1. Identifying Key Stakeholders and Keeping Assumptions at Bay

At the start, key stakeholders were identified in order to understand the system around the child. Following this, an Assumption Storm was conducted in an attempt to steer clear from biases.

Stakeholder Map

Stakeholder Mapping

With the child at the core as depicted in the map, the two major systems that a 11 to 13 year old child is a part of is the Education System and the Personal or Family System. The child is also part of higher level systems such as the Society at Large and the Country.

This map lists the most important stakeholders across the aforementioned major systems. Parents, teachers, peers and the school librarian are the most important stakeholders in the child's reading habits.

The child’s parents and teachers have maximum interest in the development of the child. In addition, The School Librarian’s specific role is to cater to children’s reading interests and help develop a habit of reading.

Peer learning is one of the most important aspects of childhood development. Hence, I identify that peers too to have a vital stake in the development of this interest.

High level stakeholders such as the school board members, the principal of the school and parents are stakeholders with maximum interest and power to make a difference. Hence, these stakeholders must be coordinated with closely.

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Assumption Storming

Navigating one’s own assumptions while conducting primary research can be tricky. Having understood that they cannot be fully omitted, I conducted a short Assumption Storm before designing my research to keep them in check. This Assumption Storm allowed me to be aware of them, validate them through systematic research or see past them to see what lies beneath the usual.

The following were my assumptions,

• With the advancement in technology, kids are able to have experiences which trigger all the five senses thus giving them a more involving experience. Children are now habituated to being around experiences of this nature all the time. Hence, when given a book to read, they find the product wildly unamusing.

• If kids use ipads/tabs to read, it is easy to get distracted by the notifications that pop up on the screen every once in a while. If the notifications are from a gaming app, for example, it is easy to get lured into attending to it. Attending to notifications from the notifications bar has become so second nature to kids today that their decision to exit the reading app has become a subconscious one.

• With children drowned in academic books due to increasing pressure from teachers, parents and the society norms, children are slowly getting aversed to books and the task of reading itself.

• Exposure to analogous ways of gaining information is declining sharply. For example, schools have switched to showing videos to explain concepts and assignments are done together on the smart board. If people in children's daily surroundings don't refer to books anymore, how will they get exposure to it? How will they see value in it?