New Zealand year 10 students' out-of-school reading and its recognition, support and use for engagement within English classrooms.

Abstract

Four issues in reading in New Zealand (NZ) secondary schools are inequitable achievement, a decline in adolescent book reading for pleasure, a lag in boys’ performance and, in international comparisons, NZ 15 year-olds are less confident using digital text. Out-of-school book reading is strongly related to academic achievement with motivation crucial. But, reading motivation declines in adolescence. Research suggests adolescents can exhibit literacy capabilities with digital text beyond their traditional text capabilities. This, plus the demand for “new literacies,” has led to calls to reconceptualise school literacy. Studies demonstrated NZ 15 year-olds lacking information processing skills, but integrating digital technologies into pedagogy had barriers. NZ research gaps include exploring adolescents’ reading motivations, out-of-school reading including digital text, and group differences. Whether English teachers embrace broad text definitions, which texts they value, and whether they know what students read to give them profitable visibilities, are under-researched areas. Using a broad text definition, this thesis asked, “What do NZ Year 10 students read out-of-school and is this reading recognised, supported and used for engaging students in learning within English classrooms?” Sub-questions explored gender and socio-economic differences and students’ reading motivation. Questions concerning teacher knowledge of students’ out-of-school reading, the value placed on different texts and which were visible in programmes, guided the English programmes’ investigation. Data were collected in three large central-urban co-educational schools representing different socio-economic communities, from 190 Year 10 students and 24 English teachers. Students completed a survey including a motivation questionnaire. In each school, frequent readers and high digital-text-users completed a 14-day diary activity and a focus group conversation. Teachers completed a survey and three were interviewed. Results showed 81% of students reading books “recently” but 41% reading infrequently, with socio-economic and gender differences. Curiosity and recognition motivated reading, showing a teacher role. Social-networking and researching were central digital activities but students required information literacy assistance. Extensive-reading programmes needed improvements and teachers chose time-honoured texts with digital text featuring minimally. Implications include time investments to connect with and motivate students’ out-of-school page and digital reading, professional learning around motivational knowledge and digital texts, and text access within schools.