Multisensory and Gender-Diverse Books in ECEC and Schools: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The pursuit of diverse formats and content in children’s literature is an ever-expanding effort aimed at better serving the diverse spectrum of children in learning environments. Multisensory learning, especially in the context of multisensory reading, offers substantial potential to enrich the learning experiences of diverse children. Concurrently, gender emerges as a significant variable influencing multisensory engagement. When examining children’s literature, we delve into the importance of its content and the need for diverse representation. This scoping review focuses on gender as a central reference point and systematically explores the existing literature concerning multisensory texts (n = 5), gender-diverse texts (n = 26) and their intersection. Through both quantitative and qualitative reporting, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the characteristics and emerging themes within the included studies, which investigate the concepts of gender, multisensory reading and texts, and gender-diverse texts in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and school settings published between 2000 and 2023.

Keywords

• gender
• children’s literature
• multisensory reading
• diversity
• children