Animated Cartoons as a Stimulus in Philosophy for Children: Vic the Viking and Heidi

Abstract

Philosophy for Children (P4C) is an educational approach to developing children's thinking capacities. In P4C, children discuss mutually philosophical concepts such as happiness, truth, right, justice, and equality through daily life experiences and literary texts. In these discussions, primarily literary texts are used as stimuli. However, in this visual age where visuals surround our surroundings, it is thought that P4C cannot be limited to only literary texts. In this context, visual materials that appeal to multiple senses of children can be used as stimuli in P4C. Therefore, this study will try to exemplify the usability of animated cartoons as a stimulus in P4C. An analytical research method was adopted in the research. Three randomly selected episodes of Vic the Vikings and Heidi cartoons broadcast on TRT Çocuk were examined as a data source. Since the examined sections were evaluated as texts, the texts were analyzed by making content analysis. As a result of the analysis, various scenes in the chapters were associated with philosophical concepts. Many philosophical concepts such as responsibility, reality-dream, justice-injustice, rights, good-evil, courage-fear, love-respect, and trust have been reached in the analyzed episodes of Vic the Vikings and Heidi. Two examples are presented of how the short scenes in the "Siren Song" episode of the Vikings cartoon series and the "Up to Mountains" episode of the Heidi cartoon series can be used in P4C training. The examples followed a process from questions about scenes to conceptual questions. As a result, it can be said that it is appropriate to use the examined parts of the Vic the Vikings and Heidi series as a stimulus in P4C activities. It is thought that using the examined cartoons as stimuli in P4C education will transform the teaching process into an engaging, entertaining, and interactive learning environment.