ERIC Number: EJ1207486
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1063-2913
EISSN: N/A
Theatre Programs in Community Colleges: A Policy for Equity
Weltsek, Gustave J.
Arts Education Policy Review, v120 n2 p103-111 2019
This piece presents a theoretical exploration of the potential for the creation of policy that would inform the inclusion of arts and particularly theater courses in all community colleges. In April 2017, Fong et al. released a comprehensive meta-analysis that explored the relationship between psychosocial factors of self-perception and motivation within 58 studies on student persistence and 186 studies on student achievement in U.S. community colleges. In the field of drama in and as education multiple studies have articulated a strong connection between positive self-perception, motivation, and involvement within drama-based experiences. My reflection emerges from four years service as the chair of the Arts and Humanities, and the sole theater professor at a leading campus within the largest community college in a Midwestern state. I share the ways in which the arts program, and particularly the theater program, were situated within the college's traditional vocational curriculum and theorize the ways in which a policy that secures the presence of the arts, drama, and theater in particular, within all community college curriculums may support positive self-perception and motivation and affect persistence and completion rates, particularly within terms of underrepresented and nontraditional communities.
Descriptors: Theater Arts, Educational Policy, Community Colleges, Meta Analysis, Academic Achievement, Academic Persistence, Drama, Policy Formation, Correlation, Student Motivation, College Faculty, Vocational Education, Disproportionate Representation, Nontraditional Students, Equal Education, Art Education, Educational History, Teacher Attitudes, Educational Change, Poverty, Remedial Instruction, Self Concept, Two Year College Students, Teaching Methods, Individual Development
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Two Year Colleges; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A