對比於臺灣「表演藝術」課程，英語系國家的戲劇教育發展已逾半世紀，對於課程綱要中之定位、功能等論述也相對豐富。因此本文將透過文獻分析，探究受西方戲劇教育思潮影響並將戲劇納入課綱中的國家，包括英國、美國、澳洲、芬蘭，對於戲劇教育的看法，以此作為探討我國課綱中「表演藝術」的內涵及其與其他學科之關係的借鏡。本文之分析結果發現各國的戲劇教育雖於其課綱中的定位與學習目標不盡相同，也曾產生戲劇的「本質論」與「工具論」之爭議；唯近年各國對於戲劇教育的定位爭論逐漸形成共識，不再將戲劇視為單一概念與實踐方式，而是跨越了過去的二分法爭議，在透過戲劇啟迪美感感知與藝術性傳達時，也運用其全人發展、主題統整的教學特性進行跨域教學設計，因此近年各國學者對於表演藝術或戲劇的目標描述也更加多元、兼容。文末作者並比較各國戲劇教育及我國之發展脈絡異同，進而提出於學校教育與課綱中未來十年發展之建議。

Compared with the “Performance Arts” curriculum in Taiwan, the development of drama education in the English-speaking countries has been more than half a century, and the discussions on the position and function of it are relatively rich. Therefore, this article analyzed the views of drama education and its relationship with other subjects in the curriculum in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and Finland. The analysis results of this paper show that the orientation and learning objectives of drama in the curriculum of these countries are in some way different, and a dispute was raised between drama as a subject in its own right or as an educational medium. However, in recent years a consensus has gradually formed on the positioning of drama education. Drama educators no longer regard it only as a single concept but emphasize its aesthetic perception and artistic communication whilst using its teaching orientation of whole-person development. The descriptions of its learning objectives in the curriculum is also more diverse. At the end of this article, the differences in the development of drama education in western countries and Taiwan are compared, and the applications of further actions are suggested.