EXPRESSIONS OF READING CURIOSITY: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY OF BLACK FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS ENGAGED IN ASSET-BASED READING INSTRUCTION

Abstract

Standardized approaches to reading instruction have long marginalized students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, frequently erasing their voices and undervaluing their lived experiences (Rigell et al., 2022; Paris & Alim, 2017; Valencia, 2010). Asset-based pedagogies offer a contrasting approach by viewing students’ cultural knowledge, language, and lived realities as resources for learning (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Gay, 2010; González et al., 2005). Research has demonstrated achievement gains when instruction validates these assets, but little is known about how such approaches might also cultivate reading curiosity (López, 2017; Aronson & Laughter, 2016).

Curiosity is a fundamental property of achievement motivation and often referenced as a driving force of academic achievement (Renninger & Hidi, 2019). Yet, emerging scholarships asserts that motivation looks different across cultures due to the meaning of achievement being culturally mediated by unique values and traditions (Zhang et al, 2024). Recognizing these differences could be essential to helping all students, especially those from historically marginalized communities to thrive. However, there has been little quantitative or qualitative analysis that investigates curiosity within the context of reading instruction for Black students. To address this gap, this dissertation investigates: (1) How do Black fourth-grade students define reading curiosity? (2) In what ways do individual students’ task and text feature preferences influence their engagement and curiosity during one-on-one virtual tutoring sessions using e-books and asset-based pedagogy? And (3) what similarities and differences emerge in how students verbally and behaviorally express curiosity during these sessions?

Using a qualitative multiple case study design, five students engaged in ten consecutive weekdays of virtual, one-on-one tutoring modeled after a high-impact tutoring format. I designed a ten-lesson series, Culture Curious, grounded in asset-based pedagogy and Afrocentric praxis to explore how Black students enact reading curiosity during literacy instruction. Each mini-lesson targeted a specific Common Core State Standard (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) and featured an African Diasporic mentor e-text highlighting Black characters, culture, or historical events. Findings reveal that students defined curiosity as an internally driven process of questioning, novelty-seeking, and personal connection; that preferences for text features and task structures significantly shaped curiosity; and that verbal and behavioral indicators included spontaneous questioning, reflective commentary, digital navigation, and storytelling tied to culture and lived experience. These results demonstrate that reading curiosity is not an incidental trait but a recursive and identity-affirming process and offer implications for reading instruction that safeguards inquiry, affirms culture, and positions curiosity as central to both literacy growth and educational justice.