'This article examines drama in relation to girls' education, and considers some of the ways in which drama might be applied in schools to challenge limiting hegemonic narratives about gender and support the emerging understandings and performances of femininities of adolescent girls. It reports on case study research conducted with a Year 9 Drama class (14–15-year olds) at an Australian girls' school, where curriculum-based drama was used to investigate the complexities of twenty-first century girlhood. The study aimed to deliberately create work for/with/by girls, where in a supportive environment girls could use their girl know-how to inform the drama. Working simultaneously both inside and beyond the curriculum, the project used Shaun Tan's book The Red Tree as a core focus for a girl-centred process drama. The research study examined the ways in which the girls' gendered knowledge was both dynamised and problematised through the dramatic processes, as the drama invited them to explore issues and intersections of self, relationship and identity performance (in everyday life and online). Unlike the Rita of Willy Russell's play, who becomes the Pygmalion project of her older, male mentor, this drama focused on girls learning from girls, for themselves – valuing the knowledge they brought to the dramatic process and considering alternatives or possible storylines as girls. The project invited the girls to create their very own Rita, who was poised on the edge of change just like them, and to consider the critical issues and potential connections between her story and their own stories as girls.'

Source: Abstract.