2021- 2025

Narrative fiction provides opportunities for readers to learn more about themselves, and others, and can support young people’s identity development, empathy and perspective taking; however very little research has sought young people’s experiences of this.

This project aims to understand young people’s experiences with narrative fiction and the extent to which reading provides a mirror (understanding oneself) and window (understanding others).  Following from this, we plan to co-create (with young people and literacy organisations) a guide to enhance young people’s reflective literacy practices, to encourage and support deep and meaningful engagement with fiction.

Academic article:

Santi, E., Cebula, K., & McGeown, S. (2025). Reading and Empathy: Qualitative insights into adolescents’ experiences with fiction books. Literacy, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lit.70006

Book chapter:

Santi, E., Cebula, K., & McGeown, S. (2024).  Understanding Teenagers Experiences of Reading Fiction.  In The Reading Lives of Teens: Research and Practice (Ed. Loh, C. E.). Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Reading-Lives-of-Teens-Research-and-Practice/Loh/p/book/9781032619781?srsltid=AfmBOopBec1SFEYitsMhEYj88fljtY6_HzwOfPFW9sP1VpeMBqkEMwHY

Blogpost:

BERA Special Issue blogpost: https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/reading-and-narrative-fiction-understanding-ourselves-and-others

You can access the preregistration for this project here: https://osf.io/h4xu2

To learn more about this project, please contact Sarah McGeown: s.mcgeown@ed.ac.uk

Project Team:
PhD Researcher: Elena Santi, University of Edinburgh

First Supervisor: Professor Sarah McGeown, University of Edinburgh
Second Supervisor: Dr Katie Cebula, University of Edinburgh

With thanks to Moray Endowment Fund.