themselves as readers as well as their preferred
reading materials and what are used by their
teachers to teach reading, we developed twentythree interview questions based on Burke
Reading Interview (Burke, 1980), SelfPerception as a Reader Survey (Clark & Foster,
2005), and Reading Preferences and Access
Survey (Worthy, Moorman & Turner, 1999).
Two reading professors took turns to conduct
one-on-one semistandardized interviews (Berg,
2004) with the boy students. Each interview
lasted about thirty minutes. The interviews were
recorded and then transcribed.
Content analysis was used to analyze the data
(Berg, 2004). First, we re-grouped the interview
questions by our research questions. Next, we
compiled students‘ responses to the interview
questions and identified emerging characteristics.
Findings
We present our findings by the research
questions, beginning with their perceptions of
themselves as readers. Next, we provide
information on their reading interests (e.g., book
titles, genres, and topics). Finally, we present a
comparison of what they like to read and what
are used by their teachers to teach reading based
on their responses to a checklist (The checklist
appeared in two of the interview questions).
How do the boys perceive themselves as
readers?
Reading is for both boys and girls. All except one
student reported that reading is for both girls and
boys because ―everyone should read,‖ ―some boys
love to read and some girls love to read,‖ ―girls
have to learn how to read and boys too,‖
―everyone can read,‖ and ―boys can read the same
way girls can read.‖ James, on the other hand,
believed reading is more f