This thesis examines the meaning of gender in terms of boys' reading literacy. The theoretical part is based on the definitions of reading literacy and continues with a chapter about PIRLS, a research that is an important indicator of the success of reading literacy in pupils aged between 9 and 10 years. Different factors of reading literacy are presented in a separate chapter since the level of reading literacy is not only influenced by gender, but by other factors as well, such as the family, parent’s education, socio-economic background of an individual, etc. All the different factors combined basically determine who we are, but my focus was on one factor specifically, i.e. the role of gender in reading literacy. Numerous definitions of reading literacy are mentioned alongside a number of important aspects of this issue by researchers from different professional fields (sociology, psychology, pedagogy). I also describe the Bourdieu's theory about the field, habitus and practice as an important part of this thesis, and one of the theories on the functioning of our society (we create society and society also creates us). The principal objective of the empirical part was to examine how the gender role is present in literacy, why it is so important and how it reproduces. I also researched the teachers’ point of view about the gender role in reading literacy and if they (pupils, teacher, librarian) divide reading material based on which is more suitable for which gender. The data was collected in two days through individual interviews with 10 fourth-grade pupils (5 girls and 5 boys), their teacher and their librarian, and through a short survey questionnaire created for describing the research group (pupils’ and parents’ attitude towards reading, their opinion on what is believed to be a common behaviour for specific gender, etc.). The results show that pupils, like their teacher and librarian, divide reading material based on individuals’ gender. The teacher and the librarian claim that they do not attach great importance to the gender role in connection to boys’ success in reading literacy, but do the opposite in practice. The most important finding of this research is that the teacher, librarian and pupils are not only the product of the society, but also create the society. This is also evident in the way they describe the genders (women and men), evaluate different activities, such as reading, among others, and behave or act in general.
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