Researching Children's Literature <i>Otherwise</i> to Decolonise Childhoods in Experimental Curriculum

ABSTRACT This article explores children's literature as a tool for decolonising childhood and curriculum through experimental reading practices. Based on post‐qualitative enquiry, and grounded in decolonial, feminist, and posthumanist theories, the study analyses two reading encounters with children using picturebooks from Global South. These experiences gave rise to assemblages in which children's agency emerged through relationality and entanglements with books, bodies, materialities, and spaces. We argue that literature and childhood, which is often subject to adult norms, can facilitate plural and situated readings that affirm children's worldviews and knowledge. This approach interrogates the conventional and universalist conceptualisations of childhood and reveals possibilities for reimagining the experimental curriculum as a relational and co‐creative space. The article promotes an epistemic and ethical reconstruction of research with children that decentres adult frameworks and expand new possibilities for children's subjectivities and knowledges.

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Publication Details

Journal
European Journal of Education
Published
2026-07-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.70762
Primary Topic
Children's Rights and Participation
Type
article
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article

Researching Children's Literature Otherwise to Decolonise Childhoods in Experimental Curriculum

Marta Bertràn Tarrés, Montserrat Rifà Valls, Estrella Moya‐González
European Journal of Education
Children's Rights and Participation
article

Researching Children's Literature Otherwise to Decolonise Childhoods in Experimental Curriculum

Marta Bertràn Tarrés, Montserrat Rifà Valls, Estrella Moya‐González
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores children's literature as a tool for decolonising childhood and curriculum through experimental reading practices. Based on post‐qualitative enquiry, and grounded in decolonial, feminist, and posthumanist theories, the study analyses two reading encounters with children using picturebooks from Global South. These experiences gave rise to assemblages in which children's agency emerged through relationality and entanglements with books, bodies, materialities, and spaces. We argue that literature and childhood, which is often subject to adult norms, can facilitate plural and situated readings that affirm children's worldviews and knowledge. This approach interrogates the conventional and universalist conceptualisations of childhood and reveals possibilities for reimagining the experimental curriculum as a relational and co‐creative space. The article promotes an epistemic and ethical reconstruction of research with children that decentres adult frameworks and expand new possibilities for children's subjectivities and knowledges.

European Journal of EducationVol. 61(3)
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Children's Rights and Participation
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Researching Children's Literature <i>Otherwise</i> to Decolonise Childhoods in Experimental Curriculum — Marta Bertràn Tarrés, Montserrat Rifà Valls, et al. · European Journal of Education (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS