Children’s Literature: From the Heritage Source to the Educational-Pedagogical Source - Toward a Foundational Paradigm for the Didactics of Folktales in the School Curriculum –

Abstract

This study offers a critical reading of children’s literary texts included in reading textbooks used at the primary and middle-school levels. It examines how the folktale—a repository of cultural, intellectual, social, and psychological knowledge—is transformed into teaching material through the epistemological and methodological processes of didactic transposition.

The aim is to draw on the experiences and meanings embodied in folktales within an educational practice guided by applied pedagogy, and to assess the curricular outcomes of that practice. The textbook thus serves as a bridge between heritage, understood as a living memory, and younger generations, who bear responsibility for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage from disappearance, particularly in an increasingly virtual, technological, and digital world.