Volitional reading, ‘disturbing’ books, and the transformation of readers

Abstract

Although reading comprehension research and instruction commonly focus on individuals’ ability to extract meaning from text, eighth-grade students whose teachers chose to focus on engaged volitional reading, rather than comprehension, demonstrated expansive forms of meaning-making and purpose. Interviews and observations across two school years indicated many of students’ preferred books were those they considered ‘disturbing’–narratives that revealed difficult and complex realities about humanity and that frequently caused readers to be confused or uncertain, which might be deemed ‘incomprehension’. This reading provoked self-reflection and meaningful conversations that students linked to social, intellectual, and moral transformation. Meanings made through volitional reading, particularly of texts that produced uncertainty, suggest the need to expand what is meant by ‘comprehension’ and to shift the goals of instruction toward ‘a pedagogy of discomfort’ (Boler 1999) that produces dialogic tensions rather agreed-upon meanings.