CBLDF Survey Reports Growing Use of Comics by Teachers

A new survey conducted by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund offers new evidence that comics are being used effectively in classrooms in a wide variety of ways from pre-K to higher education.

Conducted by the CBLDF, a nonprofit organization that works to protect the freedom to read, the survey, entitled Comics In Education: Who’s Using Comics, How They are Being Used, and They Opposition They Face, received responses from 223 teachers from pre-school to High school. Although there has long been anecdotal support for comics as a teaching tool, according to the CBLDF the new survey is one of the first to provide data that supports the use of comics by teachers. 

The survey reports broad enthusiasm for the use of comics in the classroom by respondents. More than 30% of the respondents use comics in their classrooms on a daily basis. Three quarters of respondents assign comics as independent reading; 40% of respondents use comics in their main teaching track; and fewer than 3% of the respondents report any resistance to the use of comics as an educational tool.

The survey also provides a list of the top ten comics used in classrooms.

1. Maus by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
2. March (trilogy) by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)
3. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon)
4. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (First Second)
5. Amulet (series) by Kazu Kibuishi (Scholastic)
6. Bone (series) by Jeff Smith (Scholastic)
7. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud (William Morrow Paperbacks)
8. Ms. Marvel (series) by G. Willow Wilson et al (Marvel Comics)
9. Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic)
10. (tie) Dog Man (series) by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic) and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (DC Comics)

While most respondents did not report much resistance to the use of comics in class, there were some reports of censorship and in some cases the continued misperception that all comics are low value reading materials.

According to the survey, "It’s time to move the conversation about comics in the classroom from the intangible to the tangible and to provide handholds for future work that can be done with greater deliberation, design, and intelligence. CBLDF’s survey provides a groundwork for that effort."