Promoting reading 1
Chapter 2. Reading Some approaches to reading Res
earcher Sten Furhammar (1997) has divided some common approaches to reading into four main categories. These categories should not be perceived as either static, hierarchical or with clear boundaries in relation to each other. • Impersonal experiential reading is focused on entertainment and leisure, where connections between the text and the reader’s own experiences are rare. • Personal experiential reading means that the reader makes connections between the text and the reader’s own experience. • Impersonal instrumental reading aims to acquire knowledge that can directly be translated into other contexts. • Personal instrumental reading has a therapeutic effect in the form of consolation or existential self-reflection, for example. There is a connection between what Furhammar denotes as personal experiential reading and reading motivation. The possibility of making connections between what one reads and one’s own life, referred to as subjective relevance, has been highlighted by the research as an important motivating factor. Another factor is the opportunity to make one’s own choices. Here, a well-known dilemma emerges: should the reader decide on the selection entirely, or is there reason to try to influence the reader in new directions? The answer you give depends on how you understand your role as a literature mediator. Furhammar’s typology gives examples of approaches based on the reader’s perspective. Looking at reading from the mediator’s perspective, a distinction has been drawn between the pragmatic, traditionalist and emancipatory approaches. This model occurs in many quarters in the research on libraries and reading promotion (see for example Rydsjö & Elf 2007). • The pragmatic approach means that the teacher/librarian prioritizes that children and adolescents read, without having any views on the content of what they are reading. • The traditionalist approach entails wanting to convey a cultural heritage in the form of stories, Swedish children’s book authors, or key classics. • The emancipatory approach instead focuses on the individual and critical development of the student’s reading. Many researchers have similarly identified a kind of third position, between public education and demand – or conservator and the market if you wish – related to how librarians perceive their professional roles in relation to library users. In her thesis Mellom elite og publikum: litterær smak og litteraturformidling blant bibliotekarer i norske folkebibliotek (Between the elite and the masses: literary tastes and literature mediation among librarians in Norwegian public libraries) (2002), the Norwegian library researcher Jofrid 19