ERIC Number: EJ1388554
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023-May
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-2680
EISSN: EISSN-1748-5959
"I Never Saw as Good a Nature Show Before": Walt Disney, Environmental Education, and the "True-Life Adventures"
History of Education Quarterly, v63 n2 p243-270 May 2023
Alongside Walt Disney's animated movies, television programming, and theme parks, scholars have examined The Walt Disney Studios' "True-Life Adventures" series of live-action nature documentary films for their impact on popular culture. Historians, however, have mostly overlooked the significance of the "True-Life Adventures" for student learning about the natural world. Amending this historiographical shortcoming, this essay examines Disney's innovative approach to wildlife filmmaking, describes viewers' reactions to the "True-Life Adventures'" educational qualities, and investigates the Studios' efforts to use the films to enter the education market. The study breaks new ground by analyzing seldom accessed documents preserved in the Walt Disney Archives both to reveal how students, teachers, and college and university faculty responded to the films and to examine the extension of the nature documentaries through related media.
Descriptors: Corporations, Documentaries, Educational Environment, Popular Culture, Educational Media, Educational History, Teacher Attitudes, Student Attitudes, Administrator Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A