Reading education and school libraries: formative alliances for a pedagogically grounded encounter with stories

Abstract

Although the history of Italian schools is dotted with relevant experiences in the field of reading education, there still seems to be a lack to date of a systematic and capillary effort on the educational and institutional level with a view to the solid training of teachers capable of constructively and functionally managing the school library. The teacher, in fact, has the task of making not only available but also actually accessible bibliographic resources, as well as the burden of exercising an appropriate, thoughtful and pedagogically grounded selection of texts, reading opportunities, and spaces within which to activate the experience of contact with books. Starting from these premises, the contribution intends to explore new fronts of research and training of primary and preschool teachers for reading education that is meaningful and effective, starting precisely from the formative centrality of the school library as an active and neuralgic place of plural, lively experiences centered on the formative needs of pupils.