opportunities open up for her. Frank is shipped off to Australia on leave for both professional and personal reasons. Ultimately, Rita’s persistence, appetite for learning and increasing maturity taught Frank an important lesson and re-motivated him. Indeed, teachers can be lifelong learners too.
I want to address at least two critical aspects of pedagogical work and point out current need for action. First, burnout in pedagogical professions is hardly rare. What are educational institutions and politics doing to prevent it? In the film, Frank was simply lucky to have run into Rita, yet, coincidence is no systematic solution.
Second, it is incredibly difficult to achieve social relationship work in a digital space. During the Coronavirus pandemic, instructors were forced to move to online teaching. Content can be easily shared online and communicated asynchronously. However, “real encounters” in the digital space that go beyond social niceties, are equally difficult to achieve. In this respect in particular, the pandemic has made it clear just how much digital teaching and learning spaces are reaching their limits — contrary to the market-shrieking promises of IT corporations and tech start-ups that consider everything to be “digitalizable”.
When we discuss continuing education and work 4.0 though, it has to be about more than just content and technology, namely about society at large. This too, makes the film “Educating Rita” still worth watching forty years later.
Bernd Käpplinger is Full Professor of Continuing Education at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and head of the Adult Education Section within the German Educational Research Association (GERA)
Educating Rita, UK 1983, Willy Russell, EN mit englischen Untertiteln
„I’m gonna take ten years off you!“ Rita (Julie Walters) und Frank (Michael Caine) in Educating Rita, 1983, Filmstill
© Russell, Willy (2012): Educating Rita. Diesterweg: Braunschweig, S. 78.
Michael Caine in Educating Rita, 1983, Filmstill
© Columbia Pictures
Trainspotters’ job interviews
Job interviews in feature films are rare. Nevertheless, film history has some special treats in store. From the point of view of public employment services, the interview scene from Trainspotting (1996) by Danny Boyle cannot be surpassed.
What‘s Work?
What’s labour? What’s employment? And how have they changed over the centuries? Leading scholars from Europe, the US, China and Africa reflect on these and related questions in a six-part documentary by Gérard Mordillat and Bertrand Rothé, which makes for an outstanding podcast.
The limits of our imagination of the future: men doing housework!
It is difficult to conceive the future as something open to objective analysis. The future is inevitably intangible. There is, however, one exception: the future of the past. "Past’s futures" such as those manifested in commercials of the 1950s and 1960s reveal many interesting things, for instance the lack of imagination of social change.
The Future of Work: Science and Science Fiction
Futurology has long since established itself as a scientific discipline. Why research should not be aversed to borrow from science fiction films becomes evident in the British miniseries Years and Years (2019) by Russell T. Davies.
THE WALKING MAN
Work ennobles. Work makes life sweeter. Sayings like these apodictically inscribe the principle of work into people's consciousness as the right and good thing to do. When American TV show us an example of this ideal, it is to double-down on the proliferation of the message of ‘a hero of labour’ : James Roberston – the walking man.
Power Plant Employment
Movies and documentaries on reactor disasters were trending last year. 10 years since Fukushima and 35 years since Chernobyl rolled the carpet out. For a true insight into the working world of nuclear power plants, however, I do recommend going further back, to Volker Sattel's "Unter Kontrolle" (2011).
About this blog
By selecting a film or an image, this blog literally illustrates the vast sphere of work, employment & education in an open collection of academic, artistic and also anecdotal findings.
About us
Konrad Wakolbinger makes documentary films about work and life. Jörg Markowitsch does research on education and work. They are both based in Vienna. Information on guest authors can be found in their corresponding articles.
More about
Interested in more? Find recommendations on relevant festivals, film collections and literature here.
About this blog
With picking a film or an image, this blog literally illustrates the vast sphere of work, employment & education in an open collection of academic, artistic and also anecdotal findings.
About us
Konrad Wakolbinger makes documentary films about work and life. Jörg Markowitsch does research on education and work. We both work in Vienna. Information on guest authors can be found in their respective articles.
More about
Interested in more? Find recommendations on relevant festivals, film collections and literature here.