Using Participatory Culture and Disney Films to Teach Creativity: A Case Study on Zootopia

This presentation examines how participatory culture, a concept popularized by Henry Jenkins (2009), can be used as an effective educational tool for fostering creativity, using Disney's Zootopia (Moore Howard & Bush 2016) as a case study. Zootopia, a widely acclaimed animated film, serves as a powerful platform for exploring participatory culture in educational settings. The participatory culture active engagement, collaborative creation, and community-driven content sharing.

In this study, a classroom activity inspired by participatory culture invited students to act as creators of Zootopia 2, challenging them to reconstruct the story while incorporating two aspects of American culture. Additional activities included discovering Easter eggs within the original film and reflecting on societal biases through creative writing. These activities stimulated students' imagination and storytelling skills while promoting critical thinking about societal themes like prejudice and diversity.

This presentation highlights the potential of integrating participatory culture into teaching practices, offering practical strategies to transform passive learning into an interactive, creative process. The presentation will show bridging popular media and educational innovation, and how educators provide engaging learning experiences for students’ creative and analytical abilities.