For most teachers and librarians, professional development usually means attending an academic conference and spending three-or-four days listening to presentations on the latest classroom practices. Guest speakers, meet-and-greets, academic publishers, and after-hour get-togethers with colleagues are usually part of the proceedings as well.
For a growing number of teachers and librarians, however, professional development has evolved in recent years. Although attending presentations remains constant, the latest practices involve incorporating pop culture into the classroom. Instead of academic publishers, those specializing in comic books and graphic novels are present, while after-hour get-togethers often include colleagues dressed as superheroes, Jedi knights, and other forms of cosplay.
And while academic conferences are primarily held at large hotels, these events take place at even larger pop culture conventions, with New York Comic Con’s Educator Day being one of the leading examples.
“New York Comic Con serves as an ideal venue because it offers full immersion in the vibrant pop culture and comic community, rather than keeping professional development siloed in a traditional setting,” Juan Bencosme, manager of educator development at the New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools, explained. “Teachers and educators are real-life superheroes, and holding Educator Day alongside the main convention gives them a well-deserved opportunity to celebrate, collaborate, and share creative ideas among their peers.”
It also serves as the perfect setting to explore the ways that pop culture can be used in the classroom, a trend that began as far back as the 1940s and picked up steam during the twenty-first century. “Pop culture mediums like comics, graphic novels, and video games offer unique pedagogical value by serving as accessible entry points for students of all reading levels,” Bencosme said. “They bridge cultural relevance with classroom learning, meeting students where their interests lie. Through the combination of visual art and narrative, these formats simplify complex, abstract, or multi-layered topics without sacrificing depth. Furthermore, the inherent artistic expression in these mediums engages multiple modalities of learning, encouraging creative critical thinking, empathy, and visual literacy alongside traditional comprehension.”
The combining of educational programming with a pop culture convention was embraced by the present-day New York Comic Con a mere two years of its inaugural event in 2006. The 2008 New York Comic Con, for instance, featured a solitary panel called Using Comics in the Classroom that expanded the following year with presentations on Teaching Comics, Graphic Novels and Academic Acceptance, and Teaching with Graphic Novels: Practical Techniques for Evaluating, Reading and Teaching with Graphic Novels.
In 2016, meanwhile, New York Comic Con offered eight different education panels, all held on the Thursday of the convention. The following year, NYCC teamed with the New York Public Library for a “Professional Day” at the NYPL’s iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in Bryant Park. Educator Day was later moved to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and incorporated more fully with New York Comic Con in general, while the NYC Department of Education’s Civics for All Comics Group joined as an additional co-partner as well.
“While I was not present when the initial connection between NYPL and NYCC was established, I have been directly involved in the process since 2023,” Juan Bencosme explained. “Over the years, our approach has evolved to focus on integrating world-class panel offerings tailored specifically for educators and librarians into the Professional Day schedule. Comics have become an integral component of modern literacy strategies, and our goal has grown to ensure teachers receive access to these high-quality resources and sessions to help deepen their instructional work with the medium.”
According to Bencosme, the panels selected for New York Comic Con generally fall into four categories – Literacy & Curriculum Development (“creating full courses and curricula exclusively using comics and manga, as well as utilizing graphic novels and comics as core instructional tools”); Civics, History & Contemporary Issues (“teaching hard history and civic action through comics, weaving LGBTQ+ and AAPI history into educational narratives, and addressing book bans”); Mental Health, Empathy & Graphic Medicine (“leveraging graphic medicine to teach empathy, examining psychological narratives in anime, and using graphic novels to help students work through traumatic experiences”); and Interactive Media & Hands-on Arts (“integrating video games and Minecraft Education into classroom learning, along with incorporating cosplay design and fabrication into fine art curricula”).
Although the panels selected for Educator Day usually come from submissions, the 2026 installment featured two panels specifically curated by the New York Public Library. The first was in partnership with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at the City University of New York (CUNY) – a celebration of Puerto Rican comic artist and writer Ivan Velez Jr. – while the second, entitled Celebrating 100 Years of Winnie-the-Pooh, closes out NYCC on Sunday.
“The CENTRO panel is especially exciting because it highlights how personal identity and representation in comics create vital spaces for diverse voices to explore their own histories and stories,” Juan Bencosme noted.
Over the years, the NYPL’s Center for Educators and Schools has received a tremendous amount of feedback on their programming at New York Comic Con, with the response being overwhelmingly positive. “Participants report that the sessions deepen their understanding of how pop culture and visual media can be used as instructional tools, with many expressing enthusiasm for implementing the strategies, resources, and lesson ideas in their own schools and libraries,” Bencosme explained. “Beyond specific classroom takeaways, attendees consistently highlight the value of connecting with like-minded educators and community partners, praising the event as a rare and inspiring space that validates the educational power of comics and fandom media.”
In addition to general accolades, feedback has also included praise for the various ways that pop culture can be used in the classroom. “One educator shared that graphic novels and comic books can be effectively scaffolded into a curriculum to address the needs of different student levels, including SPED and ELL instruction,” Juan Bencosme said. “Others noted how comics serve as powerful tools across content areas, with high school history teachers emphasizing how comics provide accessible entry points to explore hard history, analyze primary sources, and help students make connections to historical events. Additionally, educators frequently celebrate how incorporating comics and pop culture supports diverse learners, noting that using these formats as literacy tools creates engaging, inclusive spaces for students across grade levels and disciplines.”
In 2017, a major public library began partnering with one of the country’s largest comic book conventions to provide professional development for teachers and librarians, a massive leap forward from the days when comic books were routinely dismissed as distractions from serious reading. More significantly, the question of whether comics, graphic novels, and other elements of pop culture should be used in the classroom has been replaced by how can they be used in the classroom instead.
Thanks to New York Comic Con, the New York Public Library, and the NYC Department of Education’s Civics for All Comics Group, teachers and educators are discovering a vast assortment of answers.
Anthony Letizia