Mediation of literary reading as an aesthetic and artistic experience in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This article presents a systematic review aimed at mapping Brazilian academic research on the mediation of literary reading as an aesthetic and artistic experience in Early Childhood Education, considering convergences and still underexplored aspects related to children’s participation, spaces, materialities and the ways of following reading experiences, including cartography. The search was conducted in July 2026, in the CAPES Catalog of Theses and Dissertations and in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD); of the 410 records identified, 14 studies were selected and submitted to qualitative thematic analysis. The analysis revealed a body of research that understands literature as an aesthetic and artistic experience that expands children’s cognitive and sensitive dimensions. However, attention is focused mainly on the teacher’s role as mediator and on older children, while the ways in which infants and toddlers take part in aesthetic and artistic literary experience are less explored. The studies also showed important contributions of the Reggio Emilia approach to this understanding, especially by recognizing the child as an active subject capable of expressing themselves through multiple languages and by considering space as the third educator. It is also noted that, in the body of research analyzed, mapped according to the selected descriptors, no articulation was identified between cartography, the materiality of the book, children’s participation, the Hundred Languages perspective and the understanding of space as the third educator.