Reading for digital futures: a lens to consider social justice issues in student literacy experiences in the digital age

Abstract

Acceleration of digital communication has changed the nature of reading and young people today need to engage multimodal skills for reading success in the digital world. While historically there have been social justice issues for marginalised students in terms of reading, the digital age is creating new equity issues across the globe. This article draws on Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework to explore Year 3 student (n = 318) beliefs about the value of reading, their reading practices and their opportunities for developing digital reading skills. Findings illustrate that students believe that reading is a valuable skill–however a surprising finding was the focus on reading to secure a good job. Of concern, the students’ situatedness and personal reading experiences did not necessarily prepare them for success as readers or offer the resources required to transition into the careers to which they aspired.