Week 3- Comics in Education

The contribution in which comics and graphic novels have to offer education is still widely debated.  Stafford (2011) explains how both parents and teachers often perceive comics as low culture literature, therefore lacking in educational value. In addition to this, according to Learning and Teaching Scotland (2014) schools tend to view comics as only suitable for their ‘less able’ pupils. Despite comics potentially benefitting these pupils, such an approach encourages forming pupil’s self-perception as ‘less able’, even though they may be reading text that is both challenging and difficult to comprehend. This blog entry will examine this closer, attempting to evaluate whether or not comics and graphic novels can be used to provide opportunities for learning development.

              As discussed within the seminar, comics appeal to children’s sense of humour, making them an enjoyable way to access reading, even for reluctant readers. This is reinforced with what I observed during a recent school experience placement, where a child who was uninterested by reading novels in the traditional sense was enthused and excited to find a comic annual in the reading corner. Vasquez and Felderman (2013), further develop this by suggesting that by using popular culture in the classroom, teachers can encourage a learning environment that is engaging and enjoyable.

Another significant point to make is that comics and graphic novels do not always conform to the standard rules of text (Bearne, 2004). However, rather than viewing this as a negative, this could be seen as a unique opportunity to present dialogue to children, how to structure a narrative by using the panels to show the progression of a plot, or using the visual cues such as the pictures to gain a deeper meaning (Stafford, 2009).

            Whilst the new National Curriculum (DfE, 2013) does not specifically mention comics in regards to them as valuable texts, it does suggest that combining word and image in texts can be beneficial to children. Therefore, comics and graphic novels could be used to support learning, and in fact are being used to make complex texts such as Shakespeare and even the bible both accessable and engaging to children.

Despite the aforementioned benefits in the classroom, practitioners must be aware of some of the risks involved with using comics before using them as a resource. For example, some comics portray graphic violence that isn’t necessarily suitable for children (Millard and Marsh, 2001) and in some cases, language that also isn’t suitable for the classroom. However, with the appropriate selection of comics and graphic novels, some specifically designed for classroom use, then they could be used as a unique resource that could have a positive impact on children’s learning development.

 
Bearne, E. (2004) ‘Multimodal Texts: What they are and how children use them’ in Evans, J. (ed) Literacy Moves on: Using Popular Culture, New Technologies and Critical Literacy in the Primary Classroom London: David Fulton

Department for Education (DfE) (2013) The National Curriculum in England: Key Stages 1 and 2 Framework Document London: DfE

Learning and Teaching Scotland: Graphic Novels in the Curriculum (see online) http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/g/graphicnovels/intro.asp accessed 2nd of February 2014.

Millard, E. and Marsh, J. (2001) ‘Sending Minnie the Minx Home: comics and reading choices’ Cambridge Journal of Education, 31 (1) pp25-38.

Stafford, T (2009) ‘Teaching Comics’ in Duncan, D. (2009) Teaching Children’s Literature: Making stories work in the classroom Abingdon: Routledge

Stafford, T. (2011) Teaching Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom Abingdon: Routledge