Peace Education in Freedom Writers Movie
A Sociological Perspective
Abdillah Nugroho
Department of English Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Surakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Education, Peace, Respect.
Abstract: The paper focuses on analysing peace education reflected in Freedom Writers movie. The movie depicts Erin
Gruwell as major character taking role as teacher has done some meaningful efforts to teach, educate and
guide her students on the right tract of life. Not only do her students make noisy in the classroom but they
also often quarrel and fight in the school yard. In researching the problem, the researcher made use of
qualitative research by applying descriptive method in the analysis. There are two types of the data such as
primary data consisting of texts of the movie relating to peace education and secondary data that support the
analysis. Technique of the data analysis is carried out by applying the theory of Sociology of Literature by
Laurenson and Swingewood. The result shows that Gruwell creates many efforts in her teaching strategy such
as buying her students some good books to read, switching her students’ sitting position, sharing discussion
of Holocaust, picnic to Holocaust Museum, Line Games, writing journals and many other valuable activities.
In the end of the day they can live hand-in-hand with their friends from different religion, race, and ethnicity.
1 INTRODUCTION
What had happened on Saturday, August 12, 2017 in
Charlottesville, Virginia USA, absolutely makes us
very shocked. Some people in US call it as a domestic
terrorism. The terror was done by the ultranationalists
who are essentially racists. Aljazeera (2017) reported
that US’s President Donald Trunp called for people in
the country:” We ALL must be united & condemn all
that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of
violence in America. Lets come together as one!” In
USA as the nation of immigrants, it should not
happen anymore such kind of incident. Not only
should Black and White be melted but also the other
races in US should be as their national slogan says the
melting pot. It is off-course in opposition with their
national constitution saying all men are created equal.
The phenomena that took place in USA also
happened in Indonesia. In reality there are still many
social friction happenning in Indonesia. Human
Rights Watch (2001) reported that the social conflict
between the people of Dayak and Madura in part of
Kalimantan, the religious conflict between the
followers of Sunni and Si’ah in Madura (Detiknews,
2013). Detiknews (2017) reported that suicide
bomber also occurred in the country. In addition to
this, social and political conflict also happened in the
local leader election in DKI Jakarta (KOMPAS.com,
2017).So what’s wrong with the nation? Why did it
happen? There are so many possible answers to the
questions. One of them is an inadequate education in
part of US as well as in Indonesia.
The above phenomena are not so far different
from those occurred in the movie entitled The
Freedom Writers. The major character, Erin Gruwell,
is a teacher in Wilson High School in Long Beach. In
the classroom, she teaches her students coming from
different religion, ethnicity, race and culture. They
hate each other and often quarrel and hit each other
not only in the classroom but also in the school yard.
A small case can make them angry and make the class
rowdy. Her students also hate Gruwell because she is
a white woman. They hate white people. Looking at
the phenomena, Gruwell does not give up. As teacher,
she tries to find a way-out of the problem. Finally
with her creativity, she finally is able to guide, teach,
and educate them on the right tract of life. They
become one family in the classroom.
The paper is aimed at analyzing a phenomenon of
peace education carried out by a teacher with a great
vision of multiculturalism to guide, teach, and
educate her students through a right tract of life. In
relation to the aim, a proper theoretical framework to
454
Nugroho, A.
Peace Education in Freedom Writers Movie - A Sociological Perspective.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 1, pages 454-460
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

apply is Sociology of Literature by Laurenson and
Swingewood. According to them, there are some
basic princiles of the theory covering firstly literary
work as the social document, secondly literary work
as the reflection of social situation of the writer and
thirdly literary work as the manifestation of historical
moment. The first principle means literature as the
mirror of age ( Laurenson & Swingewood, 1972; 13).
It indicates that literarry work can explain the
civilization of certain palce in a certain time to the
audience and it is like a picture that describes a
historical moment of a society and also delineates
what happens in the society in a certain period of
time. The second principle means that many of their
works were influenced by social phenomenon around
them. In their opinion, thereis relationship between
the set of crucial social factors and the complex
situation of the writer and the character of his work:
its genre, scope, content and at time its subtleties and
ambiguities. The third means that literary work
attempts to trace the ways in which a work of
literature is actually received by a particular society
at specific historical moment.
Furthermore this paper examines a peace
education that has a close relation with the concept of
multiculturalism so that it needs to clarify a proper
understanding of it. Herbert et. al (2006) explain that
the core aims of multiculturalism is to respect and
value ethnic difference and protect groups from
discrimination. In addition to this, the understanding
to multicultural education is also needed. Banks ( in
Zirkel, 2008) articulated five core dimensions that
characterize multicultural education: (1) content
integration—infusing the curriculum with material
from diverse groups, (e.g., new authors, new
historical material); (2) knowledge construction—an
awareness of and focus on the way that cultural
frames shape the identification and interpretation of
educational content (e.g., understanding that the
“westward migration” was only “west” for one social
group); (3) prejudice reduction—the extent to which
the teachers and administrators in a school actively
work to reduce prejudice and stereotyping by students
in the school, such as through the inclusion of an
explicitly antiracist curriculum; (4) equity
pedagogy—pedagogies designed specifically to
increase the academic achievement of lower
performing students and to create greater equity
between students (see also C. A. M. Banks & J. A.
Banks, 1995); and (5) empowering school culture—
altering school structures and processes to be more
empowering for all students, with particular attention
to eliminating institutionalized racism in school
practices.
The focus of this paper is on peace education done
by a teacher reflected in Freedom Writers movie.
Based on the focus, it is broken down into some
questions as follows; 1. What problems are faced by
Gruwell, as teacher, in the classroom? 2. What factors
cause those problems? 3. How does Gruwell tackle
the problems?
Looking at the above questions, objective of the
study is to examine the problem faced by her, to
analyze some causes of the problem and to examine
some solution done by Gruwell. The significance of
the study is theoretically to accumulate the research
on Freedom Writers movie. By doing so, we get many
perspectives on literary study. Practically the study
can give many advantages for the reader in
understanding multiculturalism as a means of
eliminating the social and racial gap and conflict
among the students.
2 METHOD
Research method of the study can be explained as
follows. Type the study is qualitative one with
descriptive approach. Object of the study is peace
education reflected in the movie. Type of the data
consists of primary and secondary data. The primary
data derive from the texts of the movie focusing on
peace education. The secondary data covers some
data that support the analysis. It can be criticism of
Freedom Writer movie, Journals of the movie and
what not. Technique of the data collection is done
through library research with the following steps; to
watch the movie, to sort the texts of the movie that
relate with peace education done by Gruwell.
Technique of the data analysis is carried out by
applying the theory of Sociology of Literature by
Laurenson and Swingewood.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Results
Based on the analysis of the movie, some results can
be presented as follows.
Peace Education in Freedom Writers Movie - A Sociological Perspective
455

3.1.1 A Gruwell becomes a teacher at Wilson
High School
Figure 1: Gruwell is interested in teaching at Wilson High
School because of integration program.
The following is her expression of her intention.
Gruwell (Gru):”Well, actually, I chose Wilson
because of the integration program. I think what's
happening here is really exciting, don't you? My
father was involved in the civil rights movement. And
I remember when I was watching the LA riots on TV,
I was thinking of going to law school at the time. And
I thought, "God, by the time "you're defending a kid
in a courtroom, the battles already lost." I think the
real fighting should happen here in the classroom.”
From her statement of I think the real fighting
should happen here in the classroom. Can be
interpreted that education for the US students can end
the social and racial conflict occurring in the society.
It means that Gruwell believes strongly that education
is very important to strengthen the unity of the nation.
3.1.2 Eva describes her school like a city of
jail
Figure 2: Eva describes her school like a city as a jail.
The below is her narrative expression.
Eva: “If it was up to me, I wouldn't even be in
school. My probation officer threatened me, telling
me it was either school or boot camp. Dumbass. He
thinks that the problems going on in Long Beach
aren't going to touch me at Wilson. My PO doesn't
understand that schools are like the city, and the city
is just like a prison, all of them divided into separate
sections, depending on tribes. There’s Little
Cambodia. The Ghetto. Wonder Bread Land. And us,
south of the Border or Little Tijuana. That’s just the
way it is, and everyone knows it. But soon enough,
you have little wannabes trying to hit you up at
school, demanding respect they haven't earned. It
looks like this, one tribe drifting quietly to another's
territory without respect, as if to claim what isn't
theirs. An outsider looking in would never see it, but
we could feel it. Something was coming.”
These texts show that the school environment is
not healthy for the students to grow. They cannot
interact well among them. They get together on with
their group. As described by Eva, her school looks
like a jail. They cannot stay and study in the school
peacefully.
3.1.3 Gruwell switches her students’ sitting
position
Mrs. Gruwell switches the position of her students’
sitting for reducing the social and racial gap among
her students and also for breaking demarcation border
in their interaction.
Figure 3: Gruwell is giving instruction to her students to
switch their sitting position.
The followings are their dialogues.
“Switch with Ben. Come on.” said Gruwell. “I
can't go back there alone.” Said Ben.
“It'll be fine.” Gruwell convinced
The followings are her students’ responses to
Gruwell’s instruction.
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“No, it won't.” “I'm not sitting near him.”“I ain't
going up there without my homey.”“I'm not
sitting back there alone!”“All right.”“Shut
up.”“All right, you know what?”“I want you all
to move to this side of the room.”“You in the
back, up here.”“Sindy and all of you, move to
the back.”“Come on. Let's go. Now!”“Get your
ass back to China, all of y'all.”“You're all little
midget-ass punks.” “Move before I stomp your
peanuts.” “Boo!” “Get your ass to the back,
boy.” “Get off my desk.”
3.1.4 Her discussion with her students is
inspired by one of her students drawing
a black man with a big lips and big nose.
With this picture Gruwell discusses
Holocaust with her students
Gruwell explains to them the event of Holocaust by
Nazi. Through a hot debate, Gruwell can make her
students have a wide vision of humanity.
Figure 4: Gruwell is debating about Holocaust with her
students.
The followings are Gruwell’s expression when
explaining Holocaust to them.
“I saw a picture just like this once in a museum.”
“Only it wasn't a black man, it was a Jewish
man.” “And instead of the big lips, he had a
really big nose, like a rat's nose.”
“But he wasn't just one particular Jewish man,
this was a drawing of all Jews.”
“And these drawings were put in the newspapers
by the most famous gang in history.”
“That's us, dawg.”“You think you know all about
gangs?”“You're amateurs.”
“This gang would put you all to shame.”“And
they started out poor and angry, and everybody
looked down on them.”“Until one man decided
to give them some pride, an identity and
somebody to blame.”“You take over
neighbourhoods?”“That's nothing compared to
them.” “They took over countries.”“And you
wanna know how?”
“They just wiped out everybody else.”“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”“Yeah, they wiped out everybody they
didn't like, and everybody they blamed for their
life being hard.”
“And one of the ways they did it was by doing
this.”“See, they'd print pictures like this in the
newspapers.” “Jewish people with big, long
noses.”“Blacks with big, fat lips.”
“They'd also publish scientific evidence that
proved Jews and blacks were the lowest form of
human species.”“Jews and blacks were more
like animals.”“And because they were just like
animals it didn't really matter whether they lived
or died.”“In fact, life would be a whole lot
better if they were all dead.” “That's how a
holocaust happens.”
3.1.5 Gruwell makes a game called Line
Game
This game is inspired with an inappropriate
interaction among the students at the school yard.
They just interact with their group based on their skin
color, ethnicity or race. Through this game, Gruwell
intends in order that her students know and
understand to each other.
Figure 5: Gruwell makes a game called Line Game.
The followings are their dialogues.
“We're gonna play a game, all right?”“It's a lot
of fun. I promise.”“Look, you can either sit in
your seats reading those workbooks, or you can
play a game.”“Either way, you're in here till the
bell rings.”“Okay. This is called the Line
Game.”“I'm gonna ask you a question.”
“If that question applies to you, you step onto the
line, and then step back away for the next
question.” “Easy, right?”“ Yeah,
whatever.”“The first question, how many of you
Peace Education in Freedom Writers Movie - A Sociological Perspective
457

have the new Snoop Dogg album?”“Did you
steal it?”“Okay, back away.”“Next question,
how many of you have seen Boyz n the
Hood?”“Okay. Next question.”“How many of
you live in the projects?”“How many of you
know someone, a friend or relative, who was or
is in juvenile hall or jail?”“How many of you
have been in juvenile hall or jail for any length
of time?”
“Detention don't count.”“Does a refugee camp
count? you decide.”“How many of you know
where to get drugs right now?”“How many of
you know someone in a gang?”“How many of
you are gang members?”“Nice try. Nice
try.”“Okay, that was a stupid question, wasn’t
it?”
“Yeah.”“You're not allowed gang affiliations in
school. I apologize for asking. My badness.”
The next Gruwell’s questions are deeper and more
serious.
“Okay, now I'm gonna ask you a more serious
question.”
“Stand on the line if you've lost a friend to gang
violence.”
“Stay on the line if you've lost more than one
friend. Three. Four or more.”
“Okay, I'd like us to pay respect to those people
now.”
“Wherever you are, just speak their name.”
Her students’ response is as follows.
“James.”
“Beatriz.”
“Thank you all very much.” said Gruwell.
3.1.6 Gruwell asks her students to write their
feeling and experience in the journal
The next creativity is that Mrs. Gruwell asks her
students to write everything about their ideas in a
journal. Gruwell knows well her students so that she
wants them to write down their feelings in it.
Figure 6: Gruwell is telling her students to write anything
in the journal.
The followings are their dialogues.
“Now, I have something for each of you.”
“Everyone has their own story, and it's important
for you to tell your own story, even to yourself.”
“So, what we're going to do is we're gonna write
every day in these journals.”
“You can write about whatever you want,the past,
the present, the future.”
“You can write it like a diary,or you can write
songs, poems, any good thing, bad thing,
anything.”
“But you have to write every day.”
“Keep a pen nearby.”
“Whenever you feel the inspiration.”
3.2 Discussion
A movie belongs to one of literary works. The movie
creation is fictional although it is inspired by a true
story like Freedom Writers movie. The movie was
created based on the real story of Erin Gruwell as the
teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach Los
Angeles USA in 1994. This movie was directed by
Richard LaGravenese and starred by Hilary Swank as
Erin Gruwell. The film was produced in 2007.
Gruwell succeeded to teach, educate and guide
her students into the right tract of life. Her students in
the classroom comes from different social, cultural,
and religious background. In the classroom they
interact well with the same ethnicity and race but they
hate other group and also hate Gruwell as their
teacher because she is white. They hate white people
very much.
Gruwell sees her students’ bad manner. They
don’t respect other friends from different race or
ethnicity and even they hate each other. A small case
can make them fight each other. Gruwell is also very
concerned with their manner to her. They
underestimate her as their teacher. In the school yard,
they just interact with the same race or ethnicity. They
make a demarcation border with other group. They
get together with their own group. There's Little
Cambodia, the Ghetto, Wonder Bread Land, and
South of the Border or Little Tijuana. This classroom
condition inspires Gruwell to find out a solution of
her students’ problems.
Gruwell creates some activities for them in order
they can integrate and respect each other. She change
her students’ sitting position. She does this in the sake
of eliminating the border of race and ethnicity among
them. By such sitting position, they can interact with
their friends from other groups. It means that Gruwell
as teacher has tried to educate them how to know each
other. What Gruwell has done is in line with the
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458

concept of empowering school culture (Zirkel, 2008).
The pattern of students’ sitting position can break the
wall of segregation of race, ethnicity and religion
interaction among them. It can create a new web
relation among the students. In such a sitting position,
her students can learn how to address, interact, and
behave respectfully. In relation to the matter of
learning, Hamner (in Miner, 2005) explained that
learning, defined as a relatively permanent change in
behavior potentiality that results from reinforced
practice or experience. So what Gruwell has done to
force her student is in the sake of changing her
students’ behavior in order to be able to interact
friendly with other friends from different races and
ethnicities.
The other activity of Gruwell is motivated by one
of her students drawing a black man with a big lips
and big nose. From this drawing, she asks them to
discuss and share their responses of the drawing and
also about Holocaust. Through this activity, Gruwell
opens up her students’ mind to the fact that as human
being living in the world, they should respect and
tolerate one to the other. By discussing Holocaust in
the classroom and visiting Holocaust Museum,
having dinner with some survivors and also Miep
Gies’ visit to the school can reduce prejudice,
intolerance, hatred and violence (Zirkel,2008).
In equity pedagogy (Zirkel, 2008), Erin has them
play a game called Line Game. By this game, Erin has
a deep purpose of more understanding their friends.
They can know well what have happened with their
friends. They can feel what their friends are feeling
now. Thus this game can improve their sympathy to
their friends. Through this game, they also discover
that they share many feelings in common.
Her next activity is that her students are required
to write everything in a journal. The form of writing
can be poem, essay, song lyric and what not. By the
activity, Gruwell can understand well her students
feeling and her students their journal or diaries
provide a healthier way of giving an outlet for their
frustration and anger than gangbanging and violence.
Erin then asks them to retype their journal into
computer program. Finally Gruwell published her
students’ journal into a book entitled The Freedom
Writers Diary.
The journal is very beneficial for everyone who
read. The benefit of publishing their journal is not
only for them but also for other people who want to
know how the teacher and her students are able to
change their lives from a bad condition into a better
one. Finally the students in room 203 become a
family. They respect, tolerate and love each other.
They live peacefully.
From the above explanation, the role of teacher is
very crucial to deliver a concept of multiculturalism
for peace education to the students. The teacher
should have a wide range of knowledge concerning
multiculturalism and peace education. The teacher as
the agent of change should teach, educate, and guide
the students into the right tract of life. The students
should be able to respect, tolerate and love people
from different ethnicity, religion or race. The success
or failure of peace education to the students depends
on the multiculturalism understanding quality of the
teacher and the implementation of the
multiculturalism values or the students.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the above analysis, it can be concluded as
follows. Firstly problem faced by Gruwell in the
classroom is her students’ bad manner. They do not
respect their teacher. They hate their teacher because
she is a white woman. They also hate their friends
from other race or ethnicity. Secondly the students’
bad manner appears in their day-to-day lives because
of white supremacy at that time. Due to the
superiority, the white people do everything to the
other race and ethnicity as they like. The white people
as the dominant group in the USA at that time cannot
treat wisely the minority. Even among the minority
themselves, they cannot interact well. They hate each
other. Gruwell’s solution of the social and racial
problem in USA is a peace education for USA’s
young generation. Gruwell creates many efforts in her
teaching strategy such as buying her students some
good books to read, switching her students’ sitting
position, sharing discussion of Holocaust, picnic to
Holocausr Museum, Line Games, writing journals
and many other valuable activities. All Gruwell has
done is in the sake of educating them a peace
education. In the end of the day they can live hand-
in-hand with their friends from different religion,
race, and ethnicity.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The arrangement of this paper was inspired by my
own experience during my visit to University of
North Caroline (UNC) at Chapel Hill USA in 2008.
As research collaborator for completing my
dissertation in UNC, I got so many helps and valuable
data dealing with Southern culture and its people
from Prof. James Peacock from Department of
Peace Education in Freedom Writers Movie - A Sociological Perspective
459

Anthropology. When I sat in his class of cultural
conflict and its solution, he shown many cases in
Southern states. From the sharing discussion with his
students, it made me aware of the importance of peace
for the nation. I am very grateful and thankful to him
very much.
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