The Cartoon Mafalda as a didactic means for the teaching of the Social Sciences in Costa Rican middle education

Abstract

The comic strip “Mafalda”, which is part of the conceptual humor of the Argentinian author Joaquín Salvador Lavado “Quino”, presents a series of socio communicative characteristics that define them and at the same time become them potential dicactic tools for the Social Studies and Civics teaching. This paper seeks to establish an outline of these characteristics inherent of comic strips and place them in a framework of didactic analysis, pondering on the feasibility of using Mafalda as a teaching tool for the teaching of social sciences in Costa Rica’s secondary education. The approximation for such didactic feasibility starts, at first, from the definition and the analysis of the transmitter-receiver relationship present in the comic strip which comes from its particular socio communicative conditions. It is intended to later analyze the discursive composition of the comic strip and its didactic possibilities for the teaching of social sciences. By doing this, the author aims to approach the specific socio communicative characteristics of the comic strip in terms of the discussions generated around the topic of didactics.