An Examination of the Social and Cultural Influences on Adolescent Literacy Motivation and Development
Investigators: Elizabeth B. Moje, Pamela Ellen Davis-Kean, Jacquelynne S. Eccles
This research plan proposes the use of survey measures, comprehension and writing tests, experimental tasks, and structured qualitative interview and observation techniques to examine the influence of peer, family, community, and cultural factors on the development of literacy skills in both struggling and successful adolescent readers and writers.
Survey and qualitative measures will test an expectancy value model that posits a relationship between familiarity of format, contextualization of activity, motivation to engage in an activity, interest in the activity, and literacy achievement. Analyses of survey and qualitative measures will examine across demographic categories (with an emphasis on gender, ethnicity, race, and social class) how peer, family, community, and cultural groups (a) motivate students to develop particular kinds of reading and writing skills and (b) shape students’ abilities to navigate different school and social tasks using various reading, writing, and communication strategies. After the expectancy value for literacy achievement is examined via the survey measures and structured interview measures, expectancy values and motivations to engage in literacy activities out of school will be analyzed. With those analyses as a game, comprehension and writing tests will be applied to out-of-school literacy activities to test the hypothesis that adolescents employ proficient and advanced literacy skills as they engage in literacy practices outside of school. Qualitative data on the out-of-school activities will simultaneously document the levels of motivation and engagement expressed by the subjects as they engage in out-of –school tests. In the final year of research, a series of experimental tasks will be used to assess the hypothesis that young people transfer out-of-school literacy practices to their in-school literacy-based activities and vice versa and to develop possible outlines for classroom-based interventions based on the assessment of transfer across domains. Qualitative data on transfers across contexts will be used to contextualize and deepen the experimental findings.
| Funding: | Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development |
Funding Period: 03/01/2004 to 02/28/2009
PSC Research Themes:Life Course Transition: Child, Adolescent, and Adult (Family Formation, Fertility, and Children)
Culture (Ideational Factors)
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