Rivers of reading: Using critical incident collages to learn about adolescent readers and their readership

Abstract

This article arises from a study of 12–13-year‐old habitual and committed readers. The research foregrounds the sociocultural and spatial dimensions of their reading, exploring how encounters with other readers and different reading practices contribute to their readership. Many reading researchers favour survey‐style methodology, whilst acknowledging the need to explore young people’s reading in greater depth. The design of this research therefore involves different research methods. The article focuses on one of these methods which requires readers to create critical incident collages of their reading histories. I argue that it generates valuable data for both researchers and teachers and encourages a more intricate view of the complexity of reading.