Children’s and Young Adult literature and classical rhetoric: Connections and opportunities for Civic Education

Ilaria Filograsso; Stefania Carioli

doi:10.60923/issn.1970-2221/22421

Authors

Ilaria Filograsso G. D'Annunzio University - Chieti Pescara

Ilaria Filograsso is Full Professor of History of Pedagogy and Children’s Literature at the Department of Letters, Arts and History of Chieti-Pescara University. She is Director of the Multidisciplinary Centre of Teacher Training at the University of Chieti-Pescara. In her research she deals with the epistemological and political aspects of children’s literature and reading education in early childhood. Among her latest publications, Words at Play for Emerging Readers: Children’s Poetry in the Framework of Italian Preschool Education (2024), Becoming human. From cultural memory to new senses of belonging: stories of migration in contemporary picture books (2021).
Stefania Carioli Link Campus University - Roma

Stefania Carioli is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Sciences at Link Campus University (Rome), where she teaches "Children’s Literature," "Reading Education Laboratory," and "History of Pedagogy" within the Master’s degree program in Scienze della formazione primaria (Primary Education). Among her recent publications is: "Pre-Service Teachers Engage in Deep Aesthetic Reading of Postmodern Picturebooks: Findings from Children’s Literature Workshops," published in Children's Literature in Education (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-025-09629-8

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.1970-2221/22421

Keywords:

children’s and YA literature, history of education, classical rhetoric, civic education

Abstract

This paper presents a research intervention with a qualitative approach conducted in Italian secondary schools as part of a broader interdisciplinary Research Project of National Interest, entitled PROgymnasmata for Citizenship, Inclusion, and Valid Education. A revisitation of the progymnasmata, or rhetorical exercises used in ancient Greco-Roman schools, inspired the project. Progymnasmata contributed to a person’s overall development and democratic coexistence by teaching them words. Recent research confirms the progymnasmata’s propaedeutic role in citizenship development. Similarly, discussion on the themes of certain “radical” contemporary children’s literature might unleash its transformative political potential in public life. The participants, students aged 17 to 19, worked on selected picture books and graphic novels along with ancient texts addressing the themes of “walls” and “migrants/refugees”. The significant responses gathered in our exploratory study show the opportunity created by the use of juvenile literature within the revised progymnasmata pedagogical framework, in which controversial topics were discussed and argued following a template to guide the composition process and finally read aloud.

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Children’s and Young Adult literature and classical rhetoric: Connections and opportunities for Civic Education

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