Return of the love of reading: Terminology of motivation in Finnish reading research after the Second World War

Authors

• Ilkka Mäkinen Tampereen yliopisto

Abstract

This article studies how motivational terminology has been used in Finnish research on reading since the Second World War. The background for this rhetoric is the role of the concept “love of reading” (lukuhalu) in the ideology of the Finnish national movement in the 19th century, which was part of the international discourse on the intrinsic motivation for reading or love of reading. Since the early 20th century, emotional phraseology, such as “love of reading,” has been used less in official and scholarly writings. The role of motivational terms in the sociological research of the 1950s was meagre. This limited the goals of the large reading research project in the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, attempts were made to explore methodological perspectives on the inclusion of motivational elements in research. During the recent decades, the international renaissance of motivational research in reading triggered by the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests has inspired Finnish research and has deeply influenced the general discourse on reading, as it did at the end of the 19th century.