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Abstract
This paper examines the place of drama education in providing a safe space for teens to develop more agentive storylines and performances, both on and offline. It explores the way online performances via social media impact contemporary girlhood and considers the implications for school based drama education. In the current Facebook era, adolescents and girls in particular invest substantial time and effort in ‘impression management’ (Goffman, 1959), often managing complex ‘networked publics’ (boyd, 2006) in the process. The necessary identity play that Erikson theorised long ago has now shifted online, where social networks provide new spaces for identities to be constructed and performed. Rather than a sign of identity confusion or breakdown the teen identity status of moratorium seems more than ever a necessity in these technology-saturated times. This paper considers drama as a site for adolescent identity work, particularly for adolescent girls, where dramatic process provides a ‘potential space’ for teen role repertoires to be expanded, stories to be re-imagined and agency to develop.
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Notes on contributors
Christine Hatton
Christine Hatton lectures in Drama and Arts Education, working with pre-service primary and secondary teachers. Previously she was the state Drama Curriculum Adviser K-12 for the NSW Department of Education and Training. She is a past president of Drama NSW, past Director of Research for Drama Australia and a past Director of Research for Drama Australia. Christine has research interests in playbuilding practice and the nature of drama learning processes, particularly in relation to gender issues and adolescent identity construction. She is a co-author, with Sarah Lovesy of the book Young art: Classroom playbuilding in practice (Routledge, 2009). Email: [email protected]