'Reading relationships': parents, boys, and reading as cultural practice.

Hamston, Julie ; Love, Kristina

Introduction

Research into family literacy practices has been extensively documented (see among others Barton et al., 2000; Cairney, 1998; Heath, 1983; Spreadbury, 1995; Wells, 1986) with influential studies such as those conducted by Heath (1983) and Wells (1986) providing rich portraits of the varied apprenticeships that young children undergo within their families as particular discourse communities. Our research builds upon the understandings gained from such research. We have investigated the significant role that parents play in mediating reading as a cultural practice in the everyday context of the home. We ask of the research such questions as: What is the role of the family and extended family in establishing valued reading practices? To what extent, and in what ways, have both parents participated in guiding the reading practices of their son(s)? Importantly, what family practices may have worked to maintain the boys' interest and commitment to leisure-time reading in spite of competing influences? Further, given expanded definitions of reading to incorporate information technologies, visual texts, multi-media texts and so on, we are interested in the nature and scope of the boys' multi-literate practices.

We believe that the way the parents in this study articulate the type of guidance they have provided and continue to provide for their sons is informative for all who have an interest in boys and reading.

Guided participation

Socio-cultural research centralises the concept of mediated action. In this sense, human beings do not access the world immediately; rather the interplay between individuals and social, cultural and historical contexts is mediated and a dialectic relationship is established (see Rogoff et al., 1993; Rogoff, 1995; Tharp & Gallimore, 1992; Vygotsky, 1978; Wells, 1999; Wertsch et al., 1995; Wertsch, 1995). Socio-cultural research is informed by theories that emphasise human action existing within real contexts of space and time (for example Vygotsky's (1978) focus on speech and thinking, Bakhtin's (1981, 1986) notion of the unfinished utterance and 'ideological becoming', and Bourdieu's (1991) concept of habitus).

Within this research tradition, Barbara Rogoff (1995) offers a multidimensional framework that posits three planes of analysis for research into human action. These planes are: apprenticeship, guided participation and participatory appropriation which relate respectively to community, interpersonal, and personal processes. According to Rogoff, the plane of apprenticeship applies to any community where individuals participate with others in culturally organised activity. Through such participation, less experienced people develop mature participation and take on greater responsibility for an activity. Guided participation, an interpersonal process, refers to the mutual involvement of individuals and their partners participating in structured, collective activity, usually within the context of the family. The plane of participatory appropriation relates to how individuals take what they have learned in families and community settings and apply this to new situations. This is a personal process, 'a process of becoming' (p. 166, after Bakhtin, 1981).

Importantly, then, the contexts for human action and the relationships these contexts engender separate each plane of analysis from the other, as illustrated with the following example of learning to read. A young child of five enters school having been involved in culturally structured activities within the family such as bedtime reading, receiving books for gifts and watching parents and older siblings reading a range of texts. Such guided participation in literacy events within the family establishes those practices that are built upon within the context of the school. Here the child is apprenticed into literacy through membership of a community organised for continuous learning. In time, this child appropriates those literacy practices learned within the family and school contexts and reads independently for the purpose of participating with others: purposes such as reading the rules of a game before joining the team.

In analysing the data collected in our study, we have elected to focus upon the concept of guided participation as the interpersonal process whereby parents and their sons are mutually involved in shared reading practices in the home. We are keen to discover how the boys in this study 'together with their caregivers and other companions, learn and extend the skills, values and knowledge of their community' (Rogoff, 1993, p. 1). The planes of apprenticeship and participatory appropriation have obvious links here, but the plane of guided participation provides a useful lens through which patterns in the data can be viewed (see Rogoff, 1993). In so doing, we endeavour to map the terrain of reading practices in the home in an effort to relate these, in the longer term, to the reading practices that the boys engage in within the context of the school.

Our understanding of Rogoff's (1995; Rogoff et al., 1993) plane of guided participation is represented in the diagram below.

What can be seen from this representation is that guided participation is influenced by patterns and dispositions towards culturally structured activities that exist in families and are passed down between generations. Consequently, the nature of these culturally structured activities varies within and across communities. Some activities may be collaborative, involving purposefully organised joint activity where the emphasis is on mutual involvement in an event or experience and the parent's guidance of the child may often be tacit, occurring through modelling or expectation. Other activities may be deliberately explicit, where the parent and the child are regularly involved in side-by-side (or distal) relationships arranged around some form of instruction. Through such culturally structured activities, interpersonal relationships are fostered, or in some cases, challenged.

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Existing research into guided participation focuses largely on the relationship between young children and their caregivers (particularly mothers). Our study focuses on the role of caregivers in guiding adolescent boys to participate within their families and communities as particular types of readers. Such application of the concept of guided participation to research with adolescents has support from Heath (Rogoff, 1993, p. 177). Much is to be learned for work with older students, Heath assures, from the ways in which young children are guided as cultural members through the commitment and energy of caregivers.

Our study

The first stage of our research involved us in working with boys identified as good and committed readers and their parents from a private, single-sex school in Melbourne (Hamston & Love, 2000; Love & Hamston, 2001). The study focused on the range of leisure reading practices the boys and parents engaged in. It explored how the boys identified themselves as readers and why, and how the parents perceived their son as a reader. Further, it examined the role of the family in assisting boys to construct themselves as particular sorts of readers across a wide range of reading materials.

Importantly, we recognise here that through their lives at home and at school the boys in this study have large reserves of what Bourdieu (1991) refers to as linguistic and cultural capital, constructed through their habitus, or system-shared social dispositions (see Bernstein, 1996; Heath, 1983; Wells, 1986). Clearly, the development of comprehensive and effective literacy practices is a desirable goal of these families and school community.

However, something is at work here for this cohort of boys to maintain commitment to leisure-time reading over time. In the same school community, a very different cohort of boys has been identified, one where boys who can read choose not to. This cohort of reluctant readers is being examined as Stage 2 of the current research and we will extend the analysis of guided participation to those boys.

Data collection and analysis

The first stage of the research project constituted two phases of data collection: (i) the distribution of questionnaires to 91 boys selected as good and committed readers and (ii) the distribution of questionnaires to each parent/guardian of the boys (a total of 54 responses). Extensive space was provided for each participant to contribute detailed discursive comments, as desired. Data from both phases have been analysed quantitatively to examine measurable features such as the frequency of reading done by boys (ranging in age from 11-17) and their parents and the types and range of materials read. Discursive data from the boys' questionnaires were analysed in relation to Freebody and Luke's template of reading practices (1990; see Luke, 1995, 2000). Some of the patterns to emerge from the boys' data include:

* the boys read widely across text types

* the boys reported an increased engagement in 'masculinised' reading practices (the Internet, CD ROM, computer games) as they matured

* mothers continued to play a strong role in maintaining shared reading practices

* fathers increasingly took on the role of sharing reading as the boys matured.

Of interest were the number of reported instances of inter-generational support (aunts, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers) given to the boys.

Analysing Guided Participation

The discursive data obtained from the parents' questionnaires were examined for instances of guided participation (Rogoff et al., 1993; Rogoff, 1995). Firstly, four fundamental features of guided participation were distilled from the description of case studies provided by Rogoff et al. (1993; Rogoff, 1995): intergenerational patterns, interpersonal relationships, collaborative (often tacit) activity, and explicit (often distal) guidance. Two additional, but related categories (limited interpersonal relationships and no sharing practices) were developed to account exhaustively for parents' comments within the framework of guided participation, bringing the total number of categories to six (see Table 1). Although these four features of guided participation overlap and are not mutually exclusive, the parents' reports were categorised and quantified according to the type of activity or relationship that was foregrounded in each comment. The feature of intergenerational patterns, for example, which highlights the historical and traditional elements of guided participation was illustrated by reports of the family tradition of giving books as gifts and in the passing down of a love for literature. The interpersonal relationships that underpin guided participation were revealed in comments such as how sharing reading enables the parent to maintain a strong bond with their son. Examples of collaborative guidance, purposefully organised activities that are often tacit, were seen in reports of activities such as browsing in bookshops, lying in bed together reading. Explicit guidance, which features planned activities focussing on instruction of some sort, was evident in reports of mothers, for example, teaching their young son to read.

The following table illustrates the frequency of the parents' reports about the specific features of guided participation.

An overview of the practices reported by parents

Intergenerational

In stark contrast to the responses received by the boys about the significant role played by grandparents, aunts and uncles in modelling, encouraging and facilitating reading practice (Love & Hamston, 2001), there were only three explicit references to inter-generational guidance in the mothers' and fathers' discursive comments. One mother talked about how the traditions of keeping books, sharing opinions, instilling a sense of the importance of literature has been passed down the generations and another spoke of the importance of books in the gift-giving tradition of the family. One father reported on how his son enjoys the feedback received from parents and grandparents.

Interpersonal

The number of reports from mothers that described building and maintaining interpersonal interactions around their sons' reading (including those who claimed to have limited relationships around reading) was greater than the number of reports received from fathers.

The mothers' comments describing the interpersonal nature of guided participation revealed a mixture of explanations relating to how interpersonal relationships were maintained with their sons, and what these relationships meant to the mother. For instance, relationships around reading were described as being built up within the context of a cuddle; through reading together in bed at night; or through talk. Several mothers described the nature of these interpersonal relationships as a pleasure, a joy, developing a strong bond.

Fathers reported somewhat differently on developing and maintaining relationships around reading. References to bonding, promoting open communication between father and son, and feeling good were noted. The importance of establishing a relationship through talk was significantly less here than with the mothers.

Collaborative, shared activity

More mothers than fathers reported that they participated in collaborative, shared activity around reading. Many mothers described how they facilitated structured and collective activity around reading through events and experiences such as swapping books, discussions-including structured discussions such as in a 'book club', listening, suggesting, wandering into book shops, reading to and with the son, having the son read to them, sitting in bed together reading, trips to the library, recommending books, and borrowing book tapes.

Fathers, too, spoke of structured activity such as reading their son's books, exchanging views, visits to the library, and doing crosswords together. In contrast to the mothers' responses, many reports from the fathers provided a picture of the father as the 'agent' in any collective activity. Responses such as taking him to the library, focussing his energy, keeping him reading regularly, passing on articles of worth, ensuring he has a supply of books, suggest that the fathers saw themselves as initiating and managing the structured activity, rather than facilitating or even co-negotiating an activity.

Similarly, there were more instances of tacit guidance described in the discursive comments of mothers than of fathers (which were relatively infrequent). Responses here indicated the kinds of routines around reading, established over time, in place in the boys' homes.

Mothers spoke of sharing reading with their son since infancy, and establishing reading events from an early age. Mothers also talked in terms of 'resourcing' their son through exposure to books, having a home full of books, making a wide range of books available, being surrounded by books, and having a library in every room. Further, mothers stressed the value placed on reading in the home--how books were treasured, how they opened up fantastic worlds to be shared by all members of the family, and how the children have been conditioned to believe that reading is an every-day occurrence.

Fathers also spoke of resourcing their sons and the routines established since early childhood--such as story reading every night--which laid the foundations for ongoing reading practices. More fathers than mothers, however, reported that they no longer engaged in such routines as their son manages reading as an independent activity. Of interest, was a sense of the 'cut off' in routines in the middle years of primary school reflected in responses such as: we used to read together everyday until he was 5. Now he likes to read by himself; up to the age of approximately 10 I have exchanged reading experiences with our children; this survey has highlighted that I should be more involved--I haven't really given it a lot of thought; short and fairly hurried as seems to be generally the case with 10 year old boys; apart from exchanging sporting results in the morning paper very rarely are reading experiences exchanged.

Fathers also viewed themselves as a model for their sons (he sees me reading a lot; I think he looks up to me a bit), and their role in tacitly approving their son's practices (he knows I am pleased to see him reading). Such comments reflect the importance of the child learning from the observations of what others do (Rogoff et al., 1993).

Of interest, however, several fathers alluded to reading as a 'feminised' practice, or something which did not fall within the role they played as father: I do not share reading experiences with my son; no action from my side; I have very little to do with his reading, my wife is very actively involved in selection of reading material and discussion with him; he would share more reading experiences with his mother who has the greater carer role.

Explicit guidance

Although mothers reported on explicit guidance in reading more so than fathers, the instances of explicit guidance in the discursive comments were relatively low and often related to guided practices that took place in the past.

It is here that a portrait of mothers as 'teachers' emerges. Explicit guidance was described variously as the implementation of reading strategies, such as 'read and retell'--commonly used in school--and as mothers teaching their sons to read (I have worked hard to get children who read, I taught him words, I taught him to read, Mum in the teacher role). Other 'teacher-like' actions include comments such as: I strongly recommend books to him and I leave these beside his bed, I monitor (the children's) reading program, I keep the novels going. A strong sense of agency is reflected in comments such as these and, in addition, a pragmatic, pro-active stance is evident. Moreover, an emotional investment in each son's literacy development, both past and present, is apparent.

On the other hand, responses from the fathers about explicit guidance were almost non-existent and suggest a more passive inclination towards this type of guidance into reading practice. Comments from one father such as 'no war books allowed, no comics, no TV' point to explicit guidance in reading by default.

Discussion

The findings from the analysis suggest that for many families of boys who consider themselves committed readers, 'reading relationships' are more than casual associations centred around the discussion of a book or magazine, for instance. Rather, these relationships are illustrative of the types of language practices that mediate our 'humanness' (Rogoff, 1995; Wertsch, 1995), and in this regard, 'reading relationships' open up the possibility for a multi-faceted dialectic. What emerges from many of these comments is a strong sense of the mutuality of reading and reading practices that provide a context for shared spaces, physical contact, emotional connection, intimacy, and appreciation of the worlds of others. The relationships in these instances are dynamic, and help the parents and their sons learn more about each other and themselves.

However, the data also reveal interesting differences in the ways parents describe reading as a cultural practice. Although there were instances of both parents having a thorough knowledge of their son's reading interests and the types of materials he was currently reading, and there is evidence of both parents building and maintaining open, positive relationships with their son through reading, the discursive comments are noteworthy for the distinct emphases that mothers and fathers place on different aspects of guided participation.

Importantly, it appears that the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships around reading has assumed greater prominence in the guided participation that occurs between mothers and sons. It appears from the data that more mothers than fathers engage in experiences with their sons that promote physical and emotional intimacy. Such intimacy, in this instance, seems to grow out of collaborative, structured activities around reading, more so than activities requiring explicit guidance or instruction.

Further, it appears that many mothers are acutely aware of the investment they have made to their son's reading. Reading provides many of these mothers with the means to establish and continue a valued and mutual relationship with their son. Additionally, this investment could be attributable to the particular value that the mother, through her own enculturation, places on reading. Possibly in some families shared reading practices may have been obscured, or even hidden from fathers. It is important to add that some fathers also revealed an appreciation of the intimate relationships they had with their son through reading and an awareness of the powerful role of the adult model in shaping and supporting reading in the home.

Notwithstanding the significance of the reports of mutual, interpersonal relationships and collaborative activities, the instructional responsibilities that middle class caregivers provide (Rogoff et al., 1993) were taken on by some mothers in respect to actively teaching literate behaviours to their sons. These mothers had created the opportunity for explicit literacy instruction and the dyadic relationships that resonate with the types of instruction usually found in the school (Rogoff et al., 1993).

Additionally, many mothers in this particular cohort appeared to take direct responsibility for their son's reading; a responsibility they either claimed or had attributed to them in their role as mother. This direct responsibility was manifested in resourcing their sons' reading, and in making time for talking and sharing reading experiences, for building personal libraries, for browsing in book shops and the like. In doing so, these mothers continue to play a pivotal role in guiding the boys into the various 'societal institutions and technologies' (Rogoff et al., 1993, p. 8) central to their lives.

Interestingly, the more collaborative and explicit aspects of guided participation are relatively absent in the fathers' comments, giving way to greater expectations of independence. According to Rogoff (1995), guided participation assists in the development of participatory appropriation whereby an individual takes what they have learned in collaboration with others in the home and applies this knowledge to new situations where they act independently of others. The implication is that the need for guidance diminishes at certain points in an individual's life. This appears to explain many of the comments received from the fathers in respect to the nature and scope of shared relationships around reading. Perhaps some fathers (and mothers) see little need in guiding the practice they know their sons are capable of participating in independently. Presumably in these cases, time is devoted to shared endeavour in other aspects of the boys' lives, or perhaps just replaced by the expectation that once a boy reaches a certain age, he is capable of independent behaviour in reading (frequently as the boy demonstrates he can decode texts). Perhaps some fathers (and a few mothers) see reading as 'secret boys' business', and that as their sons mature, leisure-time reading is allocated to the private domain.

In contrast, the guided participation offered by many mothers was continuous and maintained long after the son was capable of decoding texts. This continued guidance may result from the belief that adolescence does not mark an end to culturally structured activity. That is, it is possible to apply the same commitment and energy given to young learners to adolescents, who develop particular needs at this time in their lives, forging identities, working through insecurities, learning about their strengths and limitations (Heath, 1993). Despite the 'transfer of responsibility' (Vygotsky, 1978) from some parents (notably fathers) to the son, other parents (mainly mothers) appear to believe that there is still a need to support and guide boys as they mature. There are obvious adjustments to the ways these parents support their sons, but the tangible support remains nevertheless.

Such a picture of mothers as facilitators of culturally structured activities well into adolescence may be attributable to them being better at reporting, or more careful in observing and noting these cultural practices. The relative brevity of many of the fathers' comments in the questionnaire suggests this may be possible. Further, the self-awareness that many of the mothers have about the role they play and their capacity to name this role and all its manifestations, may have contributed to the differences in the types of shared practices revealed in the data. This may be an issue of naming, in that fathers have not sought to spell out the form of guidance they provide and mothers have. Alternatively, it may point to the investment that some mothers are making to support their boys in anything they read, anything that engages them as readers.

This alternative explanation to the facilitation of guided participation might help explain why no fathers reported sharing their son's reading of the Internet, CD ROMs and computer games, although reporting that they read these text types themselves (see Table 2 below).

In contrast, mothers who reported this shared practice were willing to follow their son's lead and continue a 'reading relationship' around these text types (see Table 2). In this regard, these mothers guided the their sons' reading across the text types that they do not frequently engage in themselves. Significantly, however, the discursive comments suggest a more narrow definition of what constitutes reading. A large proportion of responses from both mothers and fathers pointed to shared reading around novels.

Interestingly, these reports contrast with the boys' reporting of shared practices across text types (Love & Hamston, 2001). Many of the boys' reports attested to an increased role played by fathers in sharing reading across text types (notably genres other than fiction). Perhaps the boys, although in practice continuing to engage in activities around reading with their mothers, identify more strongly with their fathers. This form of 'selective perception' suggests that the boys may create a self-identity that relates to their 'future worldviews' (Heath, 1993, p. 178). Further, they may attach more importance to those more infrequent reading encounters they have with their fathers.

Overall, there was genuine surprise with how much some of these parents know about what their son does and does not read--how much detail they can relate about their sons' reading practices as instances of concrete, human action (Wertsch, et al., 1995). This can be interpreted positively as a willingness to 'know' their son as an individual, as a person with likes and dislikes, orientations, desires and so on. Conversely, it can be interpreted as surveillance of a kind. It could also be claimed that keeping relationships around reading open and shared provided parents with a means of 'auditing' what their son was reading (to the extent that this is possible) with reassurance as the reward. This bears relationship to the argument posited by Wertsch et al. (1995), that mediation involves restraint as well as empowerment.

Finally, the data reveal certain things about the gendered nature of reading (Bunbury, 1995; Gilbert, 1997; Hall & Coles, 1997; Davies, 1997). Of interest, the cohort of boys in this study who operate as committed readers throughout their leisure time, challenge the view that reading is a 'feminised' practice (c.f. Martino, 2001). Rather, through mediated and direct experience of their home environment, these boys have worked to 'self-select and create their enculturative structures and styles' (Heath, 1993, p. 177). However, the lengths that many of the mothers have undertaken to maintain their sons' commitment to reading attests to the view that fostering reading during adolescence is predominantly 'women's work'. Likewise, the comments that reveal some fathers' (inverse) belief that it is the mother's role to support their sons' reading confirms the complex nature of reading as a gendered practice, and, in turn, reading as invariably tied up with issues of nurturing.

Conclusion

To conclude, the data analysed in this study point to different 'reading relationships' established around guided participation as cultural practice. These 'reading relationships' can be classified into two distinct, yet related orientations. First, and apparently foremost, is the personal orientation which allows a close, nurturing and, ultimately, pleasurable relationship to be fostered and maintained to a large extent by mothers. Many mothers have described how important it is to continue to provide close and proximate guidance for their sons, whilst many fathers appear to have taken on a more globalised view of their sons' reading. This 'big picture' view seems to arise not so much out of disinterest, as through a detachment which allows the son to 'go it alone' (c.f. Maloney, 1999; Nichols, 1994). Second, is the pragmatic orientation which, again, is described largely by mothers. This pragmatism underpins an investment (emotional, time, energy and financial) in the development and maintenance of literacy practices that are tied up with the futures envisaged for these boys. Moreover, this investment has another 'spin off' in that it allows mothers, particularly, to develop an awareness of what their sons are doing in regard to leisure-time reading.

From such 'reading relationships' the boys in this study have been set up for literacy as a valued cultural practice (see Bernstein, 1996; Bourdieu, 1991; Heath, 1983) so that the nexus between the family and the broader social-cultural context is maintained (Rogoff, 1995). The description of guided participation that has emerged from this study affirms the power of cultural practices that maintain commitment to reading in times of competing pleasures and demands. Many parents are busy in the day-to-day guidance of their children, but it is the way these parents talk about this guidance and point to the various fundamentals of guided participation that marks out the data as important. In naming the shared practices that they partake in, these parents provide a useful description of the 'reading relationships' that have been established and maintained in the home.

Hopefully, the picture that has emerged from our research on boys who are committed readers, and the family practices established around reading, reassures that whilst significant numbers of adolescent boys may need encouragement to read and continue reading, others are engaged in rich and intimate encounters.

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Wertsch, J., Del Rio, P., & Alvarez, A. (Eds) (1995). Sociocultural Studies of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Table 1: Frequency of reported practice Mother/ Father/ female male guardian guardian Inter-generational patterns 2 1 Interpersonal relationships (including that initiated by the boy) 39 23 Limited interpersonal relations 8 8 Collaborative guidance 27 12 Explicit guidance 8 4 No sharing practices 7 12 Table 2: Frequency of reported instances of guided participation offered by mothers and fathers across text types Mother Father Novels 39 19 Magazines 11 7 Internet 8 0 Computer games 3 0 CD ROM 2 0 Newspapers 26 19