Challenging Discourses Advocating Working-Class Boys Are Reluctant Readers: Identifying Differences in Attitudes, Frequency, and Outcomes

• In Event: 21.052 - Literacy Research in the Elementary School

Abstract

Motivated to make visible differences amongst groups of boys, this mixed method study (survey and follow up interviews) provides new understandings about reading in situ and how it is experienced within disadvantaged school contexts. Specifically, the paper draws on interviews with 15 elementary school boys to develop understandings about their i) experiences as readers at school (microsystem); ii) interpretations of their parents’ values about reading (mesosystem); iii) peer group cultures (exosystem), and; iv) perceptions of the societal value of reading for job trajectories (macrosystem). Findings suggest boys’ experiences as readers are inter-related with complicated broader contextual influences. Importantly, some boys from disadvantaged schools may conceal their enjoyment for reading within unsupportive peer group cultures constraining their opportunities for daily engagement.

Author

• Laura Scholes, Australian Catholic University