The benefits of Drama in secondary schools - completed dissertation PDF

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my final dissertation for my final year...

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The benefits of Drama in secondary schools: Should it be cut from the curriculum? 781972

University of Portsmouth School of Media and Performing Arts April 2018 Dissertation submitted in part-fulfilment for the requirements of the BA (Hons) Musical Theatre

Abstract Changes to the education system has left creative subjects like Drama being cut from the national curriculum in England. In order to make sure children have a better chance of employment after they leave school and go into the real world. This dissertation examines examples of theatre practitioners and teachers to determine if Drama is still a subject worth having in schools.

The aim of having this study is to determine where Drama stands as a subject within schools. The research question is as follows: The Benefits of Drama: Should it be in the national curriculum? In the context of this thesis I will be not only be looking at the positive and negatives of Drama in education but also the history of Drama as a subject along with personal reflections from my experience of being a Drama student and contacting people in various positions involving Drama and education to collect their views and opinions.

After looking at various sources and articles, reviewing the current national curriculum and speaking with various people involved in Drama and education like Patrice Baldwin. I intend to Combine this research and my own experiences with Drama in education and believe that how Drama was originally taught and its original purpose for education. I have found that Drama should be a subject that maybe doesn't have a GCSE qualification but has a more skill-based impact to improve and develop basic communication skills, confidence and imagination.

If any recommendation was to go to the department of education it would be to change Drama so it is taught how it was originally in the early 20th century. The main impact that Drama can have in education is developing personal and social skills which also can help children gain employment when leaving school.

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Acknowledgements Thank you to everyone who helped me achieve this dissertation And my dissertation tutor Annie who has been so kind and patient throughout the whole process.

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Table of Contents

Abstract

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Acknowledgements

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Table of content

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The benefits of Drama in secondary schools: Should it be cut from the curriculum? Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Chapter one: Background and content of Drama in schools 7 Chapter two: Drama integrated with core subjects or left as a separate subject - Drama to be an independent qualification 12 Chapter three: Drama integrated with core subjects or left as a separate subject – Against Drama to be in schools as its own separate subject …………………………………………………………....... 19 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 24 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26

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The benefits of Drama in secondary education: Should it be cut from the curriculum?

Introduction

Drama classes in schools go back as far as the 20th Century (Bolton,1984). It has been a part of the education system for a considerable amount of time. After all this time why is Drama in school being challenged now? As a student of performing arts, I know how drama can be beneficial to a young person's life. With people calling Drama a ‘soft and easy subject’ (. Cassidy. 2014) the benefits of Drama have been more difficult to display over the years the government have changed the curriculum making the subject harder to defend. With creative subjects like Drama been carefully removed from the education system, the government want children's education to be broad and balanced so that they are prepared for modern life outside of school (M. Brown, 2015). However, the majority of people in today's society, don't see how much this topic can make a difference in a child's education and development. This dissertation will be arguing the interiority of Drama in secondary school education. The research will be a combination of secondary and primary research. I will be looking into iconic people in this issue such a Dorothy Heathcote and Caldwell Cook and their views and their contributions to Drama in education in England will looked at as part of my research findings, also will be looking at articles from the past years involving Drama and its rightful place in the national curriculum. At some points in the thesis, I will also be reflecting from my own experiences as a student. I know precisely how much drama classes in school can change or even help develop a young person’s studies or develop their skills and confidence as I have experienced this first hand. Through a period of research, I have noted that there are drops in the number of students taking either drama dance or music. An online article on GCSEs subjects showed declines in the participation of the arts subjects including a 23% drop in Drama between 2003-2013.

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One primary theoretical source is a report that was the result of a three-year research project on a very similar subject. ‘Arts Education in secondary schools: Effects and effectiveness' which was put together by a number of authors including John Harland, Kay Kinder, Pippa Lord and Alison Scott. This piece of work shows evidence that subjects such as dance, drama and music can have positive impacts on a student’s social skills, empathy, understanding of others and their different cultures, it can also act as a type of therapy for some students. An example of this could be used to help people with anxiety build more confidence and help with social skills as it gives people involved a chance to explore themselves in a safe and creative environment (Harland, Kinder, 2000). This report also shows evidence that Drama, dance or music lessons can help a pupil develop as an independent person with their own voice, style and personality. Another useful secondary source that will be in this dissertation is ‘Critical evidence: How arts benefit student achievement' by Sandra S Ruppert, this online book is a useful source for this subject because it shows how studying the arts can affect and contribute to young person's achievements and academic abilities (Ruppert, 2006). A briefing on research in America will also be in this dissertation ‘Involvement in the art and human development: General involvement and intensive involvement in music and the theatre arts' By James S Catterall, Richard Chapleau and Richard Iwanga. This briefing shows a higher percentage success rate in academic subjects, for example, English rose by 20% when the student was heavily involved in the performing arts (Catterall, Chapleau, Iwanaga. 1999).

In the first chapter, I will be looking at the history and context of Drama as a subject in schools, from when it first appeared in the school system in the early 20th century and how its developed along with the political events in Britain and that Drama is now amongst the creative subjects that are slowly getting cutting from the national curriculum because it doesn't fit in to a new form education that going to be starting in 2025, according to a government source, the government want 90% of students to be studying subjects that can form a EBacc in the next 7 years (department of education, 2017). However, Drama and the creative arts is not amongst the subjects that can help form the EBacc. The second chapter will be examining the argument that was brought to light when Paul Roseby suggests that GCSE Drama should get cut out of the GCSE curriculum and integrated into other core subjects 5

such as; English, Maths, Science and Foreign Languages and how other people like Patrice Baldwin feel about the statement from Roseby and her own opinions on the subject through article she has written and an email conversation with her where defends the creative subject, believing that Drama should stay as an independent subject. I will also be looking at how the government feels about the arts and how drama is slowly disappearing already form the national curriculum in secondary schools since at least 2012. Also, in the second chapter I will be discussing the different types of benefits that come with being involved in drama in secondary schools, defending Drama as a separate subject in the national curriculum. In the Third chapter I will be Looking at the other side of the argument, the disadvantages to drama being in education, using sources such as ‘Issues in educational drama’ I will be discussing the problems that have already developed in Drama in secondary schools over the years , like the relaxed attitude that comes with the subject and the territorial behaviour teachers display for their own subjects and drama teachers doing the same. Also talking about the reality of how much a qualification in drama in school can help a child when they leave school and go into employment. After showing both side of the argument and weighing up the positive and negatives of drama being in school, I developed my own conclusion onto where drama should stand in the national curriculum in secondary schools (Day, Norman. 1983).

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Chapter one: Background and context of drama in education

Acting can be traced back to the beginning of time through rituals where a person would take on the physicality of a god or spirit during a ritual dance or ceremony (History world, n.d). During the 6th century BC, Thespis, a priest of Dionysus engaged in a dialogue with the chorus, because he brought this new element into a performance he became the first actor. The Greeks also developed the back bones for both Tragedy and comedy plays (History world, n. d), which is why to the present day Acting and drama is associated with the two masks; the sad face represents tragedy and the happy face represents comedy. Acting continued to develop over the years into careers for people and also a form of cultured entertainment. But when did it arrive in schools, at what point in time did we start teaching our students in secondary schools about acting and drama? When did Drama become part of the National curriculum you see today? If you look into the history of the subject, Drama classes were firstly available in the USA in the 1920s when Miss Winifred Ward pioneered into making Creative Dramatics part of the curriculum when she worked at the North-western school of speech (Shuman, 1978). This new subject got trailed at local schools working with Ward and soon spread across the country. After ten years of North-western solely laying claim to this topic, students of Ward's began teaching careers, and by the 1960s well over 100 educational settings were offering courses in Creative Dramatics or theatre for children (Shuman, 1978).

In England Drama first started to become a regular occurrence in schools in the early 20th century starting when the ministry of education in 1921 published a report saying how Drama could be used to help improve verbal skills in students (Bolton, 1978). Different practitioners such as Peter Slade, Brain Way and Dorothy Heathcote amongst others have contributed to

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Drama in education. Brain way developed work that was going to the backbone of how Drama is taught in schools (Bolton, 1978) , Way wanted young people to be encouraged to be more involved in the creative process towards a performance, it was more about the development of the performance, way wanted his students to focus more on how they developed the end product to enable a greater understanding of the work a drama piece can take to be performed in front of an audience. He also wanted Drama in schools to be a place for children to experience genuine emotional training by using ‘what happens if’ to play out different situations in a safe environment (Bolton, 1978). Peter Slade also believed that Drama should be used in schools as tool for students to play out everyday situations and very rarely allowed his students to show work, “The Drama is often used for playing out situations in which the individual has to make decisions about morals. By making situations conscious, the child is able to look at life as an observer and make slow inward decisions” (Slade: 1954: 73)’ (Wooster, 1976). Dorothy Heathcote was and still is one of the most recognised name when discussing Drama in education, Heathcote travelled to schools introducing this new creative subject (drama for education) to our education system in the UK, students were able to take part in her workshops and do something different and creative that boosted confidence and imagination (Wooster,1976). Heathcote was a lecturer on this very subject at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne after her acting career. Heathcote went to North-western in America on three occasions during the 1970's about Creative Dramatics. While both Ward and Heathcote were introducing this new and exciting topic to education in their own country, they had different methods when it came to educating students. While Ward's method allowed the students to use specially designed exercises to warm up before starting to act. Heathcote, however, liked to make her student's jump straight into the acting and making up their own stories to bring to life, there was no set play or script. In the UK English teachers saw drama not as a separate subject but as a different tool to teach English language, to give a spiritual

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status to the core subject (Bolton, 1984). Heathcote also showed over the years that drama could help achieve remarkable results with various groups in society such as students with severe learning difficulties (Wagner, 1979). This is a part of the community I know on a personal level as I am severely dyslexic myself and drama has made a massive impact in my life. Drama lets students discover things within them that they didn't realise they even knew, for example skills that they have acquired without releasing, Heathcote calls this 'building volume within the student.' The exciting thing is that Dorothy Heathcote not only taught drama classes in schools across the age range but also to members of society with professional jobs such as the police and nursing staff to help them with the way they present themselves in their work every day. This contributes to a factor called ‘lifelong learning’ (Walkup, V, 2011, page 231). Heathcote used drama to help people develop different everyday

skills which are crucial to everyday that gets expanded during school years. But are often overload as a basic skill at school and in everyday life. When overseeing her workshops 16 different academic and behavioural skills are seen to improve when involved in educational drama, skills such as; vocabulary development, self-discipline, decision making, clear and effective articulation and intercultural exploration, I will, however, leave this until Chapter two where I will be looking into the different benefits of Drama in schools.

. Using drama exercises, Heathcote teaches about society and news that is broadcasted through the media. By getting rid of the irrelevant information, Heathcote presses her students to reach the level of dramatic focus she wants from them; this technique sometimes is a useful technique because Diamonds are made under pressure. She made her students look at reality through a fantasy lens, the pupils were encouraged to explore ideas and actions around issues in the real world in a fictional and safe world within Heathcote’s workshops; this made the students aware of issues around them in the real world so, in turn, Heathcote's students, thanks to drama knew about what is going on in their world around them. Which 9

makes me think; maybe over the years as drama developed into the school subject we see today the original essence and reason people like Heathcote taught people over their time was lost, what if the very reason drama was introduced to the education system has been forgotten and pushed to one side? Drama isn't always viewed on positively and even though it was a relatively new and exciting subject drama teacher in the 1970's in the UK knew the struggle that drama teachers in today's society experience. Peter Thomson, a drama teacher in the 1970's, said this to a researcher; "I think all the teachers I know who teach drama in big comprehensive schools do feel some sort of missionary, drama departments in universities tend to feel like isolated and missionaries” (Hodgson, Banham. 1773, page 8). Thomson pointed out what other Drama teachers have started to think over the recent years, with other core subjects like English and Maths being prioritized in schools especially during exam time, Drama isn't thought about very much in terms as being an important part of a student’s day. Whilst starting to get involved in drama in 2008 I noticed that even though I attended a school that specializes in the Performing Art my drama teacher still struggled to keep a lot of students in class during exam season because of study sessions for other subjects.

Over the years the creative subject was changed and moulded to what you see today in schools. Young people are learning how to act with masks on, how to be a clown, how to make up their dramatic pieces with only fundamental knowledge on drama practitioners such as Brecht and Stanislavski, how to work in different parts of the theatre. Although all of these things are useful to learn if you want to go into this profession, some of the options can be taught to students in higher education. TIE (theatre in education) is still used for drama in today schools but is rarely seen in schools today apart from in an assembly.

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According to a source, a new scheme will be issued into schools over the next 7 years, the government are aiming that by 2025, 90% of secondary school students will be choosing to take a combination of subjects that form an EBacc (Department of education, 2017). EBacc is The English baccalaureate and is used as to measure the performance of pupils and how many achieve a ‘C’ grade in their core academic subjects. If this gets put in place student will be encouraged to choose and study the following subjects for their GCSE; English literature, English language, Maths, biology, Chemistry, physics, History or geography and a foreign language are deemed by the government as suitable subjects to from an EBacc (Department of education, 2017). Although this is set out with the best intentions of ensuring employment for young people after leaving school this selection of subjects of very narrow and restrictive and will leave creative subjects like Drama to be squeezed out of the national curriculum. The issue with this new scheme is that if it is established schools will then be left not noticing different talents of students where strengths are in their creative abilities rather their academic minds, the arts will be pushed further to the back of the education system and eventually pushed out of the national curriculum altogether leaving students no creative space and teachers out of the job.

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Chapter two: Drama integrated with core subjects or left as a separate subject - Drama to be an independent qualification

Drama in secondary schools is not viewed for the beneficial reason but rather gets labelled by some students as humiliating and a push down in their confidence rather than boosting it up Not all student, parents or teachers see that Drama can help develop a young person’s personal and social skills that are essential to everyday life in the real world that students will face after leaving school. However, some of the people that you would expect to be fighting for this subject are in fact not. Mr Paul Roseby, Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre, is questioning Drama being a separate GCSE subject ' GCSE drama classes should be taken off the curriculum because they are 'irrelevant' ‘(S. Cassidy, 2014). Roseby wants drama to be scra...