Drama is a subject, despite what the government thinks

A letter from the Department of Education says that in the minds of ministers drama is not 'core knowledge'
Drama class
Drama is a subject, even if government ministers in England choose to decide otherwise, says Patrice Baldwin. Photograph: www.alamy.com

In October, I wrote about how a narrow focus on core English baccalaureate subjects is putting performing arts and qualified drama teachers at risk.

Just as drama teachers were thinking that it couldn't get much worse for their subject, it has. A letter sent in November 2012, from the Department for Education (DfE) to the Birmingham Repertory theatre, suggests drama is not a subject in the minds of ministers. The letter reads: "Ministers do not consider drama to be core knowledge, as it is more a question of pedagogy and therefore outside the remit of the (primary) curriculum review."

To suggest drama is "a question of pedagogy" is politically expedient but complete nonsense. How and why have ministers arrived at this damaging conclusion? Did they actually talk with any drama specialist teachers or did they just decide this for themselves without real consultation? Drama already seemed doomed when it did not appear at all in the primary national curriculum consultation questions to "stakeholders" or in the draft national curriculum. Currently it sits like a cuckoo in the nest of English and has grown in recent years. Clearly it is about to be thrown from its safe curriculum nest as a statutory part of the current English curriculum.

Primary teachers and the public have not been asked whether they consider drama to be important in a primary curriculum or whether they consider it to be a subject. Ministers have not even spoken directly with National Drama, a professional association for drama and theatre educators, despite the fact we have repeatedly requested a meeting. It seems that ministers do not feel they need to talk with subject specialists unless they are from subjects they choose to acknowledge. Maybe they don't want to listen to views or research that does not fit in with their own preconceived ideas and archaic notions of what constitutes a curriculum and what learning is.

Drama is a subject, even if government ministers in England, with no drama knowledge choose to decide otherwise. Are other countries that have drama in their curriculum labouring under an illusion then? How did Australia, New Zealand, Ontario, Northern Ireland and Scotland manage to produce a drama curriculum if drama is just pedagogy? Iceland is next and may be followed by Finland.

Drama is a subject that can also form the basis of a particularly powerful pedagogy in schools. However, drama as pedagogy relies on teachers having drama subject knowledge, skills and in order for them to give children the chance to learn both in drama (as a subject) and through drama (as pedagogy). You can't teach through a subject you have not gained knowledge of.

The DfE letter goes on to say: "As you know, where drama features in the primary English programme of study it is in relation to pupils studying great works of great dramatists, including Shakespeare." Presumably, ministers like Shakespeare. They experienced it in their own education, so it must exist and it must be good. It's recognisable to ministers (not like this new fangled drama that they have never personally "studied" and so don't personally understand and don't want to). Ministers are probably privileged to see Shakespeare's plays performed brilliantly by the RSC. They might ask themselves how many great English actors entered the profession because of good drama teachers in schools introducing them to drama?

Ironically, reading and testing student's knowledge of Shakespeare will probably survive in schools, even if drama as a subject doesn't. Shakespeare would turn in his grave. He wrote for performance, not for tests. Maybe children in future will just read Shakespeare. After all, performing it would run the risk of acknowledging it as drama.

There is a yet another insult for drama teachers lurking within the letter to Birmingham Rep from the DfE. It states that the review is aiming to "give school leaders and teachers much greater flexibility to design and manage their own curriculum, and to teach subjects and topics like drama in ways that inspire and excite their pupils as part of a broad and balanced curriculum". Is the DfE saying here that drama is a subject but just not an important enough one for all children to have, so schools can teach if they choose (with no guidance), or are they saying drama is just a "topic"? There is a lack of clarity in this sentence that may be deliberate. One thing is certain, the DfE is passing the buck to schools about everything that they don't want to enforce. Is that curriculum freedom?

If arts teachers want to get truly depressed, they should go to YouTube to hear Michael Gove speaking at the Institute of Education on the 'topic', What does an educated person look like? He fidgets his way through a muddle of personal educational ideologies that leave the listener in despair. The word drama falls rapidly off the lips of Gove once, (after about 45 minutes) but unfortunately an ill-timed interruption by the interviewer David Aaronovitch results in Gove immediately dropping the subject (pun intended). A few minutes later, a well-framed question from a woman in the audience (greeted by audience applause), asks him about the lack of arts in the Ebaccs. She does not receive an immediate or clear answer.

When will Gove directly and honestly answer criticism about the devastating impact he is having on arts education, rather than keep churning out his 1950s vision? When will he stop retreating into invalid international comparisons selected to support his ideology? In the interview he refers glowingly and narrowly to education in Singapore as an exemplar – again. Does he realise that, in the past couple of years, Singapore has restructured its ministry of education, raised the profile of the arts and appointed a curriculum officer for drama? Does he realise that in 2013, arts ministry staff from Singapore are coming to England to find out more about arts education in schools? Will there be any? Does he care?

Patrice Baldwin is chair of National Drama and president of the International Drama Theatre and Education Association (Idea), as well as a member of the executive council for the World Alliance for Arts Education (WAAE). She has been a primary school headteacher, an Ofsted inspector, a local authority arts adviser and a school improvement partner.
