Citizen self-awareness assessment in elementary schools of Japan and Costa Rica through story-based media

Abstract

One of the goals of elementary school education is to provide children with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to become active citizens, get involved in their communities, and seek solutions to social issues. Such citizenship can be effectively nurtured by integrating narrative learning in the development of a strong citizen identity. This paper describes the practice and assessment of learning activities in which Japanese and Costa Rican elementary school students use storybased educational media, such as animation and comics, to create stories representing solutions to problems related to school and community life. These activities included the viewing of short animated films and the creation of comics by the students. An analysis of the comics, based on the theories of spheres of action and character arcs, yielded information on the students’ level of self-awareness as citizens, showing sizable differences between the two countries.