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…

The Australian Curriculum positions literacy as a general capability to be taught across all subject areas. While schools may design agreements and policies to formalise the position of literacy as a whole-school priority, there is relatively limited research guiding the structure and content of these planning documents. We contend that reading…

This article is based on a qualitative study that explored the impact reading had on the lives of two female students who attained exemplary results in their final year of high school. The reading practices of these two high achieving students provided data rich information. Both students were academically successful in completing their Victorian…

Most children seem to love computers, and there has been much speculation and research about how educators might harness this interest to facilitate literacy learning. A growing body of research indicates that electronic talking books (ETBs) can help children learn to read and encourage them to read, so we decided to investigate what would happen…

Describes an effective literature circle program from Australia that widens secondary school students' horizons. Suggests that they bond together as a community of readers as they develop new reading strategies and a positive attitude about reading. (SR)