Background: This article describes how the National Reading Barometer project has redefined the concept of 'reading culture' in South Africa. Objectives: As expressed in the 2023 National Reading Survey (N = 4250) and the 2023 National Reading Barometer, a clearer description of reading cultures was developed to describe both individual reading…

Background: Over the last two decades, the reading habits of children and adolescents have evolved. Research shows some similarities in the reading experiences of children and adolescents, but there are also differences. For example, adolescents are more likely to read digitally and generally report poorer attitudes towards reading. With this in…

The main purpose of this article is to provide educators with clear definitions of motivational factors in reading so that instructional planning can capitalize on important distinctions. The authors present definitions of a small set of related motivational concepts (including attitudes, interests, self-efficacy, self-concept, goals, and value)…

This article highlights one mother-son case study that was part of a larger study, Revaluing Readers and Families (Kabuto, [Kabuto, B., 2009], [Kabuto, B., 2015]). Here the author focuses on how the mother, Terry, interpreted her 7-year-old son Peter's oral reading performances and how her interpretation led her to construct a label around a…

The conventional definitions of power and masculinity are tightly conflated. The same words that are often used to describe power, such as authority, control, and decisiveness, are also often used to define masculinity. Where does that leave women in building and using power? Even as feminist scholars attempt to decouple the definition of power…

When working as a teacher of deaf students, Melissa Herzig's school was a magnet high school just five minutes from the border of Mexico, where 95 percent of the students were Latinos. The deaf students' experiences with languages may involve using American Sign Language (ASL), a sign language they may have learned in their home country, English,…

Initiatives such as Response to Intervention (RTI) and the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) have the potential to positively impact progress toward the goal of literacy for all. Because the CCSS-ELA will guide the content of the curriculum, instruction and assessment in the large number of adopting states, they will…

Reflecting from the Philippine experience, this article explores an emerging picture that characterizes contemporary Bible reading attitudes of college students. Six new attitude factor definitions are developed following the development of the Bible Reading (BR) attitude scale for college students constructed by this author in a separate study.…

Discusses three approaches to the history of reading: (1) reading as definition, focusing on the features that characterize reading; (2) reading as cause and effect, focusing on why different definitions of reading come into being; and (3) reading as ideology, focusing on what goal or ideology is implied by a particular history. (MM)

Middle school students will interact with a variety of different texts to uncover a broader meaning of reading. During the three 50-minute sessions, students will identify different categories of text materials from basic picture books to textbooks; compile a list of strategies and processes needed to read the different types of books; and develop…

Argues that conventional definitions of literacy are too narrow. Examines weekly tallies of two adolescent girls' use of time, engaging in various discourse forms in school and other settings. Argues for an expanded view of literacy in the content areas, and notes ways literacy might be reconceptualized in content area classrooms. (SR)

Reviews some of the current definitions of literacy and suggests that an expansion of the definitions is needed, based on information gained from interviews with adult remedial readers as they describe their reading needs. (SKC)