Working-class boys’ relationships with reading: contextual systems that support working-class boys’ engagement with, and enjoyment of, reading

ABSTRACT

Drawing on interviews with 15 boys attending schools in low socioeconomic communities in Australia, this paper examines the multiplicity of contextual influences on boys’ everyday reading experiences. Implementing an ecological metaphor, boys’ narratives about (i) their attitudes towards reading at school (microsystem); (ii) parental beliefs about reading (mesosystem); (iii) masculinities within low socioeconomic communities (exosystem), and; (iv) reading as socially valued knowledge (macrosystem) are explored. The paper illustrates the textured nature of immediate and broader influences on boys’ engagement with, and positioning of, reading. In particular, the paper challenges dominant discourses about working-class boys’ reading practices, contributing to research into literacy in-situ to make visible the immediate and broader contextual systems that influence the ways working-class boys engage with, and enjoy, reading.

KEYWORDS:

• Reading
• masculinities
• working-class boys
• ecological metaphor
• boys and schooling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Laura Scholes is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. She is currently lead investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery project looking at ways to challenge masculinities associated with boys’ anti-reading attitudes.

ORCID

Laura Scholes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8849-2825

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DE170100990].