Are you an Academic Drama or Theatre Teacher?

Is Drama an Academic Subject?

I would think that most Drama teachers would vehemently answer ‘YES’ to this question. For many years, drama teachers have grappled with acceptance issues alongside other subjects for status and power. Indeed, the new Ofsted framework which seeks to include character education, for example, lends itself to a strong dramatic approach to learning. So as Drama teachers, we often find ourselves justifying the role our subject plays in student development processes such as decision making, problem solving and perseverance as well as exposing our cohorts to real-life issues usually taught through the realms of role-play and textual study.

So is Drama academic? In answering this question, we need to define the two terms. If you perform an online search for the word Drama, responses such as ‘a play for theatre, radio or television’ and ‘the activity of acting’ are listed. The term ‘academic’ by Collins Dictionary states ‘…[an] emphasis on studying and reasoning rather than on practical or technical skills.’ This is problematic because our subject is driven both by practical and technical skills. The question, therefore, is how do we measure or judge (indeed, one might say ‘assess’) Drama education in schools for the subject to be classified as academic? The answer is in written form. A recent Twitter poll of 130 drama teachers were asked how much practical assessment at KS3 was emphasised upon schemes of work versus written assessment: 58% of teachers said that they emphasised ‘practical over-written’ with 30% providing ‘purely practical.’ Only 11% of teachers said they had ‘equal balance.’ These are worrying statistics, especially if we want our subject to be classified as ‘academic.’ To present credible, well-balanced understanding of drama education in schools, we need to have an equal share of written assessment. Written assessment serves to be more reliable for expressing complexity and understanding of a topic. Throughout history, novels and play texts have served as written forms of creativity, as have famous practitioner works such as An Actor Prepares or The Empty Space. Reliable theories that we practically teach in our classrooms stem from written theory.

As a Drama teacher, the definitions of ‘Drama’ are problematic in that they do not justify what we teach holistically. So perhaps we should define the cousin term ‘Theatre,’ which is often used in our circles but misunderstood. The definition of theatre produces a much richer statement of ‘the activity or profession of acting in, producing, directing or writing plays.’ This definition represents depth, clarity, engagement and creativity beyond simply ‘acting.’ So another question one might consider asking is: are we drama teachers or theatre teachers? Should we change how we label our subject names for accuracy of definitions? If one considers how schools across the country, for example, calendar ‘the school musical’ as a theatrical masterpiece, one will find it hard to challenge how this process of creativity and aesthetic experience is not an extension of the ‘theatre’ classroom. However, the issue remains of how do we measure the academic value of school plays, aside from profits and parental opinion? This work extends from the curriculum timetable and thus there needs to be some aspect of theoretical understanding that gauges student understanding, from technical theatre for meaning or performer characterisation, for example, within an educational setting considering teachers are responsible for learning.

Current Drama programmes are driven by exam specifications. These specifications are produced to deliver holistic approaches to drama education, that allow students to have a well-balanced understanding of theatre. The key term here is ‘well-balanced understanding’ – considering how certain specifications, for example, have a 60/40% weighting towards theoretical understanding. As teachers, we cannot ignore aspects of theory. Critically, this cannot be ignored at KS3 when students transition to KS4.

The counterargument to this is the ‘performance purest’ approach. Teachers that value drama as purely practical yet want the academic status (and the funding that comes with it). In secondary schools, academic status needs to be measured and should not be subjective. Drama teachers should be proud of celebrating the multiple aspects of learning the subject provides, and these opportunities need to be balanced by practical and written means, in much the same way science is assessed via experiments with written conclusions. The problem we face as drama teachers is, we do not consider the holistic value of theatrical education and instead focus primarily on only one aspect of the subject, practical work (or one could say, the ‘Drama’ aspect as opposed to the 'Theatre' aspect). A further counterargument to this is the teacher that has a Drama Studio without the facility for writing, such as tables and chairs. A solution to this is cheaper alternatives which include mini-whiteboards and clipboards, for example, or the ability to book a computer lab or alternative room for a theory lesson. Considering most teachers adopt the Making, Performing & Responding framework of drama education assessment (or my personal favourite pioneered by Keith Burt of Creating, Performing, Understanding & Evaluating), the need for analysis and evaluation is critical for students’ academic well-being in Drama and cross-curricular subjects.

Additionally, the greater academic nature a subject, one can argue the greater level of funding available for that subject. The aspect of Arts funding has been limited in recent years because of the lack of academic status given to drama education. Heads of Department would do well to connect written assessment methods of drama education to school development plans (for which there is usually one aspect of literacy identified) to help annual budget investment in the subject.

To achieve Drama academic status in schools, written assessment should be embraced and celebrated as opposed to neglected and ignored. As teachers, we have a duty of care to develop all aspects of theatre education both by practical and written methods. Our students need to learn theatre and as teachers, we need to teach theatre for the needs of our students, not the needs of the teacher.

10th April 2020