Living the Literature

Abstract

This article examines how gender construction and the literacy experiences of Black adolescent females can be shaped and motivated by their interaction with specific multicultural texts. This discussion further explores how current theories of race, identity and gender construction, and literacy learning in English language arts classrooms inform and provide additional clarity to the results of a content analysis study of four multicultural contemporary adolescent novels. As such, this discussion offers plausible insight for how a broader view of literacy learning theory may apply when discussing the literacy experiences of Black female adolescents and other marginalized readers.