How do future teachers describe, analyze and value their reading training?

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that pre-service teachers are not expert readers and have serious limitations when confronting literary texts. We however ignore how they describe, analyze and value their reading training. In this article, we analyze, by means of semi-structured interviews, the reading career of 15 primary pre-service teachers, since their childhood until the end of their university degree. The results revealed that most of the participants: (1) lack a reading habit and reflect an instrumental view of reading and of literature; (2) suggest that passing through Primary and Secondary Education has not meant for them a stimulus for gaining knowledge about dynamic practices in reading; and (3) consider the pedagogical training received at the university as insufficient. All they agree, however, (4) in their commitment as facilitators of reading in their near future as teachers. This study suggests, unlike previous research, that primary pre-service teachers recognize the limitations of their reading training, and points out the need to address this problem that directly affects the reading competence of our school students.