Animated short films as educational mediators for inclusion: some critical reflections

Abstract

The theoretical article intends to propose some critical reflections on short films as privileged mediators in the promotion of inclusive process which, to be truly inclusive, requires greater knowledge and awareness on the part of educators or simply adults too. After a first reflection on the representations of disability through different narrative forms (fairy tales, illustrated books and cartoons), three short films are presented and analyzed, Cuerdas, The Present and Float, where the real protagonists are precisely the children who with ingenuity, enthusiasm, defenses and frustrations manifest the rich‐ness of their atypicality. Furthermore, from a more critical reading it is also possible to highlight the prejudices and cultural stereotypes towards the diversity that narratives often bring out and which must be pedagogically subjected to the at‐tention, first of all, of educators and then of children. In fact, the didactic intervention with pupils is aimed at activating a desirable modification of the cultural gaze in the perception of disability, despite the awareness of resistances that are not always easy to remove.