Extending the Classroom: Investigating the long-term influence of a co-curricular theatre-arts program on secondary school participants.

Abstract

This descriptive case study aims to understand the long-term influence of participation in a theatre-arts co-curricular program on secondary school students. The Theatre-Arts Program (TAP) incorporated a range of co-curricular activities designed for one school context. By examining student, parent and personal reflections, critical experiences from within the TAP program emerged as influencing participation and students' lives beyond school. The study is retrospective in nature, drawing on data sources, including focus group interviews and one-on-one interviews with former student participants and parents. Interview data provided insight into individual participants' perceptions of the ongoing influence of TAP in their lives, professionally and personally, for five- to ten-years postschool. Documents used to confirm participant involvement and recollections and also used to stimulate discussion and memories of events include school publications and memorabilia. The researcher also drew on personal reflections and memories to reflexively interpret the interview transcripts. An understanding of the benefits identified by individual students has emerged through analysis and evaluation of this data. McCarthy et al.'s (2004) framework for understanding the benefits of the arts provides a field to map the benefits. Furthermore, the data analysis has identified aspects of the program with the greatest influence on post-school pathways and personal attributes. There is limited reference to theatre-in-education, school theatre societies, productions, and the annual school musical within the research literature. This research focuses on students involved in theatre-making and aims to add to existing research to influence policy and practice relating to co-curricular offerings in drama.