A teacher's response to ‘“Where the wild things are” – an insider's experience of the contemporary classroom’

ABSTRACT

In this piece of writing, I respond to Anon's reflections on her/his experiences of being taught Drama in a British high school, recently published in this journal (see Anon. 2017. ‘“Where the wild things are” – an insider's experience of the contemporary drama classroom’, RIDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 22:2, 216–219). As a Drama teacher working in UK education for 13 years, I empathised with the teacher in Anon's account of the drama classroom. In order to provide a contextualisation of UK arts education that form the broader landscape of Anon's account, I reflect on the pressures of drama teaching in the contemporary classroom partly created by the UK government's marginalisation of arts subjects in schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Drama
• classroom
• schools
• UK
• drama teachers
• education policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Laura Hennessy is a Secondary School Drama teacher with over 13 years experience in both comprehensive and grammar school education in the UK. She also has six years experience of leading a successful secondary school Drama department.

Notes

1. GSCEs are qualifications taken primarily at the end of secondary school education (when 15–16 years old).

2. See www.baccforthefuture.com [Accessed October 10, 2017].

3. See www.gov.uk/government/consultations/gcse-as-and-a-level-reform-regulations-for-dramadrama-and-theatre [Accessed October 10, 2017].