Academic reading: Fear and trembling or being and belonging?

Saville, Jane; Cooper, Tasha; Hunt, Stephen

Abstract

Context: a two-year project focusing on reading, most of which involved embedding collaborative reading techniques into curricula.
• Literature review on the emotional barriers to engaging with academic reading. These include:
- lack of confidence in ability (Xu, 2021)
- a boring, isolating experience, a ‘grudging act’ (Mason & Warmington, 2024)
- disengagement (Maguire, Reynolds & Delahunt, 2020)
- alienation, leading to reduced sense of belonging
- lack of capacity or motivation ( Baker et al., 2019)
- shame (Huda, 2022)
• Previous research ignores issues of equity and social justice (Huda, 2022)
• Key message: Academic reading is intimidating, and collaborative activities are effective because students understand they are not alone in feeling this way. Sharing different perspectives on a reading task demystifies the process of ‘de-coding’ a text, which gives students confidence.
• Feedback from our students after engaging with collaborative reading tasks indicates both fear and trembling about academic reading, but also that the tasks are beneficial to counter the emotional barriers and can foster a sense of being and belonging.

• Presentation Conference Type: Poster
• Conference Name: ALDcon24
• Start Date: Jun 14, 2024
• End Date: Jun 18, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Jun 14, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 6, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 6, 2025
• Electronic ISSN: 1759-667X
• Publisher: Association for Learning Development in Higher Education
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi32.1446
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/14546876
• External URL: https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1446