Seeing like a classroom: theatre and performance in education

Abstract

The status of drama, theatre and performance in Higher Education is inevitably shaped and affected by shifts in educational policies that manage and administrate compulsory education. In this article, I draw on cultural theorist Claire Bishop’s concept of an ‘educational turn’ in contemporary social practice as starting point for unpicking some of the complexities facing the status and value of the Arts in compulsory and higher education. My arguments are underpinned by my role as a teacher in the state comprehensive system in which shifts to understanding education as comprised of ‘facilitating’ and ‘non-facilitating’ subjects risks undermining creative subjects as both key pedagogic tools and subjects in their own rights.

Keywords:

• Pedagogy
• education
• progress eight
• teaching
• classroom

Notes

1. Whilst the policy itself is referred to as ‘progress eight’, ‘facilitating’ subjects are often referred to as ‘the best eight’ subjects for pupils to study in order to be successful. The terms, though distinct, are often interchangeable.

2. AS and A levels are the examinations taken by students in their final two years of school education. These grades normally form a significant part of the access criteria that must be met for enrolment on university and higher education degrees or qualifications. Courses starting in September 2015 will be ‘decoupled’, which means that students seeking an A level must take all exams for the qualification (including AS level exams) at the end of the two-year course.