AESTHETIC LITERACY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Early Childhood Education and the early years of Elementary Education constitute foundational stages of human development, in which the bases of language, sensitivity, and children’s symbolic constitution are consolidated. In this context, literacy, understood as a social practice, expands toward the notion of aesthetic literacy, integrating language, art, and sensory experience as constitutive dimensions of learning. However, educational policies marked by curricular standardization and large-scale assessments have prioritized measurable outcomes, which may restrict the space for artistic languages and aesthetic experiences in everyday school life. In light of this scenario, the present article aimed to analyze, through a literature review, how aesthetic literacy has been discussed within Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education in the public school system, highlighting its implications for teacher education and pedagogical practices. The research is characterized as qualitative, theoretical, and bibliographic in nature, grounded in the deductive-analytical method. The methodological procedure consisted of a systematized literature review guided by the PRISMA protocol and analyzed through Bardin’s Content Analysis. The results reveal theoretical consensus regarding the centrality of aesthetic education for integral development, as well as the importance of teacher education for the consolidation of intentional aesthetic practices. However, tensions are identified between the discursive recognition of integral education and the predominance of instrumentalizing approaches. It is concluded that aesthetic literacy constitutes an integrative category capable of articulating literacy, sensitivity, and critical thinking, making it essential to strengthen educational policies that systematically incorporate it into the public education system.