Exploring the School Literacy Program and Reading Interest of Fourth-Grade Students in Muaro Jambi Regency

Abstract

This case study examined how school literacy programs were carried out in practice and how implementation connected to fourth graders' reading interest, in four elementary schools in Sekernan District, Muaro Jambi Regency, Indonesia. The four schools sit along the same access road within one sub-district, and were chosen through criterion sampling because preliminary observation showed a similar symptom, inconsistent fifteen-minute reading, at each school. Over twelve days, the researcher observed without participating, interviewed twenty-four informants (principals, teachers, students, librarians, staff), and reviewed documents, then analyzed the material using Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña's within-case and cross-case procedures. Literacy practice across all four schools remained at a shaky habituation stage: only the reading session and library visits were running at all, and even those only partially, while writing and appreciation activities never happened. Across every site, the literacy slot was handed to numeracy content on one of three observed days, suggesting teachers and principals alike may have conflated literacy with numeracy. Among the eight fourth graders followed for reading interest, six showed little enthusiasm toward reading. Self-determination theory helped explain why: none of the three basic psychological needs it identifies, choice, competence, and connection to others, were nurtured by the school program, yet the two students who enjoyed reading described parental encouragement at home. The findings suggest the program struggled less for lack of facilities, which were present though worn and outdated, than because implementers did not share a clear understanding of what it was for.