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 rachael.levy@ntlworld.com
This research is funded by a studentship from the ESRC
2
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 multidimensional 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.
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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
4
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 multidimensional media in which the print is situated?
In order to answer these two questions, there are several sub-questions. Each subquestion 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 selfperception?
Figure 1.1 Research Questions
Question 1. The nature of
self-perceptions (as
potentially gendered).
a. What is ‘reading’
and being ‘a
reader’?
c. Influence of
home/school setting.
Question 2. Influence of
multi-dimensional media (as
potentially gendered).
b. Changes over time.
d. Factors leading to
formation of self-perceptions.
5
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 school1 or a Nursery class within a primary
school2. 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.
1
2
These schools cater for nursery aged children only.
Not all primary schools have their own Nursery.
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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.
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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.
Table 1 Overview of activities used in pilot study
Activity One
Name
Interview with puppet
Activity Two
Symbols Game
Activity Three
Small world play
Props
Charlie Chick puppet
Sheet of letters and
numbers
Selection of reading
material
Pack of symbols cards
Small world play equipment
including dolls, beds, table,
chairs, car, street signs
Purpose
To investigate
children’s knowledge
and attitudes about
reading
To investigate the
skills children are
using to make
meaning from
symbols.
To investigate
children’s
perceptions of other
children’s and adults’
reading behaviour.
The second activity was designed to investigate the strategies these children were
using to make meaning from a variety of signs and symbols, using a set of duplicate
laminated cards. Each pair of cards displayed a sign or symbol commonly found in
the local environment (such as car badge signs, supermarket logos, road signs and
food labels). Having placed the cards face down on the floor, the children were then
asked to turn two cards over to try and make a pair. The extent to which the game
8
was followed was guided by the interest of each child. Yet in every case, the game
provided an opportunity to ask the children to talk about the signs and to investigate
how they were making meaning from the various symbols.
The final activity took the form of role-play, using a selection of small world play
equipment. This included a family of dolls and some home furniture. As the activity
progressed, a small car and a selection of road signs were also introduced. The
activity was designed to further investigate the children’s perceptions of reading,
especially within a home context. The activity was loosely structured around 6 subactivities however it was intended that that the children should be able to play with
the equipment, inventing their own role-play situations throughout.
Results from the Pilot
Many findings were drawn from this study, yet for the purposes of this paper only
those most salient to the design of the main study will be discussed. At this point, the
ways in which the pilot study provided methodological implications for future study
becomes inextricably bound with issues of substantive content. For this reason, no
attempt has been made to separate the two.
Finding
It was clear that the young children interviewed in the pilot study were already
forming strong ideas about the process of learning to read and themselves as
developing readers. Although the sample size was small, there was a consistency in
the children’s beliefs that print was of substantial importance in text and that an ability
to decode print is of greater value than other meaning-making strategies.
Implication for main study
Recognising that teachers and children seem to be placing a great deal of emphasis
on the place of print, it now seems important to ask whether the multi-dimensional
media in which the print is situated influences children’s perceptions of print literacy.
Subsequently, the research tools have now been modified to include reference to
multi-modal text usage in order to explore these issues.
Finding
Surprisingly, there was very little evidence in this study to suggest a gender
difference in relation to these children’s perceptions of reading. Firstly, whereas
many studies with older children have revealed gender differences in children’s
reading interests (Millard. 1997, Osmont and Davis, 1987; Hall and Coles, 1997), it
was interesting to note that the boys and the girls in this study seemed to have
similar interests in the cards used in Activity 2. This included food labels, a car badge
sign, supermarket signs, numbers and road signs as well as their choices of texts for
the dolls in Activity 3.
More importantly though, there was little evidence to suggest gender difference in
these children’s attitudes about reading and in their perceptions of themselves as
readers. This is an important observation, as Moss (2000) discovered that older
boys and girls react differently to the judgements made about their proficiency as
readers. This could be related to the fact that many of the children regarded
themselves as too young to be able to read, but believed that they would learn to
read during the Reception year. It is possible that these children did not feel as if
their teachers, parents or peers were judging their reading ability at that point.
9
Implications for main study
This suggested a need to include Reception children in the main study. For this
reason, the main study will investigate children’s perceptions as they move into and
out of the Reception year.
Finding
The only gender difference reported was in response to the question – do you think it
will be ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ to learn to read? In fact all three of the girls stated that they
thought it would be ‘easy’ to learn to read, whereas all three of the boys said they
thought it would be ‘hard’.
Implications for main study
This suggests that children’s thoughts about the process of learning to read, in terms
of perceived difficulty, is an area requiring specific attention. However, it is also clear
that further study must ensure that terms such as ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ are clarified within
the research design. For this reason, activities have been designed to investigate
children’s perceptions of what is ‘easy’ and what is ‘hard’ in terms of skill acquisition,
including the skill of learning to read.
Main study
As the study is concerned with understanding the potential changes in selfperception as children move into and out of the Reception year, this will be a
longitudinal study, centred around three main phases of data collection (presented in
Table 2). However, bearing in mind the exploratory nature of this work, these data
points may well change as the enfolding results influence the research design.
Table 2: Overview of data collection
Phase
1
Summer 2005
(May – July)
2
Spring 2006
(January – April)
3
Summer 2006
(May – July)
Data Collection
Children - Two-part interview (school)
Small world play activity (school)
Unstructured interview (home)
Teachers –Interview
Parents – Interview in home
Children – Observation (Reading behaviour)
(General classroom interaction)
Interview (school)
Small world play activity (school)
Teachers – Interview
(new teacher)
Children – Interview (school)
Small world play activity (school)
Unstructured interview (home)
Parents - Interview in home
In order to answer the research questions, a profile will be developed for each child
in the study. With the child at the centre, each case will consist of a collection of
different strands of data, including data from a parent and two different teachers.
Observation schedules will also be drawn up, where the child’s reading behaviour will
also be observed in the context of daily classroom activity. These profiles will allow
for comparisons to be drawn within cases as well as between cases. As
demonstrated in Table 3, it is anticipated that different strands of data will be drawn
10
together over the course of a calendar year to help build these profiles. As the
profiles develop though, this may indicate a need to expand, re-focus or change
some of the data points highlighted in these tables, which must currently be viewed
as a guide only.
Table 3: Inter-case Data Collection
Summer 2005
Spring 2006
Child at school
Child at school
Child at home
Teacher 1
Teacher 2
Parent/s at home
Summer 2006
Child at school
Child at home
Parent/s at home
The Tools for Data Collection
The aim of this section is to describe the tools which will be used for data collection.
In order for comparisons to be drawn across the strands of data collected, the tools
used in Phases 2 and 3 must closely resemble those used in Phase 1. In other
words, the activities will be largely repeated in order to draw conclusions about the
children’s changing perceptions. However, this is a flexible design and it is expected
that the tools will continue to be extended and modified as the study progresses.
Moreover, there is also a risk that the children may become bored with the interviews
if some degree of variation does not exist between the phases. Yet it is important
that the study demonstrates a consistency of methodological content throughout the
phases in order that patterns and themes can be detected.
Within the confines of this paper, it is clearly not possible to report on every aspect of
the data collected during Phase 1. For this reason I have decided to focus on two
data points only (Charlie Chick Interview Part 1 and the Small World Play) As stated,
interviews have also taken place with the parents in the children’s homes and with
the teachers. Furthermore, in the Charlie Chick Interview Part 2, the children have
also worked directly with a computer. While no attempt has been made to report on
these aspects of the data in this paper, this data will clearly be very valuable in
creating a context for the children’s individual profiles.
Activity 1; Charlie Chick Interview
As this interview is quite lengthy, it was conducted on two separate occasions, so as
to minimise the risk of the children losing interest. As described in the pilot, the
whole of the interview was conducted through the medium of a glove puppet (Charlie
Chick). The interviews were recorded using a simple tape-recorder.
All activities began by allowing the children time to play with the props. The first
section of the interview (part one) was used as a general introduction. This allowed
the children time to become comfortable with the interview situation. In the second
section, Charlie asked some general questions about school and the purposes of
school.
A main focus of this interview was to explore the children’s understanding of the
terms ‘hard’ and ‘easy’ and apply this to the concept of learning to read. Charlie
showed the children a collection of photographs. On each picture a child (the same
child) was performing a task, as demonstrated in Figure 1. The children were told
that in each case, the child is learning to do something. Through the context of the
interview, the children’s thoughts on how easy or hard it is to learn to do these things
was explored. The children were asked to play a game where the pictures were
11
placed in either an ‘easy’ pile or a ‘hard’ pile depending on how the child assessed
the skill.
Figure 1 Pictures of ‘skills’ used in Activity 1
Skills shown in picture
Riding a bike
Reading a book
Running
Tying shoelaces
Reading words on a computer screen
Painting a picture
Writing words with a pencil
Writing words on a computer
Activity 2; Small World Play
This activity, modified on the basis of the pilot study, took the form of role-play using
small world play equipment. This included a family of dolls (mother, father, younger
sister, younger brother and an older sister), lounge furniture (including chairs,
television, video, and table) and study furniture (including a desk, chair, computer,
and printer). This activity was designed to further investigate the children’s
perceptions of reading, especially focussing on the home environment.
Once again, the children were given the opportunity to play with the equipment
before any structure was given to the activity. Then, by means of introduction, each
character doll was introduced to the children and their role in the family was
discussed.
The next section of the activity was concerned with gaining an understanding of the
children’s attitudes towards learning to read. During the activity, pictures of a
Nursery/ Reception class of children was shown, so as to encourage the children to
talk about ‘home’ and ‘school’ situations. The children were also encouraged to talk
about their perceptions of what they thought might be involved in ‘learning to read’,
when they move into a new class the following year.
A proportion of this activity was also designed to further investigate the children’s
perceptions of print reading in multimodal forms. As is explicated in the activity plan,
this involved placing the dolls in front of the television and the computer and asking
the children to comment on the use of such artefacts and the dolls ‘abilities’ to use
such equipment. The children’s perceptions of the dolls’ attitudes towards reading
print in multimodal forms were woven into the role-play.
Preliminary results from Phase 1 of the main study
The results presented here from Phase 1 are partial and represent only a section of
the overall analysis. Over the course of the study analysis in greater depth will take
place both within and across cases as represented in Figure 2.
12
Figure 2: Data Analysis
Within case analysis
Data
Across
case
analysis
Analysis of
individual
activities and
interviews,
across cases
Analysis of
each individual
case (create
vignettes)
Identify themes
and patterns
within cases
Modify tools
for next stage of
data collection
Synthesis.
Consolidating themes
and patterns within and
across cases. Inform
next phase of data
collection.
Identifying themes
and patterns across
activities/interviews
The children’s responses have so far been categorised into 3 broad areas.
 What the children have said about learning to read (with a focus on children’s
definition of ‘reading’)
 What the children have said about the use of multi-modal texts (with a focus
on screen texts)
Note – the term ‘multi-modal text’ will be used in this thesis to describe a variety of texts
including the use of picture reading. However, the analysis has so far focussed on the
screen reading component of multimodality which is thus reported on in this paper.

What the children have said about print on screen/ screen reading
What the children have said about learning to read
A Starting Point
Most of the children in this sample demonstrated fairly positive views about reading
and learning to read, however this did not mean that they all thought the activity was
‘easy’. For example, when given the ‘skills’ pictures (see Figure 1) and asked to
categorise the picture as either an ‘easy’ thing to learn to do, or a ‘hard’ thing to learn
to do, only 3 of the 12 children rated learning to read books as ‘easy’ and only 2 of
the 12 rated learning to read words on the computer as ‘easy’.
While this brief section of quantitative analysis cannot reveal much about these
children’s thoughts on reading, it does provide an interesting starting point for the
investigation. Firstly it is noteworthy that all of the positive responses were given by
boys (see Table 4). Although this is only a small sample, the results do appear to
contradict much other work with older children, where girls are consistently reported
as having more positive attitudes about reading in comparison with boys (Millard,
1997; Hall and Coles1997; Barrs and Pidgeon, 1993).
13
Table 4 Children’s responses to difficulty in skill acquisition (reading and writing)
No. of girls
rating
skill as ‘easy’
Reading books
Reading on
computer
Writing with pencil
Writing on
computer
No. of girls
rating
skill as ‘hard’
No. of boys
rating
skill as ‘easy
No. of boys
rating
skill as ‘hard’
0
0
6
5
3
2
3
4
4
1
1
4
6
5
0
1
Table 5 Children’s responses to difficulty in skill acquisition (non reading and writing)
No. of girls
rating
skill as ‘easy’
No. of girls
rating
skill as ‘hard’
No. of boys
rating
skill as ‘easy
No. of boys
rating
skill as ‘hard’
Tying
1
5
0
6
shoelaces
Running
5
1
4
2
Cycling
4
1
3
3
Painting
6
0
5
1
Note – In most cases each row will add up to 12 (each cell being out of 6 boys or 6 girls).
However one girl chose to include a ‘middle’ rating for Reading on Computer, Writing on
Computer, Writing with Pencil and Cycling. As these results are not represented on the
tables, these rows will add up to 11.
While the boys and the girls in this study reported very similar perceptions of difficulty
for the non-reading and writing activities (see Table 5), there was a much larger
discrepancy reported for the reading and writing activities. Not only are the boys in
this sample reporting more positively about learning to read, more boys are also
claiming that learning to write is ‘easy’ in comparison with the girls. As these results
do diverge from those in previous research with older children, this further justifies
the need for an in-depth understanding of young children’s perceptions of reading.
Moreover, these results can only be analysed using the binary categories of ‘boy’ and
girl’. While it is helpful to begin with the knowledge that the boys in this sample do
appear to be reporting positively about learning to read, we must now begin the
process of understanding what the children in this sample believe reading to be, and
how they see themselves readers in the society in which they live.
The Analysis
From these data gathered so far, Tom (Reception) and Simai (a boy in nursery) are
the only two children in the sample to claim that learning to read is ‘easy’ and to claim
that they can read. Three girls (two from nursery) claimed that they could read, but
still rated learning to read as being ‘hard’. Five other children (four from Reception –
two girls and two boys) rated learning to read as being ‘hard’ and also claimed that
they were unable to read themselves. It would therefore appear that for most of the
children, their perception of difficulty is related to their perceived ability. However
some girls are claiming that they can read, but are still rating the activity as ‘hard’.
Moreover, whilst these data provides a useful foundation, they are not intended to
stand in isolation from the rest of the data. For example, although all of the girls in
the reported activity said that learning to read was ‘hard’ (rather than ‘easy) some did
provide positive responses in other activities, suggesting that reading was an ‘easy’
activity. For example Imogen, a Reception girl, told Charlie that you learn “things like
maths…and…letters” at school, which is “quite easy for me”. When asked which of
the activities she was able to do, Imogen confidently replied “I can do all of them”.
14
When asked to comment specifically about reading she replied “that’s quite easy.
Because you just look at the pictures and that gives you an idea of what the words
say”.
This suggests that Imogen feels comfortable with the strategies she is using to make
meaning from texts, which includes the use of picture cues. Furthermore, she also
described reading as “quite fun” and thought that Charlie would enjoy learning to
read because “I enjoyed it when I learned to read”. However, there are also
suggestions in Imogen’s interview that she was less happy with school-based
reading than home-reading. For example when asked what it means if someone is
good at reading she replied “it means you just read – and get on with it, even if you
don’t want to read. The teacher says you need to read”. In a second activity she
also stated that it was easier to read “at home, because I’ve got my mummy to help
me”.
The structure of school-based reading in Reception was also highlighted by Malcolm.
When asked the question ‘what is reading?’ he answered “when the teacher calls
your name and then you have to read and at home your mummy and daddy reads
books to us”. Like Imogen, Malcolm seems to be describing reading as a very
structured activity, where you perform the task when asked by the teacher. Again, he
stated that he preferred reading at home rather than at school, but this seemed to be
because he would be read to at home rather than having to do the reading himself.
Consistent with the findings in the pilot study, many of the children in both Nursery
and Reception appeared to believe that reading was ‘hard’ for them at the moment,
but that they would master the skill as they got older. For example Sarita, a girl in
Reception who consistently referred to reading as being ‘hard’, was asked to show
Charlie what you do with a book. She replied, “You look at the pictures and you act
like a big boy or a big girl, properly with the books”. Similarly Huda, a girl in Nursery,
showed a great deal of enthusiasm about books but again reported that “big
girls…big girls like this” know how to read and that “little babies don’t know how to
read”. Whereas Simai, a boy in nursery, agreed that reading is hard “for little
children” but declared that he could read books “because now I’m bigger I can read
books without my mum now”. However, this data does not investigate differences
between these children’s perceptions and their practices. The children’s reading
behaviour now needs to be investigated through a context of classroom observation
During the small world play activity there were again many comments from boys and
girls in Reception and Nursery suggesting that the children had positive images of
themselves as readers. For example, when given the family of dolls to play with,
most of the children were asked ‘does anyone in this family like reading?’
Interestingly two of the children (a boy in Reception and a girl in nursery) answered
“me!” even though the question was not directed at them. Three other Reception
children reported that they thought the ‘little children’ in the family would like reading
best, while Simai (a nursery boy) suggested that the little brother would want to read
the most. Only one child thought that ‘the mummy’ liked reading the most, with the
remaining 4 children either answering ‘don’t know’ or suggesting that nobody would
want to read.
Finally, consistent with findings in the pilot study, many children were again making
strong connections between ‘reading’ and ‘decoding words’. For example, when
asked what it means if you can’t read, one child answered “that means you don’t
know letters” while another stated “you still have to look at these bits”, while pointing
to the printed text. Figure 3 highlights some further comments from the children
15
(given during the Charlie Chick interview) suggesting links between print and reading,
when asked to describe what reading is.
Figure 3 Children’s comments about reading and print
Children’s comments
‘you look at letters and read it’
‘you have to do group reading’
‘you need words’
‘it’s words’
‘you have to tell the name of a book’
‘reading the writing’
‘you have to point under the words, so if you’re reading a story to
everyone, they’ll know which words you are reading’
‘hard work and practise’
‘you have to look at these bits (the print)’
In conclusion these preliminary results suggest that these cohorts of children feel
largely positive about learning to read and have positive perceptions about
themselves as readers, yet most children regard the activity as being ‘hard’. It is
possible that the boys in this study feel more positively than the girls but this requires
further investigation. Most of the children seem to be linking their perceptions of
difficulty with perceptions of their own abilities in reading. This data now needs to be
analysed within a context of data gathered from the teachers and the parents in order
to deepen an understanding of these children’s self-perceptions.
There are also suggestions that some children may be unhappy with the formalised
structure of reading activity taking place in Reception. Finally, consistent with results
from the pilot study, many of these children are making strong links between ’reading’
and ‘printed text’, suggesting that they are already viewing decoding strategies as
being ‘reading’. The children seem to believe that these skills are hard for younger
children, but will be mastered with age.
What the children have said about the use of multi-modal texts
On the basis of these data gathered so far, it is clear that all of these children are
familiar with multimodal texts, with many demonstrating a sophisticated ability to
describe the use of computers in particular. However, when asked during the Small
World Play activity whether they would prefer to keep the television or the computer,
assuming they had to make a choice, most of the children said they would prefer to
keep the television. However, it must be acknowledged that not all of the children in
the sample have access to computers at home which may have influenced their
responses.
Within the context of the Small World Play, the children were also asked to talk about
‘mummies’’ and ‘daddies’’ use of computers. As the activity was unstructured, the
same questions were not asked of every child, yet similar issues were indeed
addressed in each interview. Four of the children reported that daddies ‘do work’ on
the computer, but no child was able to elaborate on what that work actually was,
except in the case of Simai who described the work as ‘boring’. Daddies were also
reported as playing games, looking at the news and watching films on the computer.
Mummies, on the other hand, were reported as doing ‘writing’, looking up the
weather, putting games on for the children and looking at pictures with the children.
One girl suggested that mummies and daddies would both use the computer to find
information on holiday homes if the family was about to take a holiday.
16
There were several suggestions that the ‘mummy’ would prefer the television to the
computer, but this was never the case for the ‘daddy’. However, there were also
several suggestions that the computer would be most popular with the children in the
house rather than the adults.
This suggests that these children are aware of the use of multimodal texts in their
homes. While some evidence exists to suggest that these children may be
developing gendered stereotyped ideas about the adults’ use of some texts (the
television and the computer in particular) the children seemed less inclined to provide
such stereotyped ideas about ‘children’s’ use of the same texts.
What the children have said about print on screen/ screen reading
So far, these activities have sought to investigate whether these children are aware
of print in the context of computer and television use. The second Charlie Chick
interview (which has not yet been analysed) explores these issues in far greater
detail.
When asked whether there are any words on the computer and/or the television,
most children replied ‘no’ for both. Tom (Reception) was the only child to answer
“yes”. While he could not give an example of words he might see on the television or
the computer, he reported that the words might be “for information”. Simai (Nursery)
originally stated that there were no words on the computer, however he then went on
to describe where letters and numbers should be on the keyboard, with substantial
accuracy. Imogen (Reception) also reported that there were no words on the
computer or the television, except ‘scores’ at the end of a computer game. When
asked if she could read these scores she replied that this was ‘easy’.
Conclusion
This paper has sought to describe a research study into young children’s perceptions
of reading and self-perceptions of becoming a reader at the time of entry into the
formal education system. Based on the results of a pilot study, this project has been
designed to understand potential differences in boys and girls perceptions of reading
within the multimodal system in which they live.
Although preliminary, results so far suggest that previous research on gender and
reading cannot be applied to children of this age and that there is a necessity to
investigate the phenomenon from the perspectives of young children. These results
also help to sharpen the overall study by prompting further questions for
investigation. For example, the children in this study may feel positively about
learning to read, but what exactly do they perceive ‘reading’ to be? Do they connect
their own ‘reading’ with being read to, and if so, to what extent? Do they connect
concepts of ‘ability’ with concepts of ‘difficulty’? Furthermore, despite their own
reported commitment to printed texts, do they value the decoding of pictures as a
strategy for finding meaning in texts? And to what extent does schooled-reading
practise influence these children’s attitudes towards learning to read and views of
themselves as ‘readers’?
These results demonstrate that children are using a variety of multimodal texts in
their homes and in schools, yet they do not seem to be especially aware of print in
multimodal contexts (television and computer screen print in particular). To what
extent then are children making meaning from print in multimodal forms? Do these
young children regard print as a more integral part of text when it appears in contexts
17
other than in books? In other words, is print in multimodal contexts less threatening
to some young children than print in books?
These results also indicate that more needs to be understood about the difference
between these children’s perceptions and their actual practices. This suggests that a
period of close observation must be built into the next phase of data collection in
order to understand these connections and/or differences more fully.
Finally, these observations will also contribute towards the creation of the children’s
profiles. It is now imperative that vignettes are drawn up for each child so that an indepth understanding of the thoughts, ideas and attitudes that form the basis of these
children’s perceptions of reading can be gained. In doing so, it is anticipated that this
study will provide a basis to our understanding of young children’s self-perceptions of
reading in this digital age, thus informing practise from the Foundation Stage and
beyond.
18
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