UC Davis

Extant research indicates culturally relevant literature (CRL) is linked to increased reading comprehension and interest in reading for Latinx students as well as other student groups. Current research also shows CRL can support home literacy instruction, facilitate writing instruction, foster sociopolitical awareness, underpin behavior interventions, and promote disciplinary literacy. However, despite this growing body of research, gaps in the literature addressing CRL remain. For example, far too few studies have incorporated participants’ views on the cultural relevance of the literature they are asked to read. There is also little research that explores CRL’s relationship to outcomes on typical daily classroom assignments.My mixed-methods study addresses these limitations and provides a deeper understanding of how researchers, teachers, administrators, and policymakers can capture student readers’ perspectives on the literature they are asked to read as part of our studies and our classes. Specifically, my study offers an updated version of Paulson and Freeman’s cultural relevance rubric, which has been employed by other studies. My updated version of the rubric allows students who identify as nonbinary to more easily respond to a question meant to capture the gender facet of cultural relevance. Additionally, my study features an interview protocol that is tied to the rubric and allows for the collection of qualitative data from student–readers to augment the quantitative data the rubric provides. Regarding classroom assignments, my study features quantitative analysis of a theme paragraph assignment from my English language arts curriculum for the seventh grade, and I provide context for these assignment scores with qualitative data from semistructured interviews with the students. First, my quantitative analysis of the data generated from the cultural relevance rubric revealed that students did find the intervention story I selected from my study, “Sol Painting, Inc.” by Meg Medina (2017), more culturally relevant than the control story I selected, “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury (originally published in 1953). Next, my measure of reading comprehension, the theme paragraph assignment, revealed higher average scores for students working with the intervention story as compared to the scores of students working with the control story, though independent t tests did not reveal statistically significant differences in these scores. In my quantitative analysis, I also explored outcomes on the theme paragraph for the following student subgroups: female students, male students, students who are designated as English learners, and students who receive special education services. Findings for these student subgroups mirrored the overall analytic sample. Second, qualitative data from my study’s semistructured interviews showed students most strongly identified with the character and plot facets of cultural relevance. That is, students were able to draw connections between the characters in the story and people from their own lives while determining a theme in the text and making meaning with the text. Qualitative interview data also showed students applied their own lived experiences in similar ways when using plot of the story to determine its themes. In other words, the experiences facet of cultural relevance was also an important element for making meaning with the text for the students who participated in my study. Finally, qualitative interview data showed all five students in the purposive sample indicated they found the intervention story both an enjoyable read and a meaningful part of the curriculum.