Text-as-Mentor in Middle School?: An alternate means of nurturing Possibility Development

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

This researcher’s previous multipart mixed-methods study, with emerging adults, explored the manners through which reading might nurture “Possibility Development” (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Nakkula & Schneider-Muñoz, 2018) akin to mentorship. This study is repeated with early adolescents as the previous study found that under a variety of conditions and for certain people books could and did serve a mentoring role. Further, as in the first phase of this research, mentorship is a developmental asset not available to all young people; thus, alternative means of delivery must be investigated particularly with attention to developmental periods. Reading, a skill for developing autonomy, is neither an innocuous nor isolating activity. Various campaigns (e.g., #RepresentationMatters, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, We Read Too, JustUsBooks.com & "Banned Books,") imply a social awareness concerning the influential prowess of text. Formal schooling makes literacy materials (e.g., books) inescapable by youths during significant developmental periods; hence, understanding what else a text could be affording young people beyond factual knowledge is crucial. Moreover, the benefits of mentee-centric mentoring (Plaskett et. al., 2018) continue to endure; wherein, mentoring is focused on and scaled to the mentees needs, interests and growing identity. Further, there is an intensified benefit of mentorship to young people in greater need of developmental supports (Karcher, Nakkula & Harris, 2005; Zand et. al., 2009; Cavell & Elledge, 2014; Britner et. al., 2014; Eddy et. al., 2014; Erdem et. al., 2016). To this point, several organizations house and dispatch this support to America’s at-risk young people, such as Big Brother/Big Sisters. The field of mentorship is ever evolving (Dubois & Karcher, 2014), seeking new methods and testing for best-practices to deliver this developmental resource to the populations which need it (e.g., “e-mentoring,” Shpigelman, 2014). The field is aware that there are often not enough qualified and available mentors to meet the need (DuBois & Karcher, 2014). Hence, it is worthwhile to consider if seemingly passive and/or otherwise purposed agents (i.e., text) in a young person’s ecological system can be additionally tasked to the service of mentorship. Additionally, advancements in technologies (i.e., digital books, home delivery services etc.) make them easier to proliferate in the lives of young people. Further, as Possibility Development frames both identity development and the imagining of future-selves or a future orientation (Nakkula & Schneider-Muñoz, 2018), it is an essential framework to analyze findings. This is, (1) In what self-reported ways might reading assist with the understanding and/or honing of one’s self? (2) In what ways might reading influence the imagining and creation of the future-self? (3) In what ways is reading described as supporting Possibility Development? (4*) Are answers from this population consistent with findings from the previous study?

Authors

• Laronnda Thompson, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Michael Nakkula, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author