Educational Theatrics, Performance and Society

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances.”- William Shakespeare. Teaching is a performance. Performance has always been part of the delivery of educational content. As a result, education theatrics is largely grounded in a philosophy of performance and humour. Education theatrics often refers to the performative characteristics of schooling where the emphasis shifts from genuine learning to appearances and symbolic gestures. Such rituals are not necessarily done with the best interests of the students. Additionally, resources are channeled into outward appearances, such as buildings rather than pedagogy. In this aspect of performance, the teacher becomes a performer in the delivery of his or her content, while students play the role of captive audience. In addition, teachers are pressured to perform compliance instead of fostering creativity. However, the script oftentimes does not go as planned. In the world of education theatrics, there are overproduced lesson plans which go beyond the general accepted 5E’s. The 5E framework of the 21st century learner speaks to Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation and reflects a progressive bridging between students’ prior knowledge and new concepts; ensuring learning is active, intentional, and cumulative. In many classrooms, teachers have become performers even without knowing. In an attempt to score big on their formative and summative appraisals teachers are coerced and engaged to take on the role of performer. The Optics of Performance. The “optics of performance” refers to how performance is perceived, measured, and presented not just the actual results, but the way those results are framed, monitored, and communicated. Regrettably, there is a culture of puppetry in global education systems that suppress critical thinking. It is the absence of a critical thinking culture that fosters a culture of theatrics in education. Within this paradigm of cultural shift the society clearly values presentation and optics, rather than depth of knowledge. Undoubtedly, ostentatious delivery has its place and assist in keeping learners attentive in the moment, however students retention remains hallow and problematic. For example, in a staged performance, no pun intended, lighting is a very critical optics to the overall success of a performance. If the lighting is poor, the audience will have a difficulty viewing and understanding. Similarly in education, where there is an emphasis on the optics sooner rather than later allows for a false narrative. In fact, reality becomes subjective in the world of optics. In such a performance, students’ outcome will deteriorate and various barriers to education will emerge. While some amount of theatrics is necessary in teaching and learning, the risk is at the end of the lesson students remember the performance but not the content. Barriers to Education. In performing theatrics the education system pays scant regard to the root problems and treats only the symptoms. Professor Orlando Patterson’s report reminded us: “There are two extremely different school systems in the country. One that is world-class and serves mainly the ‘haves’, the other, pertaining to the vast majority, that serves the ‘have nots’ and that is largely failing. The Patterson report also identified other problems with Jamaica's education system, including a severe learning crisis with many students remaining illiterate and innumerate by the end of primary school. Other issues include a lack of marketable skills among secondary school graduates, insufficient resources and a shortage of qualified teachers, particularly in early childhood education, and systemic weaknesses. Data from 2019 showed that a third of students could not read, 56% could not write, and 57% could not extract information from a simple sentence. Only 45% of students passed five subjects in a single sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams in 2019, and less than 28% of those included both math and English. The issue of the underperformance of boys continues to be a sore point in Jamaica’s education system. Many boys have become disengaged and detached from the formal education. While they are present in the classes, their mental and emotional faculties are elsewhere. The World Bank states, in every region of the world, and in almost every country, boys are more likely than girls to experience learning poverty, being unable to read and comprehend a simple text by the age of 10. The differences are substantial in some countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and among middle-income countries. For example, in lower-middle-income countries, the learning poverty rate for boys is 56 percent, compared to 47 percent for girls. There needs to be a reimagining of how boys are engaged in the teaching and learning process. There have been numerous journals, reports, research and articles on the subject matter of boys’ underperformance, yet nothing concrete has been done boys so our boys continue to waste away. So while teaching has become a performance, our boys in general are not applauding the theatrics. Unfortunately, the society is already reaping the bitter fruits from this non-engagement and nonchalant attitude towards our boys. Data indicates that the significant majority of perpetrators and victims of crime are males. Other issues which require attention are the reform of school boards. The composition of school boards in too many instances comprises too many political appointees, many of whom have no expertise and or interest in education. This process of political interference inevitably contributes to an unbalanced and unfair dispensation of justice to stakeholders. Fostering Transparency and Accountability. There needs to be greater transparency and accountability regarding school boards. The society entrust school boards to provide effective and fair leadership, as they adjudicate in matters concerning stakeholders in the education system. The lack of transparency and accountability across all levels of the education systems is the foundation for all the ills within Jamaica’s education system. Unquestionably, this has led to the demoralization of many teachers. The teacher who has suffered injustice hardly has any redress. The collective state of injustices meted out to teachers negatively impacts the quality of teaching and learning. In interrogating education theatrics it is evident that this performative aspect of scholarship is rooted in much deeper systemic issues, such as, the debate between education as a vehicle for sustainable development as against education as a competitive commodity. Evidently, we must acknowledge the pockets of excellence throughout our education system. However, the education system has too many actors, some of whom are grounded in politics and as such have lifelong memberships. It is only when the society has had enough of the drama that we will see the transformational and instructional changes within the education system. Until then, we will continue to audition in perpetuity. In the words of Irina Bokova, there are no immovable barriers to education. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo ©