As crenças da comunidade escolar sobre leitura: um estudo exploratório no Colégio de Aplicação na Universidade Federal de Sergipe

Abstract

Reading is a fundamental element in civic education, enabling a critical understanding of the literate world. Learning to read is considered a commitment for everyone, as stipulated in legal provisions that guide public policies. However, doubts persist regarding the concepts of “reading” and “school community” in official documents, especially in laws and decrees. This research aimed to analyze the beliefs of the school community about reading and compare them to the normative beliefs present in normative acts that govern the legislation in the country. The investigation is based on the Theory of Planned Action (TPA) (Ajzen, 1991), a derivation of the Theory of Rational Action (TAR) (Fishbein; Ajzen, 2015), according to which behavioral, normative, and control beliefs are constructed throughout life through personal experiences, social influences, and cultural references. These beliefs are also expressed in official documents, shaping normative guidelines that mold expectations and school practices. The first stage of the research consisted of a literature review that examined the normative framework related to reading from the 1988 Federal Constitution to 2025. Moreover, the assessment matrices of the National System for the Evaluation of Basic Education (SAEB) were compared with the average proficiency scores in Portuguese Language across published official documents. Scientific publications from the last ten years related to beliefs about reading in the Brazilian context were also analyzed. The results show that there are limiting structural obstacles to the effective implementation of reading policies. Recurring conceptual ambiguity was observed in the analyzed documents regarding the terms “reading” and “school community”, and the constant changes in evaluation scales compromise the continuity of actions and hinder collective accountability for improving reading proficiency. The empirical phase consisted of an observational, correlational, and crosssectional study with 202 participants aged between 13 and 63 years, including students, family members, and professionals from the Colégio de Aplicação – UFS. This diverse composition favored consistent psychometric analyzes of perceptions and beliefs about reading. The instrument used — comprising closed-ended questions, open-ended questions, and a Likert scale — showed evidence of content validity, supported by agreement among experts and by adequate quantitative indicators. In the open-ended questions, most of the participants (63.9%) interpreted reading as a positive commitment, indicating favorable behavioral beliefs and predominantly positive attitudes toward reading practice. However, a significant portion indicated that external conditions impede reading (21.5%), shifting the focus to structural and contextual factors, which relates to beliefs of control and the perception of barriers to engagement in reading practices. Regarding government programs to encourage reading and low levels of proficiency, a strong tendency was observed towards attributing individual responsibility (36.2%) or diffuse responsibility (“blame others”, 35.1%), followed by blaming the education system (28.6%). This model suggests a process of external and internal attribution that influences normative and control beliefs, shifting the axis of responsibility either to the individual or to abstract instances of the system. Furthermore, most participants recognized the centrality of the teacher in teaching reading, but in a way that is integrated with individual will (62.1%) or with the involvement of family, peers, and the environment (24.3%), which demonstrates a more complex and systemic understanding of the phenomenon, aligned with the Theory of Planned Action (TPA), by articulating normative beliefs (expectations about the teacher's role), behavioral beliefs (value of instruction), and control beliefs (environmental conditions). Finally, when asked who constitutes a school community, a minority restricted the concept to students and teachers (8.8%), the majority included school professionals (48.4%) and family (30.2%), and a smaller group broadened the definition to encompass government and other social actors (12.6%). This finding is relevant from the perspective of normative beliefs, as it reveals different levels of recognition of the network of social influences that shape educational and reading practices. The results allow for an understanding of the school community’s beliefs about reading and can support research, pedagogical interventions, and public policies aimed at building school contexts that promote reading engagement.