Engagement With Young Adult Literature: Outcomes and Processes

Abstract This study examines students' perceptions of the outcomes and processes of engaged reading in classrooms prioritizing engagement through self‐selected, self‐paced reading of compelling young adult literature. The primary data were 71 end‐of‐year student interviews, supported by end‐of‐year teacher interviews, biweekly observational data, on‐the‐fly conversations with students, and video/audio records of student‐initiated book discussions. An inductive analysis yielded 15 main categories of outcomes, including changes in students' identities, in their sense of agency, and in their relational, moral, and intellectual lives. The web of relationships among the processes and outcomes is examined through 317 causal statements made by students in interviews. Finally, a case study illustrates the cascading and reciprocal effects of engaged reading on one student's development. These adolescents showed, to varying degrees, an awareness of these processes and self‐transformations, and thus a sense of agency with respect to their own development—their personhood and future narratives. This study raises questions about the adequacy of existing models of engagement for explaining students' engaged reading experiences and about currently advocated approaches to teaching English language arts that (a) minimize the roles of engagement and fiction, (b) require students to read the same text, (c) focus on engaged reading as an individual cognitive act without regard for the social nature of literate and human development, and (d) expect uniform outcomes across students.