LISTENING, PARTICIPATION AND CHILDREN'S PROTAGONISM IN THE EARLY YEARS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract

This article presents a systematic literature review on listening, participation and children's protagonism in the early years of Elementary School, investigating how scientific production has conceptualized and described children's participation in decisions, interactions and learning processes. The problem guiding the review is to understand how scientific production has conceptualized and investigated listening, participation and children's protagonism in the early years of Elementary School and what contributions, limits and challenges are identified in pedagogical practices. The methodology adopted was a systematic literature review, of a bibliographic nature and qualitative approach, with thematic synthesis of the selected studies and documentation of the search and selection flow according to the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The search was carried out in the SciELO database (Brazil collection), with descriptors in Portuguese, English and Spanish, from 2015 to 2026. More than 300 raw records were identified; after removing duplicates and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 12 studies composed the final corpus. The results show the scarcity of research on children's participation specifically in the early years of Elementary School, the predominance of studies that take children as research subjects and rights holders, the presence of collective participation spaces such as assemblies and projects, and the tension between listening without consequence and participation with effective influence on decisions. It is concluded that children's protagonism is not limited to the child speaking or choosing an activity, but involves the quality of participation and the impact that their voice has on the educational experience.