Leisure reading contributes to literacy, but Norwegian students read less than before. This paper present findings from interviews with students who are going against this trend. They read more than their classmates. Why do they do that? Research has pointed to a lack of reading motivation as the main reason why students choose not to read (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000). If the school is to support students' leisure reading, strengthening their motivation should be central. Therefore, we investigate the type of motivation these most avid readers have, and what the motivation means for their reading habits. The purpose is to find out how the school can promote students' leisure reading in the best possible way. The theoretical starting point is Ryan & Deci’s (2017) distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation. Autonomous motivation is based on an experience of self-determination, while controlled motivation is induced by an internal or external pressure. Research has shown a positive connection between autonomous motivation and amount of reading (De Naeghel et al., 2012).When we conducted a survey among sixth graders at eight schools in the Oslo area, we were able to confirm this (Stavem & Skaar, accepted for publication). In this study, we continue to examine the motivation of the most avid readers. Teachers at the eight schools that had participated in the survey selected the girl and boy who read the most in their classes, and the students' parents gave their consent to individual, semi-structured interviews.

In the analysis of the interviews, we first carried out an empirically close coding of the entire material (Tjora, 2021 p.218).We then arranged these codes into six groups: Selection and acquisition of books, The reading situation, Students’ own valuing and benefit from reading, Others' valuing and benefit from reading, Reading and other leisure activities, The books the students read. Within all these categories, parents, grandparents, and older siblings emerged as the most important role models, norm-givers and facilitators of students' leisure reading. We used Ryan and Deci's motivation theory (2017) as the basis for the further analysis. Their continuum from lack of motivation to inherently autonomous motivation gave us the basis for making a typology of the students' reading motivation. Ryan and Deci link autonomous motivation to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and thus greater well-being or quality of life than controlled motivation.

We found that parents, grandparents and older siblings as the role models, norm givers and facilitators primarily contributed to autonomous, but also to a certain extent to controlled, reading motivation. Input from teachers, librarians and other school-based measures played a much more modest role in the students' description of what actually made them read in their leisure time. For the least autonomously motivated students, it was important to experience reading as pleasant, and as a better option than the alternatives. For these students, reading was closely linked to their parents' active facilitation. More autonomously motivated students made their own choices to a greater extent. Some shared their reading with friends, and some found the choice of books meaningful and significant for themselves. The most autonomously motivated students considered reading as an interest they prioritized regardless of social circumstances. They had independent reading preferences and were also the ones who read the most. Overall, support from home appears to be the most important prerequisite for 6th graders choosing to read in their leisure time. At the same time, the interviews suggest that a deep and strong autonomous motivation for leisure reading will be linked to more personal, and thus perhaps less influenceable, needs and dispositions. Under any circumstances, the school should, to the greatest extent possible, try to make use of the strong emotional bonds that parents may have established for reading in early phases of the student's life. Parents should be made aware of this and receive written information from the school or be informed at parent meetings about the importance of their own involvement in the student's reading. They should also be made aware of the value of engaging with the student's reading in a way that promotes autonomous reading motivation.

De Naeghel, J., Van Keer, H., Vansteenkiste, M., & Rosseel, Y. (2012). The Relation Between Elementary Students' Recreational and Academic Reading Motivation, Reading Frequency, Engagement, and Comprehension: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 1006-1021. Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 3, pp. 403–422). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: basic psychological needs inmotivation, development, and wellness. Guilford Press. Stavem & Skaar (accepted for publication). Hva får elever til å lese på fritiden? Om lesemotivasjon, sjangervalg og mediebruk på 6. trinn. (What makes students read for pleasure? 6.graders’ reading motivation, genre preferences and media use) Tjora, A.(2021). Kvalitative forskningsmetoder i praksis (4.edition). Gyldendal. (Qualitative Research in Practice)