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To Thirteen-Year-Olds Who Are Habitual, Committed Readers: What, How and Why They Read, and the Social and Cultural Factors Which Shape Their Development

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To Thirteen-Year-Olds Who Are Habitual, Committed Readers: What, How and Why They Read, and the Social and Cultural Factors Which Shape Their Development TITLE A study of twelve- to thirteen-year-olds who are habitual, committed readers: What, how and why they read, and the social and cultural factors which shape their development Gabrielle Cliff Hodges Institute of Education, University of London PhD Thesis DECLARATION AND WORD COUNT I hereby declare that, except where explicit attribution IS made, the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. Word count (exclusive of appendices and list of references): 79,421 words 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank 'Rosa' for her enthusiasm and commitment to the project, and all the 'Cornford' students, parents and grandparents who so generously shared their ideas about reading during the course of my research. I would also like to thank Eve Beame and Caroline Daly for reading the thesis so carefully and perceptively; their insights have helped me to refine my ideas and my writing. I am enormously grateful to John Hardcastle for the thought-provoking supervisions, wide-ranging discussions about English teaching and searching questions about research which have helped to make this particular reading journey so worthwhile. Finally, deepest thanks to David for his unstinting support during the years it has taken me to complete this study. 3 ABSTRACT This study explores how the readership of twelve- to thirteen-year-old readers who regularly read for a variety of purposes and pleasures is constructed. It offers a counterweight to the largely quantitative surveys of young people's reading which tend to cluster readers in broad categories; instead, it concentrates on individual readers' trajectories as they develop over time in the spaces created by their interrelation with trajectories of other readers and texts. The aim is to create a rich and complex description of readers showing the effects of different social interactions and cultural values on the changing dynamics of their reading. The research was initiated within a high-achieving English class as they moved from Year 8 into Year 9 in a rural comprehensive school. Four research methods were designed to generate data: students created collages to chart formative events in their reading histories, engaged in semi-structured small-group interviews conducted by the researcher, carried out semi-structured interviews with a parent, carer or grandparent and wrote journals during their independent reading of a self­ selected book. Data analysis included a variety of procedures to enable close, critical reading of the material generated and the tracing of readers' trajectories. The study is intended to make an original contribution to the understanding of all those concerned with young people's reading in the context of secondary education in particular by bringing together different theoretical perspectives - not only the social and cultural but also the spatial and historical - exploring insights and tensions arising from their juxtaposition. Because of the deliberate focus on the distinctiveness of individual readers, my intention is not to produce generalisable results but a reconfiguration of material which offers fresh perspectives on young readers and a methodology which will be replicable in other contexts. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE 1 DECLARATION AND WORD COUNT 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 ABSTRACT 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 LIST OF FIGURES 8 1) INTRODUCTION (a) The study, the research and the thesis 9 (b ) Habitual and committed readers 9 (c) Social interactions and cultural values 10 (d) The spatial and historical 11 (e) Research questions 12 (f) Research context 13 (g)Thesis overview 15 2) ENGAGEMENT WITH SELECTED THEORETICAL LITERATURE (a) Reading as transaction and action 16 (b) Reading as social interaction and cultural engagement 24 (c) Reading spatially 26 (d) Reading historically 30 (e) The limitations of surveys 33 (f) The potential of case studies 37 (g) Juxtaposing the literature 42 3) TOWARDS A RATIONALE FOR THE METHODOLOGY (a) Planning the scope and nature of the research 44 (b) In what ways was the study conceived of as educational research? 44 (c) What educational principles underpin the study? 45 (d) What views oflearning shape the research? 48 (e) Why choose to work from within rather than outside a school? 50 (f) Why initiate the research within the context of an English classroom? 51 (g) What views of reading shape the research? 54 (h) The epistemological roots of the research: social constructionism 56 (i) Methodological shaping: 'imagining the field' 60 G) The methodological strategy: (case) study 62 4) DESIGNING THE RESEARCH (a) Choosing a school: purposive sampling 68 (b) Devising the research methods 69 (c) Research method 1: making critical incidents collages 70 (d) Research method 2: semi-structured small-group interviews 74 (e) Research method 3: students' semi -structured interviews with a parent, carer or grandparent 81 5 (f) Research method 4: students writing an individual reading journal 85 (g) Ethical and additional issues 87 (h) Participation and data selection 91 (i) Reliability and replicability 92 5) READING JOURNEY COLLAGES: A SPATIAL THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE (a) Analytical challenges 93 (b) Analytical procedures 94 (c) Analysing reading journey collages from a spatial theoretical perspective 96 (d) Rivers of reading 96 (e) Bekki's collage: fluctuating patterns 98 (f) Thomas's collage: changing and maturing 100 (g) Abigail's collage: reading companions 102 (h) Andie's collage: interweaving trajectories 105 (i) Freya's collage: passing time 110 (j) Lily's collage: sharing stories 115 (k) Nathan's drawing: cataloguing reading 118 (1) The wider value of reading journey collages 120 6) SEMI-STRUCTURED GROUP INTERVIEWS: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES (a) Analysing the data from social and cultural theoretical perspectives 122 (b) Transcription conventions 123 (c) Talking about reading 123 (d) Images of being a reader 129 (e) Readers as geeks and boffins 129 (f) Reading and writing 133 (g) Subverting stereotypes: taking time to talk 138 (h) Students' views of reading relationships with parents and grandparents 140 (i) Participants, spectators and bystanders 145 G) Accomplishing complexity 147 7) STUDENT INTERVIEWS WITH PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS: A mSTORICAL THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE (a) Analysing the data from a historical theoretical perspective 149 (b) Interviewer/interviewee relationships 150 (c) Biographical details 152 (d) Secondary schooling 153 (e) Reading for work and interest 155 (f) Some historical elements of habitual and committed reading 156 (g) Early influences 157 (h) Libraries and books 158 (i) The experience of absorption 162 G) Comparisons and contrasts across the generations 163 (k) The habit of reading aloud 166 (1) Interviewees' concluding thoughts 169 (m)Repetition and recollection 172 8) READING JOURNALS: A CULTURAL THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE (a) Analysing the data from a cultural theoretical perspective 174 (b) Affordances of reading journals 174 6 ( c) The potential of reading journals for research 175 (d) Limitations of reading journals in research 176 ( e) Making independent choices: a precarious business 177 (f) Luke and Sam's reading journals: different challenges 181 (g) Thomas's reading journal: 'this book is very unsure of itself 184 (h) Elizabeth, Andie and Lily's journals: 'I'd rather just read' 186 (i) Freya's journal: 'helping me understand a book in greater depth' 188 G) Journals as evidence 197 9) CONCLUSION (a) The aim of the overall study 198 (b) Originality in the design of the research 200 (c) Findings arising from the data analysis 200 (d) Establishing parallels and distinctions 201 (e) Readiness to re-read 201 (f) Different attitudes to creating imagined worlds 202 (g) Reading is precarious 204 (h) Shifting perceptions 205 (i) Reading and reciprocity 206 G) The impact of spatial and historical perspectives 206 (k) Implications ofthe findings 209 (1) Limitations of the research 210 (m)Advancing the study of the subject 211 REFERENCES Primary references: students'/parents/grandparents' reading and viewing 212 (a) Fiction, biography, autobiography and non-fiction 212 (b) Films, television programmes and computer games 215 (c) Comics magazines and newspapers 216 Other primary references 216 Secondary literature 217 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Interview groups 227 Appendix 2: Interview questions and prompts 228 Appendix 3: Student interview guidance 229 Appendix 4: Written interview exemplar 237 Appendix 5: Student reading journal guidance 238 Appendix 6: Example of journal response 242 Appendix 7: Reading journal consent form 243 Appendix 8: Class teacher letter and consent form 244 Appendix 9: Parent/carer letter and consent form 248 Appendix 10: Student consent form 251 Appendix 11:-Example of interview response 252 Appendix 12: Transcription conventions 253 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 5.1: Detail from Bekki's collage 98 Figure 5.2: Detail from Bekki's collage 99 Figure 5.3: Thomas's collage 101 Figure 5.4: Abigail's collage 104 Figure 5.5: Andie's collage 105 Figure 5.6: Freya's collage 111 Figure 5.7: Detail from Freya's collage 111 Figure 5.8: Detail from Freya's collage 111 Figure 5.9: Lily's collage 115 Figure 5.10: Detail of Lily's collage 118 Figure 5.11: Nathan's drawing 118 Figure 8.1: A page from Suzanne's reading journal 176 Figure 8.2: A sketch from Sam's reading journal 183 8 1 INTRODUCTION The study, the research and the thesis A major aim of this study is to explore the intricacies of young people as readers in their early teenage years. It is often a decisive period in many readers' development as they expand their horizons and mature into adulthood. The research I undertook deliberately focuses attention on those who regularly read for a variety of purposes and pleasures rather than those who do not. I am interested to discover what representation of reading might be brought into relief when evidence is collected from those who count reading as a worthwhile pursuit amongst the many other activities in which they engage, rather than those for whom reading appears to be of more marginal interest and value.
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