ART, CHILDHOOD, AND CREATION: PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES TO STRENGTHEN CHILDREN’S IMAGINATION AND AGENCY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between art, childhood, and creation, emphasizing pedagogical practices in Early Childhood Education aimed at strengthening children’s imagination and agency. The objective was to systematize normative and theoretical foundations that support art as a childhood language and as a formative experience, highlighting conditions to expand authorship, participation, and creative processes in everyday school life. Methodologically, this is a narrative literature review with a qualitative approach, based on curricular documents and studies on imagination, creation, teacher mediation, and aesthetic experiences in childhood. The findings indicate that open artistic practices, with diverse materials and time for experimentation, foster sensitivity, creativity, emotional expression, language, and the expansion of cultural repertoires, strengthening children as meaning-makers. It also shows that children’s agency is consolidated when schools value processes, ensure real choices, and use pedagogical documentation to follow creative pathways. The study concludes that integrating art and creation into Early Childhood Education routines, with sensitive mediation and pedagogical intentionality, contributes to meaningful learning and to a more humane, participatory, and expressive education.