One factor that influences an individual’s literacy practices is the extent to which they see themselves as readers, or the reader self-concept. Yet, how children perceive themselves as readers and the relationship between these perceptions and reading achievement is a relatively recent area of research.
In 2007, the National Literacy Trust conducted a survey of pupils in 29 primary and secondary schools in England. Some of the key questions revolved around the reader self-concept. To what extent do young people see themselves as readers? What does it mean to be a reader? What are the characteristics typically assigned to readers and what materials does a reader enjoy? And how do readers and non-readers differ in their perception of these?
Download the executive summary (pdf): Young people's self-perceptions as readers - Executive
Download the full report (pdf): Young people's self-perceptions as readers
Self-perception and gender
A separate article is available that focuses on the gender issues highlighted by our recent self-perception survey. It analyses the differences between boys and girls and concludes that girls should not be forgotten in the latest policy drives to engage boys with reading.
Download the article (pdf): Being a reader: The relationship with gender
Self-perception and age
An analysis that focuses on the age differences in our recent self-perception survey is now available in a separate article. It shows clear differences between primary and secondary readers in terms of their perceptions of themselves as readers and how they perceive readers and their characteristcs. It also shows interesting differences in the views and behaviours of primary and secondary pupils who do not see themselves as readers, which has clear practical and policy implications.
Download the article (pdf): How does age relate to pupils' perceptions of themselves as readers?
Also available is an article that is based on 1143 pupils who defined themselves as "Readers" and 471 pupils who defined themselves as "Non-readers". However, as our findings show, a huge percentage of non-readers DO read, just not the kinds of materials that are traditionally associated with reading.
Read an article on the findings
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