Date of Award

9-1-1995

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

This paper explores junior high students' interactions with multicultural and multiethnic literature. The research examined how students selected multicultural and multiethnic works from sets of novels that had been pre-selected by the two junior high school teachers. The researcher also examined students' responses to the works as they read. The qualitative study relied on classroom observations, informal and formal interviews of two teachers and 12 student key informants, and written documents for data for analysis.Based on the study's data collection and analysis, four themes on selection emerged. First, junior high students were not likely to select multicultural and multiethnic literature to read on their own or for class reading. Once their choices were limited to reading multicultural and multiethnic literature, three other themes regarding selection emerged: students selected works because of subject or story; their reported selection patterns depended upon the methodology of the selection process; and the age of the protagonist of the novel was a factor in selection. Responses to the works of literature also yielded three additional themes: students responded as an active audience; their responses were affected by the methodology of the units; and some students, though they reported being engaged by the literature, did not complete the reading.

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