Children's literature: theoretical, historical, and pedagogical foundations. Didactic application in the Early Childhood Education classroom
Keywords:
children’s literature, reading, child development, education, pedagogyAbstract
Children’s literature constitutes a fundamental field within literary and educational studies, as it fulfills a dual function: artistic and formative. This article aims to analyze children’s literature from a scientific perspective, addressing its definition, historical evolution, main characteristics, pedagogical functions, impact on children’s cognitive and emotional development, as well as the main contemporary theoretical approaches. A bibliographic review methodology based on classical and current academic sources is employed. The results show that children’s literature not only promotes language development and imagination but also contributes to the construction of values, cultural identity, and critical thinking from an early age.
References
Bravo-Villasante, C. (1998). La literatura infantil en la historia de la educación. Biblioteca Nueva.
Cassany, D. (2006). Literatura y alfabetización: Estrategias para la enseñanza de la lectura. Graó.
Colomer, T. (2010). Teoría de la literatura infantil. Universitat de València.
Foti, P. (2024). Cultivating literacy skills through children's literature in early years: Theoretical and practical assumptions. European Journal of Education Studies.
Gubar, M. (2013). Risky business: Talking about children in children’s literature criticism. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 38(4), 450-457.
Jacobs, K. B. (2023). The Bloomsbury handbook of children’s and young adult literature in education. Bloomsbury Academic.
Nikolajeva, M. (2014). Reading for learning: Cognitive approaches to children's literature. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Nodelman, P. (2008). The hidden adult: Defining children's literature. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Palomares Marín, M. C. (2015). Literatura infantil y universidad: un estudio descriptivo sobre la formación inicial del profesorado de Grado en Educación Primaria. Investigaciones Sobre Lectura, (3), 44-66. https://doi.org/10.24310/revistaisl.vi3.11080
Pérez-Rioja, J. A. (1958). La literatura y la lectura infantil-juvenil. Revista de educación, (81), 23-28.
Zipes, J. (2006). Fairy tales and the art of subversion: The classical tradition in children's literature. Routledge.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Revista Internacional Interdisciplinar de Divulgación Científica
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the following terms:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
