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Nationally there is a high pass rate in Dramatic Arts (DA), and this subject offers many benefits for the development of young people, especially in terms of equipping them with the twenty-first century skills required for an entrepreneurial market (Olaniyan, 2015). However, few learners choose to continue with this subject beyond Grade 9. Inadequate enrolments result in fewer teaching posts being available, which also affects the entertainment industry. Parents are identified as primary sources of social support in influencing their children’s decisions and the development of their interests, career options and future goals (Kenny & Medvide, 2013). This study aims to sample parental perceptions about choosing DA as an academic subject as provided by parents, teachers of DA and Life Orientation (LO) teachers. This study establishes to what degree parents understand the value of drama education, and how their perceptions of the DA may influence their children’s school-exiting subject choices. The study comprises aspects of one theory, namely, parent role development theory (PDT). A mixed-methods study was designed within an interpretive paradigm. A sample of 36 parents who had children in high school in South Africa in 2019 completed an online mixed-method questionnaire that consisted of three parts, each dealing with parental perceptions and experiences in the field of education. The responses were coded and analysed through a convergent parallel design, and the findings were triangulated for deeper understanding, validity and transferability. The findings of this study pointed out that parental perceptions are shaped by prejudice, social influence, and school communication, among others. Furthermore, parents showed genuine interest and support for their children’s career plans and the skills that DA promote. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2020. / pt2021 / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Students who identify as being from an ethnic minority are under-represented within school geography in England at Key Stage 4 (ages 14 – 16) and Key Stage 5 (ages 16 – 18). At these stages geography is an optional subject and how students view geographical knowledge may influence their GCSE and A level subject choices. This study uses an intersectional theoretical lens to explore representations of geographical knowledge by students of different ethnicities, the stories that relate to these representations and how the students accounted for the GCSE and A level subject choices that they made. The first part of the study reveals a lack of empirical and contemporary research into ethnic minority students’ views of geographical knowledge and subject choices. This is followed by a two-strand exploratory case study at one girls’ grammar school in England. The practitioner-researcher strand was two phase; in the first phase, 314 sixth form students (aged 16 – 18) completed a questionnaire to gauge initial views of geographical knowledge. During the second phase, eight of these students represented their views of geographical knowledge through collages, critical incident charts and semi-structured interviews that explored their stories in depth. In parallel, a group of Year 10 (aged 14 – 15) students as researchers used questionnaires to investigate the influence of parents and other factors contributing to students’ subject choices at GCSE level. In the study, geographical knowledge was represented in different ways given different methods. It was found to be diverse and individual, although it was possible for specific themes to be identified. The representations reflected the characteristics and concepts from students’ recent formal experiences of geography. Informal experiences also featured but these were not always explicit or straightforwardly definable. Unless students could see the intrinsic usefulness of their view of geographical knowledge then they were unlikely to choose the subject past GCSE level. This study expands theoretical conceptualisations of how students represent geographical knowledge and the factors affecting subject choice, engages students as researchers in a methodologically innovative way and provides a rich and detailed account of post-14 subject choice by ethnic minority students which otherwise does not exist in an English context.