The impact of curriculum hierarchies on the development of professional self in teaching: student-teachers of drama negotiating issues of subject status at the interface between drama and English

Pitfield, Maggie. 2013. The impact of curriculum hierarchies on the development of professional self in teaching: student-teachers of drama negotiating issues of subject status at the interface between drama and English. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 21(3), pp. 401-426. ISSN 1468-1366 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

At the level of policy the relative ‘value’ of subjects is determined by their official curriculum designation, creating a hierarchy of learning within which particular subjects are categorised as optional to the educational experience of young people. This situation is well-illustrated by the marginalised position of drama in the National Curriculum for England and Wales in which drama appears as an adjunct to the ‘core’ subject English. Yet at school level drama has survived as a discrete and reasonably embedded subject. Drawing on questionnaire and interview data, I investigate the effects of this mismatch on the emergence of pedagogical content knowledge, linked to notions of professional self, in drama student-teachers at one university in the UK. Findings indicate that the student-teachers, whilst not entirely eschewing a less-regulated relationship between the two subjects, view the curriculum for English and its accompanying assessment regime as an inadequate host for drama. In addition, they regard teacher autonomy over curriculum content and pedagogy as indicative of a high degree of professional expertise. This suggests that a case can be made for re-evaluating the nature of the relationship between drama and English and its representation in policy-constructed curricula.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2012.759137

Keywords:

student-teacher; drama; English; curriculum hierarchies; subject status; pedagogical content knowledge; professional self

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Educational Studies

Dates:

DateEvent
29 October 2012Accepted
27 February 2013Published Online

Item ID:

19279

Date Deposited:

12 Dec 2016 13:14

Last Modified:

27 Jun 2017 09:44

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/19279

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