Masha and the bear. A new educational paradigm

Abstract

In the growth process children are influenced not only by models embodied by reference adults and transmitted by formal education agencies, but also – and, one might say, especially – by those models that the media propose. In particular, children read themselves, amplify their experiences, and open themselves to the possible, through the stories that the media offer.

While, nowadays, tv series as Peppa Pig, Teletubbies, Dora the Explorer or Bo on the Go! merely confirm adult expectations, confining children within models that act as ‘cages’ from which it is difficult to escape, Masha and the Bear breaks the rules and undermines traditional education systems. Like the outdoor education theories, and like the educational experiments related to them, Masha and the Bear also actively participates in the endeavour of educational renewal now in progress. And it does so on the basis of a privileged context: narrative imagery.