Cultural Signification through Reader’s Theatre: An Analysis of African American Girls and Their Hair

Abstract

Abstract This article explored the role of hair in Sylviane Diouf’s Bintou’s Braids and focused on the impact of hair as a cultural signifier on girls and the curriculum. The article examined the ability of this children’s text to address female beauty standards and suggests the use of literary techniques, such as reader’s theatre, to recognize and critically explore diverse issues among children. The work specifically: (1) deconstructs messages about hair norms, with particular emphasis on black female hair in one children’s text, and (2) transforms the selected text into a reader’s theatre script for use in elementary classrooms, suggesting an array of literary construction and usage types in children’s classroom communities to support increased literacy engagement. This article expands the body of inquiry on hair and its impact on the curriculum by examining the relationships between the cultural power of hair, literacy, performance and African American girls. The literature has established the unique responses of diverse girls to literary constructions, and several studies provide alternatives for deciphering the meaning of texts and utilizing the empowering aspect of girls through literacy. Likewise, this article qualitatively examined Diouf’s Bintou’s Braids for its use of various aspects of identity development such as affirmation, ritual and social responsibility. The reader’s theatre adaptation, Little Bintou Loves Her Braids, begins to address the current inadequacy of literary offerings in the genre.