Cartooning in Educational Contexts: A Promising Way to Promote Cross-Curricular Work with Children and Adolescents

Abstract

In this chapter, we argue in favor of the value of cartooning in educational contexts as a cross-curricular tool to foster students’ agency, multimodal communication, and civic engagement. We designed and conducted two cartoon workshops in primary schools in Argentina. Thirty-three students aged 10–13 years old were asked to create a multimodal cartoon about social inequalities and social empathy. Most of the students were able to accomplish the task by deploying a repertoire of multimodal narrative and rhetorical resources. They created imaginary and experiential situations in order to address—from their own viewpoint—economic, gender, and ethnic inequalities, often denouncing a lack of empathic concern. This evidenced a committed, or a committed-playful motivation. We provide insights into the scope of this creative and multimodal activity.