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Gendered readings: learning from children’s reading choices
Author(s) -
Coles Martin,
Hall Christine
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of research in reading
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.077
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9817
pISSN - 0141-0423
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9817.00161
Subject(s) - reading (process) , psychology , literacy , curriculum , value (mathematics) , reading motivation , pedagogy , learning to read , developmental psychology , mathematics education , linguistics , machine learning , computer science , philosophy
This paper presents evidence from The W H Smith Children’s Reading Choices Project research in order to examine the relationship between achievement in English and the reading habits of 10‐ to 14‐year‐old children. Following a national questionnaire survey supplemented by a semi‐structured interview for a small sample of respondents, it was found that children read more books and periodicals in 1994 than in 1971. However, boys tended to read less than girls. Periodical reading is a strong feature in the reading diet of both sexes. The paper argues for the importance of recognising and respecting the range of reading children engage in, and the popular reading cultures in which they live. It suggests that officially sanctioned school definitions of literacy disempower many young readers, and inhibit their development as readers. In particular, schools should recognise and value the type of information‐rich reading that boys undertake away from school and should provide links between it and the ‘socially orientated’ reading, preferred by girls, that makes up much of the English school curriculum. Likewise, girls should be encouraged to undertake more technical and factual reading to better prepare them for the world of work. If this advice were adopted, both sexes would benefit and boys might be less inclined to perceive themselves as poor readers.