Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 54(1)
September 2010
doi:10.1598/JA AL.54.1.3
© 2010 International Reading Association
(pp. 23 –32)
Negotiating Understanding Through
the Young Adult Literature of Muslim Cultures
Educators can use young
adult literature and the
experiential learning
activities described in this
article to help students
embrace a more multicultural
experience and gain a deeper
understanding of ourselves
and others.
Allison L. Baer | Jacqueline N. Glasgow
Much has been made of the fact that an African American with the name Barack
Hussein Obama could be elected President. But my personal story is not so
unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for every-
one in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores—and that
includes nearly 7 million American Muslims in our country today who, by the
way, enjoy incomes and educational levels that are higher than the American
average. (Obama, 2009, ¶ 12)
P
resident Barack Obama’s speech, given in Cairo in June 2009, was de-
signed to address some of the complex issues facing the world today and, in
particular, the concerns of many Muslims worldwide. Among these issues
is the fact that all too many people hold to the unsubstantiated belief that
Muslims in the United States and other countries are terrorists. While, as
Obama alluded, America continues to be a land of opportunity for many,
the tragedy of September 11, 2001, resulted in widespread fear of and bigotry
toward those who call themselves Muslims.
Approximately one quarter of the world’s population is Muslim
(Robinson, 2002), and Muslims are a diverse group of people. In the United
States alone, 33% of regular mosque attendees are South Asian, 30% are
African American, 25% are Arab, and the rest are various ethnicities, such as
Caribbean, Turkish, Sub-Saharan African, and Hispanic (Robinson, 2002).
Yet, many people believe that all Muslims are alike. Since Muslim cultures
seem foreign and exotic to many, misunderstandings have f lourished and of-
ten led to negative stereotypes.
Nieto (2010) has warned that labels have a damaging effect on people,
because they erase individuality, and she has further encouraged acceptance of
“these differences—linguistic, cultural, racial, experiential, and others—and
leaving the labels behind” (p. 36). Yet, the fear of the unknown continues to
grow.
According to a Washington Post–ABC News poll (Deane & Fears, 2006),
nearly half (46%) of Americans “have a negative view of Islam, seven percent- 23
age points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon” (¶ 2). In fact, this poll showed that
 most Americans believe that Muslims are “dispropor-
tionately prone to violence” (¶ 1). Such feelings often
lead to further misunderstanding, anger, and some-
times violence.
Just as people are afraid of the dark, because it
contains the unknown, people are often afraid of
unknown peoples and cultures. This article propos-
es that we use young adult literature that accurately
portrays Muslim cultures to introduce and shed light
on this perceived unknown to students. Perhaps this
knowledge will help negotiate understanding be-
tween cultures, and we can work together to build a
more peaceful and accepting world.
We begin with building an understanding of
the importance of multicultural education and lit-
erature, then position ourselves within critical race
theory (CRT) to support this kind of teaching. The
article ends with a brief overview of a few young adult
books depicting Muslim cultures, and two experien-
tial learning strategies, the Socratic seminar and the
process drama, which were redesigned for teachers
to help students negotiate understanding of these vi-
brant cultures. We also include a bibliography of other
young adult literature for further reference as Table 1.
As a caveat, we want to explain from the begin-
ning that we are white, middle class, non-Muslim
September 2010
women and thus understand that some might ques-
tion our motives or ability to present these ideas.
Interestingly, Barlas (2007), a Muslim woman, had
the opposite experience when teaching an undergrad-
uate class called “Understanding Islam: Religion and
54(1)
Politics.” Some of her students “said that they would
rather learn about Islam...from a person who doesn’t
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
have a stake in it, like an atheist” (p. 369). So, know-
ing that there may not be a perfect way to teach these
cultures, we nonetheless present our ideas.
Multicultural Education and Literature
Multicultural education is far more complex than the
occasional ethnic festival with foods and music from
other countries. It is moving well beyond the eth-
nic event to integrating multicultural thinking and
24
being into our everyday curriculum through study,
literature, discussion, and other content. According to
Sleeter (Miner & Peterson, 2009), “teachers will of-
ten frame multicultural education in terms of merely
teaching about cultural differences” (p. 40).
However, teachers must also address issues of
power and privilege in society (Nieto, 2010). When
using multicultural literature, multicultural education
encourages understanding how different cultures are
portrayed in books and other media. For example,
students may learn the story of Columbus coming to
the New World from the perspective of the indige-
nous American people by using texts like Encounter
(Yolen, 1992), in which a young Taino boy describes
the coming of the great white ship with men whose
“skin was moon to my sun” (¶ 14). Multicultural edu-
cation, above all else, is about “challenging racism and
other biases as well as the inequitable structures, poli-
cies, and practices of schools and, ultimately, of society
itself ” (Nieto, 2010, p. 39). In the end, multicultural
education changes people, as they begin to compre-
hend the unique differences of others and accept them
as just that—different, neither better nor worse.
Another way to frame multicultural education
is through the lens of culturally relevant teaching
that is based in culture-centered theory (Awokoya &
Clark, 2008), which basically seeks to contest racism
through culturally relevant education that encourages
“students to learn—about their cultural selves, their
cultural communities, and the world—from their
own as well as others’ cultural perspectives” (p. 51).
Thus, multicultural education presents multiple expe-
riences and texts that portray other cultures in a way
that challenges “the status quo and the basis of power”
(Miner, 2009, p. 15).
But how do we go about meeting that challenge?
The constraints of daily teaching often lead us back to
the ethnic festival with the accompanying foods and
music, or a speaker talking about an ethnic holiday.
Effectively using multicultural literature can build and
support understanding of other cultures. Rather than
presenting a “monocultural education...which ref lects
only one reality and is biased toward the dominant
group” (Nieto, 2010, p. 73), we must read literature
that highlights other cultures that have inf luenced and
contributed to our world knowledge. For example,
Muslim thinkers have made significant contributions
to the scientific method, mathematics, philosophy, as-
tronomy, and medicine (El Diwani, 2005).
 In addition, when students read culturally rele-
vant literature in which they see themselves, they are
more engaged and find themselves wanting to know
more (Feger, 2006). When reading multicultural lit-
erature, students are immersed in different cultures
and places that can also encourage them to think be-
yond their known world. Consequently, this litera-
ture may lead readers to face the many challenges and
moral dilemmas presented in these texts (Proctor &
Kantor, 1996).
While reading multicultural literature has many
personal and societal benefits, we also acknowledge
that there has been a lack of preparation of teachers of
European American backgrounds to teach this litera-
ture and their ethnically and racially diverse student
populations. For example, many English methods
courses at our universities are taught by and composed
of predominantly white, female students. As white
Western feminists, we try to engage our students in
critical discourse theory anchored in a multicultural
education of reading and writing about literature. As
students interrogate texts for sexism, classism, racism,
and Islamophobia and critically examine their own
identities, they move beyond viewing cultural diver-
sity as problems to be overcome toward seeing them
as resources crucial to our society’s ability to survive
and thrive in a global society (Cummins, 1992).
Critical Race Theory
CRT is founded in the idea that racism is a reality
in American society (Ladson-Billings, 1998). This
does not, however, mean that we are to in any way
support this reality through accepting racist ideas or
committing acts of racism. Rather, recognizing this
fact brings about the responsibility to teach, inform,
and enact fundamental change. Stovall (2006) stated,
CRT recognizes the complexity of racial dynamics.
Such intricacy requires the ability to speak across nu-
merous boundaries to highlight common points of
interest that not only seek to eliminate White suprem-
acy, but on the most practical level engage communi-
ties in building coalitions. (p. 245)
Acknowledging white dominance in our world is
meant to neither blame nor shame; rather, it is a rec-
ognition of our responsibility to understand our past
Table 1 Additional Young Adult Literature
Depicting Muslim Cultures
Al-Windawi, T. (2004). Thura’s diary: My life in wartime
Iraq (R. Bray, Trans.). New York: Viking.
Barakat, I. (2007). Tasting the sky: A Palestinian
childhood. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Carlsson, J. (2002). Camel bells (2nd ed., A. Barnett-
Lindberg, Trans.). Toronto, ON, Canada: Douglas &
McIntyre.
Carmi, D. (2002). Samir and Yonatan (Y. Lotan, Trans.).
New York: Scholastic.
Clinton, C. (2010). A stone in my hand. Cambridge, MA:
Candlewick.
Ellis, D. (2010). The breadwinner. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Ellis, D. (2004). Parvana’s journey. Toronto, ON, Canada:
Groundwood.
Ellis, D. (2005). Mud city. Toronto, ON, Canada:
Groundwood.
Ellis, D. (2006). Three wishes: Palestinian and Israeli
children speak. Toronto, ON, Canada: Groundwood.
Hakakian, R. (2004). Journey from the land of no: A
girlhood caught in revolutionary Iran. New York:
Crown.
Halaby, L. (2003). West of the Jordan. Boston: Beacon.
Hosseini, K. (2007). The kite runner. New York:
Riverhead.
Khadra, Y. (2005). The swallows of Kabul (J. Cullen,
N e g o t i a t i n g U n d e r s t a n d i n g T h r o u g h t h e Yo u n g A d u l t L i t e r a t u r e o f M u s l i m C u l t u r e s
Trans.). New York: Anchor.
Khedairi, B. (2002). A sky so close (M. Jamil, Trans.).
New York: Anchor.
Laird, E. (with Nimr, S.). (2006). A little piece of ground.
Chicago: Haymarket.
Nye, N.S. (1999). Habibi. New York: Simon Pulse.
Nye, N.S. (2002). 19 varieties of gazelle: Poems of the
Middle East. New York: HarperCollins.
Rachlin, N. (2007). Persian girls: A memoir. New York:
Jeremy P. Tarcher.
Rifa’i, A., & Ainbinder, O. (with Tempel, S.). (2003). We
just want to live here. New York: St. Martin’s.
Riverbend. (2005). Baghdad burning: Girl blog from Iraq.
New York: Feminist Press.
Satrapi, M. (2003). Persepolis: The story of a childhood.
New York: Pantheon.
Satrapi, M. (2004). Persepolis 2: The story of a return.
New York: Pantheon.
Staples, S.F. (2003). Shabanu: Daughter of the wind.
New York: Laurel-Leaf.
Staples, S.F. (1993). Haveli. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf.
Stine, C. (2005). Refugees. New York: Laurel-Leaf.
and present to create a better future for our students
(Howard, 2006). Howard has invited teachers to en-
gage honesty, empathy, advocacy, and action in ways
that will bring about understanding and healing. 25
Matsuda (as cited in Ryan & Dixson, 2006) has
asserted that, among other things, CRT recognizes
 that racism is endemic; doubts the
claims of the dominant group of
It is the neutrality, colorblindness, and ob-
responsibility of jectivity; and “works toward the
educators to provide end of eliminating racial oppres-
sion as part of the broader goal of
opportunities for
ending all forms of oppression”
students to engage (p.  175). In addition, Awokoya
in critical reflection and Clark (2008) have asserted
about their own that CRT uses autobiographical
narratives to discuss societal issues,
issues of race. as the voices in these texts are val-
id and should not be discounted.
According to Ryan and
Dixson (2006), “the primary aim of CRT scholar-
ship is to make structures of racial privilege visible”
(p. 175). If that is the case, then it is the responsibil-
ity of educators to provide opportunities for students
to engage in critical ref lection about their own issues
of race (Milner, 2003). In her discussion of critical
literacy education, a model that builds on CRT and
strives to make those structures of racial privilege visi-
ble, Janks (2010) has asserted that to better understand
the place of diversity within this model of education,
we must first note that diversity has three distinct
places that must be recognized and understood as re-
September 2010
alities to be overcome: (1) diversity without attention
to relations of power, which “leads to a celebration
of diversity without any recognition that difference
is structured in dominance and that not all discourse/
genres/languages/literacies are equally powerful”
(p. 102), (2) diversity without access, and (3) diversity
54(1)
without design, which limits the potential that diver-
sity offers.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
Within these “places,” diversity is neither truly
recognized as a source of strength nor valued or expe-
rienced in a meaningful, transformative way. When
speaking of the place of power within this model,
Janks (2010) stated, “Power without the recogni-
tion of difference and diversity naturalizes dominant
forms and practices and can lead to both the celebra-
tion of sameness and the demonization of the other.
Different perspectives capable of generating innova-
tion and change are lost” (p. 102). CRT claims that
26
taking this color-blind perspective ignores “historical
and social contexts where race has and continues to
matter” (Ryan & Dixson, 2006, p. 177).
Rather than ignoring or feeding the fears and
prejudices toward Muslims, we embrace the ideas of
CRT and involve our students in thoughtful peda-
gogy designed to negotiate better understandings be-
tween cultures. We believe in the power of literature
to inform and change thinking. We encourage you
to consider Muslim young adult literature as you seek
to educate and transform the young people who sit in
your classrooms.
Overview of Muslim
Young Adult Literature
The fiction novels and nonfiction memoirs we se-
lected represent ways in which Middle Eastern young
adults come of age through negotiating their identities
in their cultures, their countries, and their Muslim
lifestyles. The countries depicted are Afghanistan,
Saudi Arabia, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Jordan,
Kuwait, and Lebanon. The works ref lect worldwide
diversity issues portrayed in the media and literature
that bridge Islamic cultures and other continents, es-
pecially North America.
Although we recognize that there are exemplary
informational books about Muslim cultures, we con-
tend that the novels and memoirs presented here are
effective for learning critical elements of Muslim cul-
tures within the context of the stories. Many of these
texts provide readers with windows through which
to experience views and cultures quite different from
their own. We first present a review of some young
adult literature addressing Muslim cultures. Two of
these books, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (Kahf,
2006) and Does My Head Look Big in This? (Abdel-
Fattah, 2007), are then used in the active learning
strategies of a Socratic seminar and a process drama. A
listing of other works is provided in Table 1.
The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf
by Mohja Kahf (2006)
One of the new, strong voices challenging common-
place perceptions of the Middle East, Muslim women,
and Arab Americans is Arab American feminist Kahf.
She is the author of poetry, creative nonfiction, essays,
literary criticism, and a novel, The Girl in the Tangerine
Scarf. The book is about a Syrian girl, Khadra Shamy,
who as a young child immigrated with her family to
the United States’s Midwest in the 1970s.
Although Kahf based the book on her own ex-
perience of coming to the United States from Syria,
she has insisted that the book is not autobiographi-
cal. In the novel, she tackles tough themes that ex-
pose the cultural clashes of Muslim life in America
and deals with racism between Muslims and bigotry
by non-Muslim U.S. Americans with brutal honesty.
Through Shamy, Kahf depicts the difficulty of assimi-
lating into American life while maintaining the habits
of a good Muslim. Her work is definitely a window
through which outsiders can view the reality of many
Muslims in the United States.
Does My Head Look Big in This?
by Randa Abdel-Fattah (2007)
Abdel-Fattah’s Does My Head Look Big in This? por-
trays the issue of Amal, a 16-year-old Australian-born
Palestinian girl, deciding to wear the hijab (head scarf )
to school and become a “full-timer.” When she goes
to school wearing a hijab chosen to match the school
uniform, she receives many negative reactions from
the principal and her friends. Amal doesn’t falter in
her decision, however, as she faces down the school
administration and the taunts of the popular girls who
call her “towel-head.” Finding strength in both her
Muslim and non-Muslim friends, Amal’s belief in the
correctness of her decision shows her strength of char-
acter and love of her ethnic culture.
The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl
on the Other Side of the Sky
by Farah Ahmedi (2005)
Ahmedi’s memoir begins with her life as a young
child growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan. Despite
bombs falling daily, she attended school and played
with her friends. One fateful morning when she was
running late for school, she decided to take a short
cut by crossing an abandoned field. When the blast
knocked her off her feet, she found herself surrounded
by a crowd of men and boys staring down at her with
horror. She had stepped on a land mine. Ahmedi’s
story of the long road back to health and walking
shows the difficulty of surviving in one’s own culture
as well as in foreign cultures, as she was first f lown
to Germany for surgery and ultimately moved to the
United States, where she now lives.
My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under
the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story
by Latifa (2001)
Latifa’s memoir describes how her life changed the
terrifying day the white f lag of the Taliban was f lown
over Kabul. That same day, she went to the town’s
square to see the mutilated body of the president.
Now that the president was dead, the Taliban began
their full takeover of Afghanistan and broadcast the
new “rules” of the country.
Over time, more and more rules were aired over
the radio that deprived women of their civil liberties:
Women were no longer allowed out of their homes
without a father, brother, or husband and were not al-
lowed to work. Women were to wear the chadri, which
covers the entire body, and were not allowed to wear
makeup, nail polish, or undergarments. Additionally,
girls and women who were enrolled in school were
N e g o t i a t i n g U n d e r s t a n d i n g T h r o u g h t h e Yo u n g A d u l t L i t e r a t u r e o f M u s l i m C u l t u r e s
no longer allowed to attend. If women were caught
breaking the rules, they would be stoned, beaten in
the streets, or killed.
Latifa and her family were imprisoned in their
home as a result of the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
The family suffered from mental anguish and depres-
sion, as they were deprived of work and education and
threatened with public discrimination. Eventually,
the family escaped to Pakistan, then found refuge in
Paris, where Latifa wrote her story in exile.
Dahling, If You Luv Me, Would You Please,
Please Smile by Rukhsana Khan (1999)
Zainab, the protagonist in this coming-of-age young
adult novel, struggles with being accepted at her pub-
lic school, where everyone who is anyone wears fash-
ionable and expensive Lucky brand jeans, which she
cannot afford. Zainab is determined to get a pair, so
she begins collecting the requisite 22 Lucky brand
tags that will earn her a free pair of jeans. In addi-
tion to her struggle to fit in at school, Zainab also has
problems at home, where her older sister, Layla, has
27
responsibility for Zainab when their parents are away.
Bossy Layla supervises Zainab’s prayer time five times
 a day and insists on reporting Zainab’s faults to their
parents at bedtime.
Under the Persimmon Tree
by Suzanne Fisher Staples (2005)
Najmah is accustomed to her life on a farm in
Afghanistan, but all of that changes when the Taliban
arrive and kidnap her father and brother, and she is
left to care for the farm and the remainder of her fam-
ily. If things were not bad enough, she sees her home
destroyed when a stray bomb explodes, killing her
mother and baby brother.
Alone and lost, Najmah is quickly taken in by
a neighboring family who begins a dangerous trip
across the country to safety in Pakistan. Disguised as
a boy to make travel safer, she faces many challenges
and hardships. She eventually finds her way to the
safety of the Persimmon Tree School and creates a
plan to find her lost father and brother.
Negotiating Understanding
of Countries and Cultures Through
Experiential Learning Activities
The experiential learning activities described in this
section, the Socratic seminar and the process drama,
September 2010
can easily be adapted to meet the educational needs
of middle and high school students. For example,
depending on the age and grade of the students, the
teacher may need to provide more scaffolding and
support when engaging them in these activities. In
54(1)
addition, depending on time constraints, these activi-
ties may take multiple class periods to complete.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
Socratic Seminar
One type of experiential learning in which students
are given a chance to acquire and apply knowledge,
skills, and feelings is the Socratic seminar. Based
on Socrates’s idea of the dialectic, the teacher poses
thought-provoking questions to the students. These
open-ended questions allow students to think criti-
cally, analyze multiple meanings in text, and express
ideas with clarity and confidence. In a Socratic semi-
nar, the teacher takes the stance of Socrates in that
28
the teacher is not there to deliver answers, but rather
to encourage and prompt deeper, ref lective thinking.
Ideally, the teacher and students should sit in a circle
to support open sharing.
There are three types of questions in the Socratic
seminar. The opening questions are designed to con-
nect aspects of the text with the readers’ personal ex-
periences, and given a choice of opening questions
to answer, all students should participate and share
something. The core questions make up the bulk
of the seminar and are linked directly to the text.
Students respond to these questions randomly as they
dialogue with one another and stimulate meaning-
ful exchanges. The closing questions are designed to
bridge or connect aspects of the text back to the world
of students’ lives and personal experiences.
Once students have experienced a Socratic semi-
nar, the teacher could allow the students to create the
questions with the teacher as a facilitator or allow the
students to facilitate the seminar for specific chapters
or sections of the novel. The following are suggested
opening, core, and closing questions for The Girl in the
Tangerine Scarf to discuss the topic of Muslims grow-
ing up in the United States.
Opening Questions
  1. Just as Khadra grew up embracing her parents’
beliefs and ideals, can you think of examples
from your own family life?
  2. The Lott boys bullied Khadra and her family
from the day they moved into the community
in a suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. Can you
think of a time when you were either bullied
or the bully?
  3. In kindergarten, Khadra had to turn down
the candy corn her teacher expected her to
eat. Can you think of a time when you need-
ed to confront a teacher due to your beliefs?
Core Questions
  1. W hy do you suppose the author used the
word girl in the title?
  2. How do Muslim newcomers view mainstream
U.S. values? What assumptions do these new-
comers make about U.S. Americans?
  3. K hadra encountered cultural conf licts while
growing up in Indianapolis. Did she ever
 compromise her beliefs to avoid conf lict, or
did she “belong” to a certain group of friends?
  4. W hat did Khadra have in common with the
U.S. girls?
  5. W hat was the basis of the racism and violence
that Khadra and her family experienced?
  6. In what ways has Khadra assimilated into U.S.
life, and how has she refused assimilation?
  7. How does mainstream U.S. culture perceive
hair and hair coverings compared to how they
are perceived in Khadra’s culture? Compare
the ball cap to the hijab in terms of cultural
significance.
  8. The hijab serves as an emblem or metaphor
from the time Khadra first dons it right
through to the end of the novel. How does
the purpose of the hijab change? What does it
represent at different points in the novel?
  9. As Khadra grows up, what caused her to ques-
tion some of the Islamic traditions?
10. How would you describe Khadra’s religious
development?
11. How was Khadra changed by the trip with her
family to Mecca for Hajj?
12. In the United States, how is growing up as
a Muslim different from growing up within
a mainstream religion? How does it com-
pare with other religious groups, such as the
Amish, Jews, or Quakers?
13. How did Khadra maintain her Muslim iden-
tity without shutting out friends and acquain-
tances who may not practice Islam?
14. W hat enabled Khadra to return home at the
end of the novel? Did she find equilibrium
with her God, her society, and her identity?
Closing Questions
  1. W hat aspects of Khadra’s experience did you
relate to?
  2. Assuming your family immigrated to the
United States at some point, how is Khadra’s
immigrant experience different from yours?
  3. W hile immigrant
Muslims purport to hold
different values from
“Socratic seminars
U.S. Americans, what are allowed everyone
some of the similarities to share their
the two groups share?
own opinions and
  4. W hat are some of the
challenged me to
challenges that Muslim
fiction writers experience? think about the
ideas in new and
Students at the midwestern
complex ways.”
universities where we teach have
had very little personal experience
with diversity. While there are
Muslim students attending these schools, they remain
largely invisible or ignored until students read litera-
ture written by or about Muslim women that causes
them to take notice. Students are assigned about 50
pages of text to read, and they sign up for various
sections of the novel and take turns writing the ques-
tions and facilitating the Socratic seminar. This seems
to give them more time to think in depth about the
N e g o t i a t i n g U n d e r s t a n d i n g T h r o u g h t h e Yo u n g A d u l t L i t e r a t u r e o f M u s l i m C u l t u r e s
content.
Upon ref lection, one student stated, “Socratic
seminars allowed everyone to share their own opin-
ions and challenged me to think about the ideas in
new and complex ways. I think having students lead
the discussion using prepared questions really worked
toward producing meaningful and engaging conver-
sations that I’m not used to having about literature.”
She went on to say how much she enjoyed relating her
own personal life to the books read and how much she
learned from others in the seminars.
Process Drama
A process drama is a creative problem-solving activity
that encourages imaginary, unscripted, and spontane-
ous scenes to be created and worked through within
the classroom (Schneider & Jackson, 2000). Drawing
on Rosenblatt’s (1983) theory of reading as an active
transaction, process drama involves readers using a
text and asks them to take on different perspectives as
they work to solve issues taken from the book.
Ultimately, participating in a process drama 29
draws on both an efferent and an aesthetic under-
standing of a text, as readers need to gather and use
 information from the text while experiencing empa-
thy and understanding of the characters, setting, and
plot (Rosenblatt, 1983). In addition, participants are
asked to assume others’ perspectives as they analyze a
problem and collaborate to find a workable solution.
A typical process drama is divided into episodes, each
of which contains some aspect of the chosen issue
or problem. Armed with information from the text,
students spontaneously respond to each other as they
work toward a consensus.
The issue presented for Does My Head Look Big
in This? is whether religious symbols, particularly the
hijab, should be allowed to be worn in school. For epi-
sode 1, ask the students to discuss the issue in groups
from their chosen or assigned perspective. Episode 2
involves the students in creating some form of per-
suasive media designed to encourage others to agree
with their point of view. Finally, in episode 3, the
groups give their presentations to the local board of
education.
Depending on class length, the entire process
drama will take three class meetings. Figure 1 lists the
setting and roles for this process drama. The steps for
each episode are listed in the following text:
Episode 1
September 2010
n  ivide students into groups of four and use the
D pal, secretaries, teachers) to participate in this
roles and questions in Figure 1. In each group,
give each student a slip of paper with a num-
ber (1–4) and tell them to more clearly define
their roles. Be sure all roles are included in each
54(1)
group.
n I nstruct the students that they are to assume
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
their chosen roles as soon as each group receives
their directions. Be clear that once the teacher
steps into the role of the chair of the local board
of education, students should totally assume
their roles and do their best to stay in them until
the process drama is brought to a close.
n S ince the context of this process drama has been
set through reading Does My Head Look Big in
This?, instruct the students to discuss the issue
of female Muslim students wearing the hijab to
school.
30
n  nce in role, the chair of the local board of
O girl should be allowed to wear the hijab to school,
education (i.e., the teacher) should explain that
each person was invited to attend this commu-
nity meeting in response to parents’ and stu-
dents’ concerns about female Muslim students
wearing the hijab to school. The purpose of the
meeting is to get thoughtful feedback from the
community to help the board of education de-
cide whether students and teachers should be
allowed to wear religious symbols, particularly
the hijab, in school.
n  epending on class length, allow discussion en-
D
couraging group participants to listen to each
other with respect and empathy. The ultimate
goal is to make a clear statement built around
consensus about the issue.
Episode 2
n A fter reaching a consensus, each group should
create a media presentation meant to persuade
the board of education to agree with their
thinking. The presentations can be in any form
(e.g., poster, PowerPoint, speech), but they must
be based on facts and presented with respect and
care.
Episode 3
n  efore class, ask school personnel (e.g., princi-
B
episode and explain what has been done thus
far. In addition, explain their role as members
of the local board of education.
n I n class, students present their persuasive presen-
tations to the board of education.
n  fter all groups have presented, end the process
A
drama. The school personnel who participated
as members of the board of education may or
may not choose to stay and help the class debrief.
n  ave the students debrief as a class about how it
H
felt to take on other perspectives and what they
feel about the issue presented.
Students who have been involved in a process
drama frequently express how assuming these other
perspectives changes their thinking about the problem
presented. In the case of discussing whether a Muslim
students found themselves gaining more respect for
the courage it took for Amal to make the decision
to become a “full-timer.” When debriefing after this
process drama, students also noted how the various
families in the book followed Muslim traditions and
beliefs differently, which expanded students’ under-
standings about the complexities of the cultures.
Conclusion
CRT asks us to acknowledge that issues of race and
racial discrimination exist (Ladson-Billings, 1998)
and to engage in critical ref lection about our own
prejudices (Ryan & Dixson, 2006). Rather than de-
nying that these biases exist and engaging in superfi-
cial diversity festivals and events, we ask educators to
embrace a more multicultural experience through the
described experiential learning activities, which en-
courage deeper understanding of ourselves and others.
Many educators know that young adult literature
is a vivid and powerful teaching and learning tool. As
seen in the books discussed in this article, the young
adult literature depicting Muslim cultures is diverse
and important and can lead to greater understanding.
Literature can change lives by encouraging us to re-
f lect on our own thinking and beliefs and challenge
us to look beyond our own windowsill to what lies
beyond. The literature discussed in this article and
listed in Table 1 offers our students multiple perspec-
tives and opportunities for thoughtful and critical dis-
cussion. We encourage you to help conquer the fear
that pervades all too many people in our country by
helping your students negotiate their understanding
of these rich cultures and encouraging their greater
awareness of and appreciation for Muslim cultures.
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Figure 1 Setting and Roles for a Process
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Baer teaches at Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, USA; e-mail allison.baer@wmich.edu.
Glasgow teaches at Ohio University, Athens, USA;
e-mail glasgow@ohio.edu.