Researchers have long been documenting the decline in reading habits of Americans, particularly adolescents and young adults. Reading for pleasure has been declining for the last three decades. Young people claim that reading is boring and irrelevant to their fast-paced, largely digital lives. In the past two decades, the decline of reading has captured wide attention, but most of that attention has been focused on urban and suburban settings. A gap exists in the research when it comes to rural students and their reading habits. Using photo elicitation, I gained an understanding of reading identity as it relates to rural teenagers in Georgia. Specifically, I explored how they position themselves as readers and how they describe and interpret their reading lives.
","abstract_html":"<p>Researchers have long been documenting the decline in reading habits of Americans, particularly adolescents and young adults. Reading for pleasure has been declining for the last three decades. Young people claim that reading is boring and irrelevant to their fast-paced, largely digital lives. In the past two decades, the decline of reading has captured wide attention, but most of that attention has been focused on urban and suburban settings. A gap exists in the research when it comes to rural students and their reading habits. Using photo elicitation, I gained an understanding of reading identity as it relates to rural teenagers in Georgia. Specifically, I explored how they position themselves as readers and how they describe and interpret their reading lives.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Brown, Gena"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Education in Secondary Education - English (Ed.D)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Secondary and Middle Grades Education","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Camille Sutton-Fox","Dr. Darren Crovitz","Dr. Robert Montgomery"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-05-12T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2023-05-12T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:43:58Z","subjects":["rural","rural education","reading","reading identity","place","photo elicitation","Language and Literacy Education","Other Education","Secondary Education"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/eddsmge/8","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Camille Sutton-Fox","Dr. Darren Crovitz","Dr. Robert Montgomery"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Brown, Gena"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-04-28T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Secondary and Middle Grades Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Education in Secondary Education - English (Ed.D)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["rural","rural education","reading","reading identity","place","photo elicitation","Language and Literacy Education","Other Education","Secondary Education"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/eddsmge/8"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Researchers have long been documenting the decline in reading habits of Americans, particularly adolescents and young adults. Reading for pleasure has been declining for the last three decades. Young people claim that reading is boring and irrelevant to their fast-paced, largely digital lives. In the past two decades, the decline of reading has captured wide attention, but most of that attention has been focused on urban and suburban settings. A gap exists in the research when it comes to rural students and their reading habits. Using photo elicitation, I gained an understanding of reading identity as it relates to rural teenagers in Georgia. Specifically, I explored how they position themselves as readers and how they describe and interpret their reading lives.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Rural Voices: A Photographic Journey of the Intersection of Place and Reading Identity in Rural Adolescents"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Camille Sutton-Fox","Dr. Darren Crovitz","Dr. Robert Montgomery"],"dc:creator":["Brown, Gena"],"dc:date.available":["2023-04-28T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Researchers have long been documenting the decline in reading habits of Americans, particularly adolescents and young adults. Reading for pleasure has been declining for the last three decades. Young people claim that reading is boring and irrelevant to their fast-paced, largely digital lives. In the past two decades, the decline of reading has captured wide attention, but most of that attention has been focused on urban and suburban settings. A gap exists in the research when it comes to rural students and their reading habits. Using photo elicitation, I gained an understanding of reading identity as it relates to rural teenagers in Georgia. Specifically, I explored how they position themselves as readers and how they describe and interpret their reading lives.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/eddsmge/8"],"dc:subject":["rural","rural education","reading","reading identity","place","photo elicitation","Language and Literacy Education","Other Education","Secondary Education"],"dc:title":["Rural Voices: A Photographic Journey of the Intersection of Place and Reading Identity in Rural Adolescents"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Secondary and Middle Grades Education"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Education in Secondary Education - English (Ed.D)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:43:58Z"}