THE BOARDING LITERACY CYCLE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN’S READING PRACTICES IN AN ISLAMIC BOARDING SCHOOL

Abstract

This study explores elementary school children’s reading practices in an Islamic boarding school and conceptualizes them as a boarding literacy cycle. The concept refers to the circulation of children’s reading practices across classrooms, libraries, dormitories, peer networks, family support, and adult guidance within a residential educational environment. It is used to explain how reading is initiated, sustained, mediated, and sometimes interrupted across the integrated learning and living spaces of the boarding school. Using a qualitative case study design, data were generated through semi-structured interviews, shared-reading activities, focus group discussions, observations, and field notes involving six elementary school children and one supervising ustaz at Yayasan Al Ashriyyah Nurul Iman Islamic Boarding School, Parung, Bogor. The findings show that children understood reading as a school task, entertainment, curiosity, knowledge acquisition, and a way to learn values from story characters. Their reading preferences were shaped by comics, illustrated books, and character-based stories, while access to recreational reading materials remained limited. Peer interaction supported questioning and shared understanding, but also created embarrassment and pressure in public reading situations. As a small, single-site case study, the findings are not intended for broad generalization, but offer contextual insight into how children’s reading practices are organized within a residential Islamic educational environment.