Children's literature in Italian Journals: An Overview

Abstract

In the Italian landscape, the dissemination of scholarly research on children's literature is influenced by the fact that the disciplinary division of academic knowledge generally considers children's literature as a branch of History of Education, more rarely as one of Philosophy of Education and, when dealing with children aged 3-5, as a part of Early Childhood Education. For this reason, essays on books and writings for young people often appear in journals mainly devoted to the alleged "major" pedagogical subjects, with some notable exceptions. As a whole, children's literature today is a well-developed academic field in Italy, with regular international exchanges on the subject matter. Such academic divisions influence the very field of publications devoted to children's literature: it is represented by academic journals that include children's literature in a broader research scope, and specialized journals, often initiated outside the academic world and addressed to a larger audience of readers, parents, educators, and those who express their interest in the subject matter.Among the academic journals, the official bulletin of the SIPED Association (Italian Pedagogical Society), Pedagogia Oggi ("Pedagogy today"), which publishes articles both in Italian and English, hosts articles in all areas of educational studies and therefore also prints research on children's literature. This subject also appears often in the online journal Nuova Secondaria Ricerca ("New High School Research"), which is the academic branch of Nuova Secondaria ("New High School"), a professional journal for high school teachers and administrators. Another publication, Bambini ("Children"), which is