Sara Jones, PhD

Dr. Sara Jones is an Assistant Professor of Elementary Education–Literacy in the School of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University. Her research focuses on exploring adolescent reading motivation in ways that are more humanizing, responsive, and culturally sustaining.

Recent Scholarship

Jones, S. (2024). Situative Black Girlhood Reading Motivations: Why and How Black Girls Read and Comprehend Text. Education Sciences, 14(5), 474. ( open access! )

Jones, S. (2024). Black girls’ reading motivations: Centering their perspectives and experiences to redefine a hegemonic construct. Urban Education, 59(5), 1295-1331.

Jones, S. (2022). Illuminating the Call: Who Are You and Whose Are You? Centering Students’ Identities in How We Understand Their Reading Motivations. Voices from the Middle, 30(1), 17-20.

Jones, S. (2022). Turning away from anti‐blackness: A critical review of adolescent reading motivation research. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(4), 1107-1127.

Jones, S. (2020). Measuring reading motivation: A cautionary tale. The Reading Teacher, 74(1), 79-89.