Abstract:
This paper presents a case study of a young Arab-American girl struggling against a
united front of innocence, patriotism, and peer culture in an American first grade
class one year after ‘9/11’. Through her writings, language interactions, and play,
Hanan, a six year old student in the first grade class I taught, asserted an ethnic
identity and resisted interpellation as an American as she coped with ritualized post-
9/11 patriotism in the school culture and in the peer culture.
