What has Harry Potter done for me? : children's reflections on their 'Potter experience'

Dempster, Steven and Sunderland, Jane and Thistlethwaite, Jo and Oliver, Alice (2016) What has Harry Potter done for me? : children's reflections on their 'Potter experience'. Children's Literature in Education, 47 (3). pp. 267-282. ISSN 1573-1693

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Abstract

This article reports findings from a small-scale focus group study funded by the British Academy which examines children’s literacy practices in relation to the seven Harry Potter novels. Drawing on Marsh and Shavelson’s (1985) notion of Academic Self-concept, and Barton and Hamilton’s (1998) view of literacy as context-specific social practices, we examine what young British Potter ‘enthusiasts’ perceive as the influence of the novels on their subsequent reading behaviours and academic development. Specifically, we consider whether these children feel that Harry Potter has helped improve their reading, whether they think the books have changed their attitudes to reading, the role of the films, and whether there are any gender tendencies. We conclude that these Potter enthusiasts view the series as formative in terms of their literacy, but regarding gender, intra-group variation is far greater than inter-group variation.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Children's Literature in Education
Additional Information:
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10583-015-9267-x
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3304
Subjects:
?? children’s reading practicesgenderharry potterliteracy developmentacademic self-concepteducationlinguistics and language ??
ID Code:
74645
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
21 Oct 2015 04:57
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Mar 2024 00:46