Reading profiles of public school teachers in Araucanía, Chile A construction of reading concepts

Abstract

Reading levels remain deficient among basic education students in Chile and in Araucanía. Likewise, docent reading practices lacked diversity. The purpose of the study was to analyze how teachers in the Araucanía region conceive of reading. The design was descriptive and qualitative; participants consisted of 20 teachers from 18 public schools located in the most populated communes, to who were applied semi-structured interviews, to which phenomenographic analysis was applied. The study determined that teachers displayed predominantly reproductive and epistemic concepts with emphasis one of either profiles, and that this relationship is defined by the reading’s purpose. Teachers with more reproductive tendencies displayed pragmatic and strategic objectives closely bound to the text, while the most epistemic ones link this activity to pleasure and their identity, and were more inclusive.