Why Is Adolescent Reading Motivation So White? Using Critical Race Theory to Review the Research

• In Event: Liberation-Driven Perspectives in Learning and Instruction

Abstract

The concept of reading motivation is pervasive in our understandings of adolescent literacy. How it has been conceptualized and studied has profound implications for who is honored and who is harmed. This systematic review engages Critical Race Theory to understand what we know about adolescent reading motivation and how we have come to know it. Through deductive thematic analysis of 132 articles, three key themes emerged. First, color-evasiveness, a refusal to recognize race, permeates the field. Second, a focus on difference renders students invisible, in crisis, or deficient. Third, a tradition of modus operandi results in the perpetuation of harmful practices and narratives. This paper calls for a reimagining of adolescent reading motivation that centers students of the global majority.

Author

• Sara Ann Jones, Vanderbilt University