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

Abstract

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.