"We're in Charge of What We're Saying, What We Discuss, What We Want to Read": A Qualitative

268 Pages·2017·2.19 MB·English

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Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations
Summer 2010
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Jie Y. Park
University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations
Part of the Education Commons
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Park, Jie Y., ""We're in Charge of What We're Saying, What We Discuss, What We Want to Read": A
Qualitative Inquiry Into Adolescent Girls' After-School Book Clubs" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn
Dissertations. 195.
https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/195
This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/195
For more information, please contact [email protected].
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This qualitative study examines the ways in which 23 early adolescent and adolescent girls and their
literacy teacher co-constructed, participated in, and experienced an after-school book club located in a
school setting. The book club met biweekly to discuss a student-selected text (e.g., fiction, non-fiction,
song lyrics) over the course of one academic year. Using ethnographic methods, I explored what
happened in the after-school book club, and how the girls’ race, gender, and class identities informed their
readings of texts and emerged in their talk.
From the data I identified several critical themes and learnings. First, the girls understood, talked about,
and practiced reading as deeply relational and embedded in human relationships. Social relationships,
family networks, and peer groups were identified as important factors that motivated the girls to read, and
that sustained the girls’ commitment to reading. Second, the social aspect of book clubs—reading with
others—fostered critical readings of and deeper engagement with texts. In and through reading and
talking together, the girls reflected on, questioned, and debated the role of race, gender, and class. The
girls also initiated and sustained conversations that reflected the ways in which they understood
themselves, other people, and their worlds. As readers the girls assumed a critical inquiry stance,
inquiring into and grappling with difficult social and economic realities. Third, the girls assumed a range of
roles and responsibilities for forming and sustaining the book club. Lastly, the girls demonstrated their
understanding of in-school and out-of-school contexts as reciprocal–i.e., that texts, social practices,
knowledge and identities travel between and across contexts.
The implications emerging from this study are relevant to the work of teachers, researchers, literacy-
curriculum writers, after-school program coordinators, and others committed to supporting adolescent
learners in both in-school and out-of-school settings. This study can prompt educators to re-imagine and
reconstruct learning environments—both in and out of school—that can engage, challenge, and inspire
adolescent learners. It can also generate conversation within the education research community about
the possibilities and challenges involved in studying after-school spaces of literacy learning and
engagement.
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Dissertation
DDeeggrreeee NNaammee
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Education
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Vivian L. Gadsden
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Susan L. Lytle
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Michael W. Smith
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adolescent literacy, book clubs, after-school learning, reading
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Education
This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/195
―WE‘RE IN CHARGE OF WHAT WE‘RE SAYING, WHAT WE DISCUSS, AND
WHAT WE WANT TO READ‖: A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY INTO ADOLESCENT
GIRLS‘ AFTER-SCHOOL BOOK CLUBS

Jie Y. Park
A DISSERTATION
in
Education

Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania
In

Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
2010

Supervisor of Dissertation:

_______________________________________
Vivian L. Gadsden, Professor of Education

Graduate Group Chair:

______________________________________
Stanton E.F. Wortham, Professor of Education

Dissertation Committee:

Vivian L. Gadsden, Professor of Education
Susan L. Lytle, Professor of Education
Michael W. Smith, Professor of Education
―We‘re in charge of what we‘re saying, what we discuss, and what we want to read‖: A
qualitative inquiry into adolescent girls‘ after-school book clubs

COPYRIGHT
2010
Jie Y. Park
Acknowledgements

This dissertation is a study about what it means for adolescent girls to be part of a
community in which their literate lives and identities can be fostered. As such, it is also about the
possibilities of reading, learning, and talking together. I have been fortunate to be part of many
communities, which have supported me intellectually and personally. First, I would like to thank
Dr. Vivian Gadsden, my advisor and mentor. Vivian has challenged, supported, and inspired me
in my attempts to become a better researcher, educator, and advocate of students and families. I
would also like to thank Dr. Susan Lytle, who encouraged me to invent the teaching and research
opportunities I desired. Many of the ideas in this dissertation came from my work with Vivian
and Susan.
I owe much gratitude to Susan Bickerstaff, my thought-partner. Over the years, we have
learned how to research and teach together, and how to be friends. I still have much to learn from
and with her. I need to thank Kathleen Riley and the amazing women who are part of the Reading
Inquiry Group; Molly Buckley, who taught me the possibilities and challenges of co-authorship.;
and Colin Connor, who proofread each page and kept me sane and even happy.
I would like to thank the members of my family: Mom, Dad, and Jai. They have taught
me how to love and care for others, and valued my aspirations. Finally, I am indebted to Ms.
Heather for opening her classroom and making it possible for me to meet a group of
sophisticated, funny, generous, and smart girls; and the 23 girls who inspired, humbled, and
taught me something new every Tuesday and Thursday.

iii
ABSTRACT

WE’RE IN CHARGE OF WHAT WE’RE SAYING, WHAT WE DISCUSS, AND WHAT
WE WANT TO READ”: A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY INTO ADOLESCENT GIRLS’
AFTER-SCHOOL BOOK CLUBS

Jie Y. Park

Vivian L. Gadsden

This qualitative study examines the ways in which 23 early adolescent and adolescent
girls and their literacy teacher co-constructed, participated in, and experienced an after-school
book club located in a school setting. The book club met biweekly to discuss a student-selected
text (e.g., fiction, non-fiction, song lyrics) over the course of one academic year. Using
ethnographic methods, I explored what happened in the after-school book club, and how the girls‘
race, gender, and class identities informed their readings of texts and emerged in their talk.
From the data I identified several critical themes and learnings. First, the girls
understood, talked about, and practiced reading as deeply relational and embedded in human
relationships. Social relationships, family networks, and peer groups were identified as important
factors that motivated the girls to read, and that sustained the girls‘ commitment to reading.
Second, the social aspect of book clubs—reading with others—fostered critical readings of and
deeper engagement with texts. In and through reading and talking together, the girls reflected on,
questioned, and debated the role of race, gender, and class. The girls also initiated and sustained
conversations that reflected the ways in which they understood themselves, other people, and
their worlds. As readers the girls assumed a critical inquiry stance, inquiring into and grappling
with difficult social and economic realities. Third, the girls assumed a range of roles and
responsibilities for forming and sustaining the book club. Lastly, the girls demonstrated their
understanding of in-school and out-of-school contexts as reciprocal–i.e., that texts, social
practices, knowledge and identities travel between and across contexts.
iv
The implications emerging from this study are relevant to the work of teachers,
researchers, literacy-curriculum writers, after-school program coordinators, and others committed
to supporting adolescent learners in both in-school and out-of-school settings. This study can
prompt educators to re-imagine and reconstruct learning environments—both in and out of
school—that can engage, challenge, and inspire adolescent learners. It can also generate
conversation within the education research community about the possibilities and challenges
involved in studying after-school spaces of literacy learning and engagement.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: Significance, Research Questions & Theoretical Frameworks

Story of the Question 1
Significance of Study: Why After-School Book Clubs? 3
Why All Girls? The Promises and Challenges of Studying Girls 6
Research Questions 12
Organization of Dissertation 13
Theoretical Frameworks 14

CHAPTER II: Review of Literature

Review of Relevant Literature 22

CHAPTER III: Methodology & Data Analysis

Setting 34
Recruiting Heather and Adolescent Girls 37
Participants: Who Are the Girls? 39
Methodology and Data Collection Methods 42
Negotiating researcher positionality 46
Adolescents as co-researchers 49
Data Analysis 50

CHAPTER IV: What Kind of Space is an After-School Book Club?

It‘s Kinda Like School, But Not Really: After-School Book Clubs as 55
Liminal Spaces of Literacy Learning and Engagement

Making Sense of a New Context: What‘s Say-able, Do-able, 58
and Read-able in an After-School Book Club?

If I See Ms. Heather, I Automatically Think School: 60
The Presence of School Literacy Practices and Beliefs

We Sort of Got Off Topic Though: Liminal Spaces as Supporting 64
Students‘ Multiple Ideas and Questions

You Can Share More Opinions More Freely: 69
Enlarging the Scope of Conversations

vi
Our Teacher Is Equal with Us: 72
The Multiple Positionalties of Ms. Heather

I Know How to Act in School: Language, Identities, and Knowledge 74
Valued Inside Schools

I Love Hyori and Boa: Liminal Spaces as Supporting 77
Girl‘s Multiple Identities and Subject Positions

Learning in Liminal Spaces: 83
Adolescents Connecting In- and Out-of-School Learning

Summary 95

CHAPTER V: My Friends, They Got Me into these Books

I Want to Join Your Conversation: 99
Reading to Form and Maintain Friendships

My Friends Would Always Tell Me to Read Other Books: 102
Supporting Positive Identity Development of Adolescent Readers

Cause My Dad was the One Who Wanted to Read it with me: 105
Family as Social Context for Literacy Engagement

I‘ve Been Going Online a lot to Look for People‘s Opinions of Books: 108
Relating to Readers on Virtual Spaces

Talking ―Literacy‖ During Lunch: Literate Talk at Harmony 110

And Yet, We Found This Odd Type of Unity: 112
Forging New Relationships and Understandings
Summary 117
CHAPTER VI: Constructions of the Book Club

Roles and Responsibilities 120

Challenges and Complexities of After-School Book Clubs 132

Summary 146

CHAPTER VII: Adolescents as Readers-Inquirers-Theorizers

Reading as/for Critical Inquiry 150

They‘re Really Racist. They Believe in Stereotypes and Stuff: 151
The Salience of Race in Girls‘ talk

vii