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Becoming a reader in a digital age; boys’ and girls’ self- perceptions as they start school

Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association New Researchers/Student Conference, Wednesday 14th September 2005

(Draft not for circulation)

Rachael Levy

University of Cambridge

Contact

This research is funded by a studentship from the ESRC

Abstract

SIG: Early Childhood Education

Title: Becoming a reader; girls’ and boys’ self-perceptions as they start school

This work builds on an earlier study where six nursery-aged children were questioned about their thoughts on learning to read. These children appeared to believe that print is of substantial importance in text and regard an ability to decode print to be of greater value than other meaning-making strategies. The present study therefore asks whether the multi-dimensional mediums in which print is situated, influences children’s perceptions of print literacy. Situated within the discourse on gender and reading, this study will investigate young children’s perceptions of reading, and their self-perceptions of becoming a reader at the time of entry into the formal education system. The results of the pilot study will be presented together with the preliminary findings from the first phase of the main study.

Despite considerable research suggesting that boys and girls may have different attitudes towards reading, and offering reasons why, this phenomenon has not been explored from the perspectives of very young children themselves. As yet, the extent to which young girls and boys enter the formal education system with perceptions of themselves as readers remains unknown. Furthermore, much previous work on gender and reading has over-simplistically polarised children into categories of ‘underachieving boys’ and ‘successful girls’. This work will therefore avoid such simple binary classifications and accept that gender issues are inextricably bound with other issues of self-identity.

This study acknowledges the social and cultural context in which children develop strategies to make meaning from texts and form ideas about themselves as readers. The role of multidimensional texts, particularly related to changes in technology, is especially salient to this project. Recognising that the reading of multimodal texts goes largely unrecognised in the curriculum and its assessment (Bearne, 2004) and that the acquisition of print reading skill is continually given precedence in schools above other forms of reading (Pahl, 2002; Anning, 2003; Marsh, 2003) the pilot study suggested that nursery aged children may be inheriting these values.

This longitudinal multiple-case study follows two cohorts of children as they move into and out of the Reception year. The study asks whether children’s self-perceptions change during this transitional phase of early education and whether children respond differently, depending on whether they are in a home or school setting. Not only has research in this field failed to investigate children in their early years, there is also a dearth of research concerned with hearing ‘the voice of the child’ (Nutbrown and Hannon, 2003). Subsequently, research tools in the form of games and activities have been designed and piloted to collect data directly from the children themselves. Whilst maintaining this commitment to hearing the pupil voice, teachers and parents will also be interviewed about the children’s reading behaviour and attitudes. This will provide the study with greater context.

Unless we understand young children’s conceptualisations of reading and whether these early self-perceptions are gendered, then current compensatory programmes can be at best remedial. This paper suggests that if boys and girls are to achieve similar levels of success, systematic change is needed from the Foundation stage onwards.

Introduction

This study, situated within the discourse on gender and reading, investigates the nature of boys’ and girls’ self-perceptions of reading, as they enter the formal education system. For over a decade, a considerable amount of research has attempted to explain why boys and girls may have different attitudes towards reading (Millard, 1997; Barrs and Pidgeon, 1993). Studies in the field have suggested that boys’ reading behaviour and attitudes towards reading may be influenced by a variety of factors, including issues of proficiency judgement (Moss, 1999; 2000). Yet surprisingly, this phenomenon has not been explored from the perspectives of very young children. The extent to which young boys and girls enter the formal education system with perceptions of themselves as readers is therefore unknown.

As many researchers have recognised (Scott, 2000; Langston e al, 2004), if we want to receive valid information about children’s views then it is the children themselves we need to ask. Subsequently, this study has been designed to collect data directly from Nursery and Reception-aged children themselves. Clearly, methodological implications for the collection of data from young informants remain a crucial concern within this study.

This work also acknowledges that much previous research on gender and reading has over-simplistically polarised children into categories of ‘underachieving boys’ and ‘successful girls’. This study will question the prevalence of such simple binaries, accepting that gender issues are inextricably bound with other issues of self-identity.

Drawing from several different fields of literature, this study therefore acknowledges the social and cultural context in which children develop strategies to make meaning from texts and form ideas about themselves as readers. This involves a widening of the definition of ‘reading’, commonly used in the discourse on gender and reading. This is connected to the role of multi-dimensional texts, particularly related to developments in technology.

This investigation seeks to understand very young children’s perceptions of themselves as readers – readers in a multimodal society. However, the reading of multimodal texts goes largely unrecognised in the curriculum and its assessment (Bearne, 2004). Moreover, as the acquisition of print reading skill is continually given precedence in schools above other forms of reading (Pahl, 2002; Anning, 2003; Marsh, 2003), it seemed likely that children too may be inheriting this value structure. This was in fact found to be the case in the pilot study for this project, where six nursery-aged children were questioned about their thoughts on learning to read. It was discovered that the children in this study reported a belief that print was of substantial importance in text and regarded an ability to decode print to be of greater value than other meaning-making strategies (Levy 2004).

With this in mind, this study now asks how the acquisition of print reading skill is influenced by the presence of multimodal texts, and in particular the growing use of computer technology. Are children’s perceptions of themselves as readers of print, influenced by the multi-dimensional media in which the print occurs? And is there a gender difference in these perceptions?

Furthermore the literature consistently highlights the importance of a child’s own home environment in literacy development (Minns, 1997; Tizard and Hughes, 1984; Pahl, 2002). Yet there is also a real concern that children entering the formal education system quickly forsake the literacy skills acquired at home, for those which are more ‘in keeping’ with accepted school practice. To what extent then, do children’s perceptions of themselves as readers change as they move through the first few years of formal schooling? And is there a difference in their attitudes towards, and perceptions of reading depending on whether they are in a home or school setting?

Subsequently, there are two broad questions, forming the basis of this investigation. These are…

1. What is the nature of boys’ and girls’ perceptions of themselves as readers, as they enter the formal education system?

2. Are young boys’ and girls’ perceptions of print literacy influenced by the multi-dimensional media in which the print is situated?

In order to answer these two questions, there are several sub-questions. Each sub-question expands on an area of the main research questions as demonstrated in Figure 1.1.

a. What are young boys’ and girls’ perceptions of what reading is, and what is ‘a reader’?

b. Do boys’ and girls’ perceptions of reading, and self-perceptions of being a reader, change over time and in what ways?

c. Do boys’ and girls’ self-perceptions vary depending on whether they are in a home or school setting?

d. If they are developed, what factors lead to their formation and influence self-perception?

Figure 1.1 Research Questions

These are the questions and issues guiding the formation of this study. This paper presents findings drawn from the pilot which have in turn shaped the main study. Some findings from the first phase of data collection are also presented however it must be recognised that this is an exploratory study, with an on-going process of analysis taking place throughout the year of data collection and beyond. Building on Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) original interpretation of grounded theory analysis, this study accepts Harry et al’s (2005, p5) claim that the analysis is a gradual process involving a movement “from coding to conceptual categories, and thence to theory development”. The results presented here will subsequently inform the next stage of data collection.

Research Design

This is an interpretive study, following an inductive research methodology. As the study is concerned with the ways in which school and home cultures may influence young children’s perceptions of themselves, it is essential that the interpretivist paradigm framing this study allows for an engagement with cultural criticism. The nature of reading is therefore explored within a social and cultural context. For these reasons, the study has been framed within Denzin’s model of Interpretive Interactionism that recognises how “interacting individuals connect their lived experiences to the cultural representations of those experiences” (Denzin, 1992, p74)

The Case Study

Considering the research questions, with an emphasis on interpretation, a case study approach was adopted so as to abstract the desired depth of understanding. As raised, one aim of the study is to understand children’s changing perceptions as they move from one year group into another during the first few years of formal education. Two cohorts of children were therefore selected (one following children from Nursery into Reception, and the other from Reception into Year 1). Moreover, as the study is also concerned with understanding gender differences within the cohorts, the sample includes equal numbers of boys and girls. In other words, this study involves a number of individual ‘cases’. This approach has been described as a ‘multiple case study’ (Yin, 2004) which Yin argues can strengthen findings and make “interpretations more robust” (ibid, p xvii).

Each child in this study could be regarded as an individual ‘case’ yet as Stake points out, when using more than one case, “there will be important co-ordination between the individual studies” (Stake, 1995,pp 3-4). As this is expected with regard to the individual cases in this study, I prefer to use Stake’s definition of collective case study, to describe the research strategy.

The children have all been selected from the same school in central Cambridge. This school was originally selected on the basis of the pilot study. As the pilot study was designed to investigate Nursery children’s perceptions of reading, the first decision was whether to approach a Nursery school[1] or a Nursery class within a primary school[2]. It was decided that a Nursery class within a primary school would be the most appropriate choice as the integration of a nursery into a wider school environment might offer more of an insight into children’s perceptions of the role of schools in encouraging reading development.

A school within the city of Cambridge, which shall be referred to as ‘Oakfield’, was then selected on the basis of its multi-cultural and diverse social catchment. This school has its own Nursery in the same building as the two Reception classes. Situated close to the centre of the city, the school admits children from a wide range of social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. It is a large, popular school of 414 pupils, of whom a quarter travels from outside the catchment area. The 12 per cent of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals matches the national average. The number of pupils for whom English is a second language is high at 24 percent. The number of children on the register of special educational needs is below average at 17 per cent. In a recent OFSTED inspection, the teaching of pupils aged up to 5 years was assessed as “very good”, whereas teaching was assessed to be “good” in the rest of the school.

However, rates of mobility within the school are high, with 10 per cent of pupils moving in and out of the area each year. Whereas this was not an issue for the short duration of the pilot study, it must be recognised that attrition is a potential problem for the longer study. Therefore the numbers of children selected for this investigation are slightly higher than actually required, in order to accommodate potential loss.

Data collection began with a period of classroom observation in both the nursery and one of the reception classes. While these observations guided the selection of the children, there were many additional factors to take into consideration during the selection process. For example the sample includes only children who the teachers felt would be happy to participate in the research. Although this sample cannot be used as the basis for generalization, deliberate attempts were made to include children for whom English is not their first language as this reflected the overall school population. For reasons of validity, children who participated in the pilot study were not included, nor were children likely to leave the school during the course of the research. Having satisfied these criteria children were then selected on the basis of age, so that the sample included younger and older children in each year.

Ethical considerations

Practice according to the BERA Ethical Guidelines (2000) has also influenced the implementation of this project. Firstly, a letter was sent to the parents of each child, explaining the aims and structure of the study and stressing the longitudinal nature of the work. All parents gave consent for their child to participate and also provided written agreement to be interviewed in their home environment.

Moreover, the children were also asked to give their consent before data collection commenced, though it was recognised that issues of ‘informed consent’ are especially problematic when working with children of this age. Following the example of Nutbrown and Hannon (2003) the pilot study was used not only as an opportunity to test various tools for data collection, but also to provide children with an opportunity to comment on how they felt when being interviewed and participating in the activities. The children were, in fact, all very enthusiastic about the activities used in the collection of data and tended to want to maintain the sessions for as long as possible.

Finally, for reasons of confidentiality all names have been changed in all written reports. This includes the names of children, parents, teachers and the school.

The Pilot Study

A variety of research tools were tested in the pilot stage. These tools were designed to enable young children to be informants in the research. As highlighted by Kellett and Ding (2004, p167) some researchers have considered children below the age of seven or eight as “not viable interviewees” because of their age, but “many writers and professional associations are now challenging this notion, maintaining that poor data are not necessarily a product of the young age but of inappropriate interview techniques”.

Other research with Nursery-aged children has further shown that it is indeed possible to access the ‘voice’ of children of this age, so long as appropriate methods are used to collect data (Cremin and Slater, 2004; Brenna, 1995). For this reason, it seemed imperative that the activities should be carefully piloted and evaluated before being implemented into the main study. Three open-ended and age-appropriate activities were designed and tested in the pilot study (see Table 1), each allowing the children to talk about their thoughts on reading.

The first activity was the closest in form to a semi-structured interview. The interview was conducted through the medium of a conversation with a glove puppet – a small yellow chick called Charlie Chick. The children were told that Charlie was born at Easter (the research was conducted in May) and was therefore very young. The children were then told that the chick did not know anything about school, but really wanted to learn some things from the children. In this respect, the children were offered the role of ‘expert’. Whilst the interview was guided by the responses of the child, certain aspects of the discussion ensured that the children were indeed asked to talk about their perceived ideas of reading and to explain what they thought reading actually involved.