Dialogic literary gatherings: A systematic review of evidence to overcome social and educational inequalities

Abstract

More than a decade after publications on Dialogic Literary Gatherings in indexed peer-review journals started, a systematic review that gathered the findings was necessary to provide further insight for future educational research, practice, and policymaking. The purpose of the present systematic review was to gather the existing evidence on the social, educational, and learning impact of DLGs on children, adolescents and adults involved in different settings. It has reviewed 46 articles published between 2010 and 2021. The findings of this systematic review provide a better understanding on the DLG as educational and learning action that enables dialogue and exchange, overcoming stereotypes and cultural barriers, self-improvement through education, increasing one's self-esteem, creating a non-violent and supportive environment, bringing the community in, and taking the new learnings out, building new possible worlds in all ages and in very divers settings such as primary, secondary, high, special, and adult schools, family and community education, foster care centre for minors, and prisons. Implications of the evidence on the impact of DLG for practice and policymaking could be considered for the promotion of educational and learning actions aimed at both the improvement linguistic and reading skills and the enhancement of values that promote social cohesión.