From Panel to Pedagogy: Comics as Instruments for Developing Racial Literacy in British Educational Contexts

Abstract

This article examines the transformative potential of a combination of creative pedagogies, particularly comics and graphic novels and applied drama pedagogy, in fostering racial literacy amongst young learners within British educational settings. Drawing upon anti-racist frameworks and culturally responsive pedagogy, we argue that graphic narratives such as Sanghera's Stolen Empire, the Manga Shakespeare adaptation of The Tempest and Colfer's Global graphic narratives are essential to reimagining classrooms as spaces of critical consciousness and transformative praxis. By foregrounding creative pedagogical approaches to the ‘how’ of teaching that prioritise participant agency, multimodal meaning-making and embodied learning, this study demonstrates how comics can move anti-racist education beyond cognitive understanding towards active, creative engagement with difficult histories.