There were two basic purposes of this study: to determine the condition of secondary school curricular Drama in Florida, and to study the secondary school superintendents' and principals' evaluation of the drama program. The hypothesis was that curricular Drama was deficient to the other fine arts in terms of extent and size of program and numbers of students enrolled and that there had been little or no growth in the program for the past decade. One of the major obstacles to the curricular growth of the program was believed to be the less positive attitude of the secondary school administrators to include Drama in their curriculums, when compared to the other fine arts. / In order to determine the present curricular condition of the program and to measure the growth during the past decade, the Accreditation Files of the Florida Department of Education were utilized. The data collected from these files included the curricular programs in Drama, Art, Band, Chorus, and General Music. The data was then analyzed and the following conclusions were determined: (1) curricular drama is deficient in size and enrollment to every other program in the fine arts; (2) during the past decade, there has been little or no growth in Drama and it has not kept pace with the growth in the other fine arts programs and the secondary school population. / Data for determining administrative evaluation was collected through a questionnaire which requested the superintendents and principals to evaluate the curricular programs in Music, Drama, and Art. The questionnaire was mailed to the administrators and elicited a response of approximately seventy-eight percent. / The conclusions of the study showed that the administrators consistently evaluated Drama as less effective than the other fine arts in every area of comparison. There was little difference between the evaluations of the superintendents and the principals. / In addition to the evaluations, the administrators' reasons for their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the curricular programs in Music, Drama, and Art were presented. Their major reasons for satisfaction were as follows: (1) contributes to the educational goals of the school system; (2) involves students not reached by other programs; (3) students display interest and support. Their major reasons for dissatisfaction were as follows: (1) inadequate facilities; (2) money needed for other required school units; (3) only a limited number of students may benefit. / The possible influences of the following factors on the administrators' evaluations were considered: (1) location and school population of the county; (2) size of the school; (3) extent of the fine arts and drama programs; (4) length of administrative experience. / In the final chapter, the following possible solutions for the problem were presented: (1) the Florida Department of Education should consider creating the position of Drama Consultant and improve certification requirements for teaching Drama; (2) the Florida Legislature should consider including Drama in recent legislation which places Art and Music in Basic Education; (3) state university theatre departments should consider programs for preparation of Drama teachers and provide greater support for secondary school drama in terms of research, sponsoring workshops, and writing articles; (4) secondary school drama teachers in Florida must form a viable state organization; (5) a regularly occurring periodical concerned with Florida secondary school Drama should be published; (6) Florida drama teachers should consider alterations in both the extra-curricular and curricular programs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0462. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74074 |
| Contributors | DE HART, STANLEY CORTLAND., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 353 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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