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Are Disadvantaged Students Unmotivated to Read? An Interview Study of Engaged and Disengaged Readers in Low SES Australian Schools
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Are Disadvantaged Students Unmotivated to Read? An Interview Study of Engaged and Disengaged Readers in Low SES Australian Schools

Clarence Ng, Brendan Bartlett, Claire Wyatt-Smith and Janet Wyvill
International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education, Vol.2(2, Special Issue), pp.1005-1013
2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20533/ijcdse.2042.6364.2012.0143
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Abstract

Education Systems disadvantaged students motivation to read low SES schools Queensland disengaged readers support
This study disputed the general perception that disadvantaged students are unmotivated to read. Interviews with students in Year 5 classes at low SES schools in Queensland, Australia, provided evidence of underlying variation in the ways that engaged and disengaged readers observe and respond to their opportunities and experiences in reading at school and at home. Despite their shared disadvantaged backgrounds with disengaged readers, engaged students were more motivated to read, consistently engaged in classroom reading and often shared their reading with family members. While disengaged readers experienced motivational problems and failed to display a consistent reading engagement pattern in school and at home, most of them still considered themselves good readers and understood the importance of reading. We argue that disengaged readers were not utterly unmotivated and urge teachers to provide additional support to engage them in reading and to build on their extant reading motivation.

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