Abstract:
This study investigates the use of drama-in-education (hereafter DIE) to explore the ways in
which South African adolescents construct and perform gender identity. The study provides a
brief outline of Life Orientation as a leaning area as part of the South African national
curriculum, based on principles of outcomes-based-education, to contextualise the study. It maps
the theoretical underpinnings that informs the implementation of the case study by theorising
writings on power, identity and gender, with specific focus on the work of Michel Foucault and
Judith Butler. Furthermore, it conceptualises a pedagogical base for the use of drama-ineducation
as methodology, by premising the work of Paulo Freire, as well as the dominant
proponents of drama-in-education applicable to the case study. The theoretical underpinnings of
the study, as well as drama-in-education serve to inform a critical discourse analysis of a case
study conducted with Grade 10 learners in a secondary school in the Western Cape, South
Africa. In the case study, this research explores ideas that influence the construction of gender
identity as outlined by the Life Orientation curriculum, such as stereotypes, gender roles and
power relations. The case study consists of a drama-in-education process, presented in 9 learning
sessions. This study posits that DIE as a teaching methodology or instructional tool has the
potential to stimulate modes of critical thought and understanding(s) of the ways in which
gender identity is constructed.
