November 10, 2025
Reading goes beyond decoding words: it is a cultural object that needs to be taught and experienced intentionally, through interaction and mediation with others. Based on this understanding, referenced in the work of researcher Ana Teberoski*, Labedu develops weekly reading sessions with educators from Maranhão who participate in the project "Learning: Inside and Outside the School," carried out in partnership with Seduc/MA. Entitled "Reading Journey," the initiative offers a space for literary practice for adults who work with the development of children's language. Behind the initiative is the belief that, by investing in the personal reading experience of each participant, we ground their conception of reading and, consequently, their perspectives and actions in early childhood education.
The Reading Journey originated in the Aprender training sessions, which since 2019 have promoted spaces for reflection on pedagogical practices and strengthened teacher training. In this new format, contact with literary reading gains more space, now taking place at a time separate from the pedagogical training sessions. The idea is to encourage reading to become part of the weekly routine, inviting participants to recognize themselves as readers and to engage with works that provoke reflection and broaden their literary repertoire.
The weekly online meetings are led by Labedu researcher Paula Cruz Pereira. Each meeting consists of moments of collective discussion of the passages read weekly, followed by questions and activities proposed by the facilitator. Thus, the group is encouraged to construct shared meanings, while experimenting with and practicing reading strategies, such as formulating hypotheses, identifying universal themes, and appreciating the aesthetics of language.
In the first semester, the group read the work. I'm Still Here, by Marcelo Rubens Paiva. In this edition, the chosen title was The Saint's Head, by Socorro Acioli. The choice pleased the participants, who are engaged with the meetings. “The book is funny and very faithful to the culture of the Northeast. It shows a way of life that we recognize, the faith, the humor, the difficulties and the daily life of small towns. It reminded me of 'The Compassionate Woman's Play'. I really liked the choice,” reports Dilma Pessoa, Regional Trainer of LEEI (Reading and Writing in Early Childhood Education program, for teacher training, coordinated by the Federal Government).
For Paula Cruz Pereira, the Reading Journey is also an opportunity to inspire more authentic and high-quality reading practices with children. “It is much more possible for an educator to create readers when he or she also lives and knows the experience of reading in their own life. Those who read learn to recognize metaphors and irony, perceive dialogues with other works, see relationships and differences between their opinions and those of others, knowing that there is not always a single correct interpretation. The essence of reading is there, for us and for young children as well. And mediated reading in groups enhances all of this,” she affirms.
She also reinforces the role of teachers as influencers of reading. According to the 2024 Portraits of Reading in Brazil survey, teachers appear among the main figures who awaken a love of reading. “We want to make reading literature something much more tangible, more accessible. The goal is to simplify and bring the texts closer to us.”, he adds.
The initiative continues as a space for exchange and ongoing training, showing how the literary experience of the trainers can be reflected in professional practice, as stated by the Regional Pedagogical Coordinator João Bosco Gurgel, from the municipality of Açailândia (MA). “The Reading Journey, in its essence, has been contributing very positively, especially in the perception of certain values, beliefs, and ways of seeing, feeling, and reflecting, based on the unveiling of literary reading. As a trainer of trainers, I understand that literature makes various connections with the formative context. Many of its metaphorical devices play a fundamental role in stimulating the other to extract a number of feelings and emotions that go against what our brain processes during reading,” he concludes.
*Words to the teachers who teach reading and writing., Ana Teberosky (2020).