Exploring educational taboos through school movies. A rhetorical analysis of student-teachers' reflections

The purpose of this article is to explore how fictional narratives that focus on educational taboos can be introduced in teacher education to reflect on disturbing practices and sensitive issues. We conducted a study to examine how student-teachers engage in “discomforting dialogues” about teaching and teacher identity in response to school movies that deal with specific taboos, i.e. the failed teacher and teacher-pupil relationships. Based on a rhetorical analysis of student reflections, we argue that confronting student-teachers with disruptive school movies provides them with a language to discuss the complex, sensitive and (inter)personal aspects of teaching.