In 1996-1997, I carried out low-income housing research in favelas on the periphery of Porto Alegre, Brazil, as part of my Master’s thesis. Every evening, at about 8 PM, I was escorted to a bus to take me back to my apartment in Porto Alegre. At first, I thought this solicitude was for my safety. I soon realized there was another motivation involved—the people I was interviewing wanted to be free of me so they could watch their favorite telenovela, Rei do Gado (Cattle King).

In the unlikely case that you are not up on your Brazilian telenovelas (serial dramas/soap operas) of the 1990s, Rei do Gado was a western (as in, ranchers, cattle and horses) drama. It included the usual soap opera fare of illicit relationships and dysfunctional families. Overlaid on this, however, was the very timely topic of land reform in the Brazilian interior.

Rei do Gado’s compelling storyline, high production quality, and focus on such a socially salient issue (uneven property wealth and land distribution) made it enormously popular (the salaciousness probably didn’t hurt either). I didn’t watch Rei do Gado, but I was impressed by the degree to which it shaped a national conversation—and eventual legislation—on land reform.

I had never before—or since—seen TV programs address societal and economic ills that the formal political system often ignored. Over the years, I have thought of the power and the potential of entertainment TV to shape beliefs and impact change—and wondered if TV could do the same for education.  That wondering is the focus of this post.

“All television is educational…”

Television has been used for educational purposes for decades—as a tool of instruction (such as  Mexico’s Telesecundaria program which broadcasts six hours of lessons a day to children in remote areas where there may be no teacher); for teacher professional development (TV Escola in Brazil), general adult education (the UK’s Open University), to teach English (English in Action in Bangladesh) or for initial teacher preparation (China).

Despite a long history, instructional and educational television (1) have mixed records as tools for education development, with gains in learner outcomes often offset by significant production and infrastructure costs.  We don’t find too many donor-funded educational development projects that make use of television.…unless they involve a big yellow bird.

“The question is: What is it teaching?”

Educational television has enjoyed greater success when combined with entertainment—particularly for children. The best example of children’s “edutainment” may be Sesame Street, whose educational results are long lasting and far reaching.

For instance, US children who watch Sesame Street are much less likely to repeat a grade in school (Kearney & Levine, 2015). Across the globe, young viewers of Plaza Sesamo in México (and its variety of names in different countries) do better on literacy and mathematics tests than those who don’t watch the program (Fisch, 2005).

But in fact, though not seen as having educational value, serialized TV programming has, more quietly, proven to be a powerful vehicle for changing behaviors. In Latin America, where telenovelas are an institution, they have been credited with improving awareness and involvement in agricultural reform; convincing mothers of the importance of childhood vaccinations; improving sexual health, adult literacy, girls’ rights (Hegarty, 2012); and female fertility rates (IDB, 2009).

A kiss is just a kiss

The impact of telenovelas and other serialized programming has been especially pronounced when it comes to attitudes and mores. Brazil’s 2014 telenovela Em Familia featured a relationship between two female protagonists whose kiss spurred a nationwide discussion about homosexuality. The show’s producers asked viewers to vote on whether the characters should end up together (spoiler alert: yes).

Such shifting attitudes are not unique to Brazil. In the late 1980s, the British TV soap opera The East Enders featured a same-sex relationship between two male protagonists. Their first on-air chaste kiss resulted in a widespread public outcry and a physical attack on at least one of the actors.  By the third kiss, the public had moved on.

Intelligent design

Most of the telenovelas that have proven so impactful in terms of changing habits or modeling “pro-social” behaviors have been deliberately designed to do so.

In the 1970s, Miguel Sabido, a TV writer and producer in Mexico and the former director of the Mexican Institute of Communication Studies, developed the “Sabido Method.”  An “edutainment” design method, based in part on social learning theory, the Sabido Method focuses on creating TV programming that aims to both “entertain and educate an audience about a particular issue, create favorable attitudes, shift norms, and promote and reinforce behavioral and social change” (Singhal et al, 2004:5).  

The Sabido Method has several clear design elements:

• Education focus: Entertainment-education soap operas must be designed to educate a very large audience about a particular issue or behavior (for example, female literacy)
• High production value: The story, narrative and entertainment quality, etc. should be of high quality so the program enjoys broad viewership (Singhal et al, 2004:5).  
• Strong character development: “Good” characters are associated with desirable behaviors (sending girls to school) and “bad” characters are associated with undesirable behaviors (bullying, sexism, etc.)
• Clear moral message: Good characters are rewarded and the bad characters are punished so the audience is encouraged to imitate the positive role models (Singhal et al, 2004:5).  

Television for education development?

One area that has not been as much of a focus in “edutainment” television is the formal education sector. Yet education is often hampered by numerous societal beliefs that TV may be best equipped to address. Thus, the wondering of this post: Can this kind of “edutainment” TV be used to address many of the attitudes and values that hurt education and impede progress—for example, that teaching is not worthwhile or valuable or desirable or that people who teach are not smart or talented enough?

Could donors or Ministries of Education, with media partnerships, develop compelling programming that address some of the key issues around education, or infuse existing programming with Sabido-like design elements—TV programs (like  the film, Stand and Deliver) that portray teachers in a positive light, that feature classrooms where good teaching occurs (so that people know it when they see it), that present teaching as a noble and honorable profession?

A global village?

“Edutainment” may be worth a look for several reasons. First, if the best technology for development is one people have, know how to use, like a lot, and whose infrastructure is ubiquitous, then television ticks all the boxes.

In the industrialized world, TV and radio are the most commonly available technologies (Nielson, 2016) and in the developing world 70% of households have a television. Parts of sub-Saharan Africa aside, wherever I’ve worked, I am always struck by the ubiquity of television—in Latin American urban favelas or colonias, in Pakistani mountain villages, or in rural Myanmar or Cambodia.  Globally, access to television continues to expand and diversify—via broadcast, Internet, cable, satellite, and cellular networks on TVs, phones, tablets and laptops.

Next, while not every country has media powerhouses like Brazil’s Rede Globo or Mexico’s Televisa, most countries have television infrastructure and local programming. The alternatives to broadcast TV mentioned in the previous paragraph mean that programs can be produced for less than was previously the case. And the success of the Sabido Method in promoting positive behaviors through serialized TV has been successfully disseminated and adapted across many parts of the globe (read an example in India).  

Third, education progress is often about changing the narrative and providing desirable role models. No other technology or medium can communicate that narrative or provide role models in ways that speak to an audience so intimately, personally and continuously.

Finally, the cross-national success of Colombian TV shows in the US, Brazilian telenovelas in Europe and Africa, and Indian soap operas in Vietnam, show that good “edutainment” can transcend boundaries—that humans, no matter where they live, are drawn to the power of stories well told.

Amusing ourselves to death?

However, there are numerous concerns against the kind of “edutainment” for education development suggested here—not least of all the costs and the challenges of creating quality programming. It’s probably safe to say that most television fare is low quality.

There are also moral and ethical concerns. TV can be used to reinforce stereotypes, promote behaviors and attitudes that many find deleterious rather than enlightened, and be excessively moralistic and simplistic. Government- or corporate-controlled or influenced television can mislead viewers, suppress ideas and information, promote anti-social and anti-civic behaviors, propagandize, and/or create groupthink—and do so at scale.

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I’ll conclude this post where it began. Television has changed social values, beliefs and attitudes. Can it also do that for education?

Notes

• “All television is educational. The question is, what is it teaching” is attributed to Nicholas Johnson, former chairman of Federal Communications Commission (US).
• “Amusing Ourselves to Death” is from Neil Postman’s excellent 1985 book: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.

1. See footnote 25 on p. 34 of this publication to see the distinction between the two terms.

References

• Balbino, J. (2015). O beijo gay na teledramaturgia: Uma visão panorâmica. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2isxG88
• Fisch, S.M. (2005). Children’s learning from television. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2jnoW2C
• Hegarty, S. (2012, April 27). How soap operas changed the world. Retrieved from http://bbc.in/1tn1mjJ
• IDB. (2009). Brazilian soap operas shown to impact social behaviours. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1n6tCIE
• Kearney, M.S. & Levine, P.B. (2015, June). Early childhood education by MOOC: Lessons from Sesame Street. NBER Working Paper No. 21229
• Nielsen (2016, June 27). The total audience report: Q1 2016 media and entertainment. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/293jm5l
• Singhal, A., Cody, M.J., Rogers, E.M., Sabido, M. (2004). Entertainment-education and
• social change: history, research and practice. (1^st ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
• Erlbaum Associates Inc.