The core group of researchers was involved, in the two previous years, in the project "Brief Poetic Genres and Literary and Literary Education". This new research intends to continue that previous study, but with a significant inflection: the scope of incidence (poetry in general and not just "short poetic genres") is widened considerably; the educational and didactic dimension of the project is deepened; the number of collaborating doctoral researchers from different universities, not only Portuguese, is increased; and the collaboration of an eventual FCT PhD fellow is anticipated. It is considered that this may be the first phase of a more extensive investigation, in several stages, so the current step is signalled with (I).

The primary purpose of the project Militancy of Words: Poetry, Childhood and Linguistic and Literary Education (I) is to deepen the research on the relationship between childhood and poetic language, both in terms of reading and written production, placing this research within the framework of the objectives of a linguistic and literary education centred on poetry. In this perspective, we will study questions such as poetry for “grown-ups” that can be read by children; current trends of so-called poetry for childhood; anthologies, school programs and “recommended” works; characteristics of the poetic language (semantic, formal, expressive ...) susceptible of attracting the infantile public; appropriate didactic procedures for the development of literary reading skills and literary intention writing (scripts for approaching the poetic text, strategies for improving reading and recitation, and strategies for textual, playful or free text production, among others aspects). One of the main concerns of the research team will be to update and project the knowledge about the topics under study, analysing practices and proposing new work tracks and resources that may be of use to educators, teachers (preschool and primary education) and other mediators of literary reading.