Information and digital literacy at school. A BRIDGE between critical thinking and equality values

The BRIDGE project (Information and Digital Literacy at School: A Bridge to Support Critical Thinking and Equality Values for Primary Education Using Children’s Literature and Transmedia) addresses the urgent need for structured information and digital literacy education in primary schools. In an era of increasing dis/misinformation, polarisation, and threats to democratic values, young learners are particularly vulnerable to manipulative online content, hate speech and algorithm-driven bias. Despite the recognised importance of critical literacy skills, primary education curricula across Europe exhibit significant gaps in embedding information, digital, and media literacy in a way that is pedagogically sound and transferable across diverse educational contexts. Since the COVID-19 pandemic these challenges have been further exacerbated, accelerating digitalisation while exposing the digital divide. In response, the BRIDGE project (developed through a transnational Erasmus+ KA2 partnership across six countries: Spain, Turkey, Italy, Finland, Greece, and the United Kingdom) proposes an innovative framework to embed information and digital literacy within the primary education curriculum through children’s literature and transmedia, and dialogic reading strategies. This article presents the project’s conceptual framework and the diagnosis on the strategies developed in the project countries in order to promote information and digital literacy in primary education, together with the project’s practical outcomes (open access portal and training suggestions), emphasising its relevance for primary educators, school librarians, and policymakers. The BRIDGE project intends to contribute to both academic discourse and practical education reform, offering evidence-based recommendations for integrating information and digital literacy into primary education. For school librarians, the project provides tools to reposition libraries as active learning spaces, encouraging ethical information use and digital resilience in young learners. BRIDGE may serve as a model for addressing contemporary socio-political challenges, helping future citizens navigate and critically engage with an increasingly complex information landscape.