Reading Culture in Compulsory Education: Between Institutional Transmission and Vital Meaning

Abstract

This article presents a qualitative systematic review of the scientific literature to analyze the role of compulsory education in fostering a critical, equitable, and community-based reading culture. The study adopts an interpretive and comparative approach, structured through thematic analysis of 261 articles published between 2000 and 2025 in databases such as ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science, and Dialnet.
The findings reveal that reading culture is a complex, dynamic, and context-dependent phenomenon that cannot be reduced to a mere technical skill. Within this framework, the school emerges as an irreplaceable agent in ensuring universal access to diverse, meaningful, and empowering reading practices—especially when it embraces critical and context-aware pedagogies.
The article also examines the complementary role of other social actors—families, libraries, and digital environments—and highlights cultural and institutional contrasts across territories. It concludes that promoting an inclusive reading culture requires a collective and systemic commitment that recognizes reading as a cultural right, a social practice, and a tool for democratic transformation.

Keywords: reading culture, pedagogical role of schools, educational equity, reading practices, reading agency.