Process drama as a tool for participation in explorations of ‘wicked problems’ in upper secondary chemistry education

The effort adolescents make determines the risk for dropping out of vocational education and training (VET) early and their chances of graduating upper secondary education. Studies have shown that adolescents' efforts decrease during the transition to upper secondary general education and increases for the transition to VET. In this study, we examined adolescent self-efficacy in lower secondary education, adolescent-instructor relationship (AIR) in VET and general education, and perceived person-environment fit (PEF) as predictors of adolescent effort. We calculated two longitudinal multigroup structural equation models. Group 1 comprised 1266 (mean age in T1 = 15.7 years; female: 44%) lower secondary education graduates who moved on to VET with two learning contexts, company and vocational school in Switzerland. Group 2 included 517 (mean age in T1 = 15.7 years; female: 44%) lower secondary education graduates who moved on to upper secondary general education and thus stayed in a school. Adolescents' survey data was collected in 2016 and 2017. Self-efficacy in lower secondary education and AIR in upper secondary education indirectly predicted effort in upper secondary education via PEF, controlling for effort in lower secondary education. Findings were similar for general education and vocational school. However, the effects differed between company and general education (moderation). The positive effect of AIR on PEF was statistically significantly weaker for adolescents in general education than for adolescents in VET and their company learning context. We discuss strategies to enhance adolescents' efforts in upper secondary education.

The understanding of sustainability issues and preparedness to take action towards a sustainable future involves abilities to navigate between past, present, and future. This paper explores how the use of imaginary transitions in time – in the form of historying , and futuring in process drama – may afford student understanding of the wicked problem of plastics. The study draws on a design-based research study on process drama in upper-secondary school chemistry teaching which was conducted in collaboration with two teachers. During the process drama, the students and teachers travel in time to explore the uses of plastic; the motives and needs for using plastic as well as the consequences of plastic use in the form of plastic pollution today and in the future. The collected data consist of video- and audio recordings, which were analysed through qualitative content analysis that discerned how the students connected the temporalities, and which dimensions of the plastic problem were made visible in the temporal movements in the process drama. Our findings indicate that the temporal transitions made visible several dimensions of the plastic issue, and contributed to adding layers of complexity to the issue of plastics.

The paper examines if upper secondary education acts as a filter in the private sector of the Greek labor market and tests both the «strong» version and the «weak» version of the screening hypothesis. The paper uses the method of Mincerian earnings function with an interaction term on years of education or training and experience in labor market. The data has been collected through primary research and include employees who are graduates of upper secondary, general and vocational education and lower secondary education (control group) and they are working in the private sector. Applying the method reveals that for the employees in the private sector (Total data) who are holders of an upper secondary education diploma (general and vocational) and lower secondary education diploma the criteria of the weak version are met. Particularly, per gender and in above educational cases, the results are statistically significant for females and show that is valid the weak version. As concerns the males, the results are not statistically significant. Keywords: Upper secondary education, general and vocational, human capital, screening hypothesis

Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research

Sustainability issues are intricate in nature and difficult to address without careful consideration. Among the most urgent sustainability problems, if not the most serious, is human-caused climate change. It is an example of a so-called wicked problem, mainly due to its significant complexity and lack of precise boundaries. Solving this extremely complex problem requires knowledge from various academic fields and areas of society. Consequently, addressing climate change requires cross-disciplinary approaches and crosscurricular teaching. One approach to crosscurricularity is through “socio-scientific issues.” Thus, the aim of this chapter is to discuss climate change as an example of a wicked problem and a socio-scientific issue. We argue for the importance and urgency of including climate change in education. Based on a review of previous research and Finnish policy documents, we present alternative routes to a crosscurricular teaching approach more generally. The Finnish example addresses a wicked problem in an upper secondary curriculum context. With this example, we aim to highlight crucial didactical elements built on a cross- and transcurricular approach. Our conclusion is that wicked problems such as climate change necessitate changes in subject teacher education and the teaching practice in upper secondary schools to tackle the complexity from both scientific and social perspectives.

Completion of upper secondary education marks the minimum threshold for successful labour market entry and continued employability as suggested by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developments (OECD's) annual indicators on education and associated labour market outcomes (OECD, 2015). On average across OECD countries, unemployment risk of younger adults (25–34 year-olds) who have not completed upper secondary education is almost double the risk of those with higher educational qualifications (upper secondary and postsecondary nontertiary education). A maintained focus on completion rates are necessary. Even though enrolment rates among 15–16 year olds (i.e., those typically in upper secondary programmes) are high; at least 95% on average across OECD countries in 2015 (OECD, 2018); far from all students graduate. According to OECD, only approximately 75% of students who had enroled had graduated after two years. Further, of the students who had not graduated, 80% were no longer enroled in education. Many countries set specific targets for the completion rates of upper secondary education. For example, the countries in the European Union (EU) agreed on a 10-year strategy proposed by the European Commission on March 3, 2010, for advancement of the economy of the EU (Europe, 2020). One of the main targets is to reduce the share of early school leavers to 10% from the (at that time) current 15% and increase the share of the population aged 30–34 having completed tertiary from 31% to at least 40% (European Commission, 2010). Some countries go even further as, for example, Denmark, setting as a specific target, that upper secondary completion rates should be 95% and tertiary enrolment and completion rates should be 60% by 2020 (OECD, 2013a). Not only graduation rates are important, the quality of the education received also matters for the educational prospects of young people and successful entry into the labour market. The shares of neither employed nor in education or training (NEET) are negatively related to the skill levels among young people (OECD, 2017a). The OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests students near the end of their compulsory education (usually around age 15) on their reading ability, their skills in math and level in sciences. In general, the higher the percentage of low-performing 15-year-old students in PISA, the higher the percentage of NEETs among 15–19 year-olds (OECD, 2017a). Having acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies, particularly in reading, mathematics and science may be more reliable predictors of economic and social well-being than the number of years spent in school or in postformal education (OECD, 2016). Research based on the 2012 Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) finds that poor proficiency in numeracy and literacy limits access to rewarding and well-paid jobs, and in addition is linked to poorer health and less social and political participation (OECD, 2013b). There is, for these reasons, a significant interest in information about effective interventions to increase academic achievement and enhance educational prospects. The review we plan to conduct will focus on service learning in primary and secondary education. Service Learning is curriculum-based community service that integrates classroom instruction with community service activities. The connection with specific courses and having clearly stated learning objectives is what distinguishes service learning from other forms of volunteer work. Service learning should "address real community needs in a sustained manner over a period of time; and assist students in drawing lessons from the service through regularly scheduled, organised reflection of critical analysis activities, such as classroom discussions, presentations, or directed writing" (Pritchard, 2002, p. 20). Well-designed service-learning activities can deepen learning and foster higher-order thinking skills by providing students with opportunities to apply their learning to a challenging situation or problem in their community. The development of service learning as a pedagogical method that integrates community service into the course curriculum began in the 1970s, primarily in the United States (Spring et al., 2008). In the nineties, service learning became institutionalised in public education in the United States (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). In 1990 in United States, the National and Community Service Act created Serve America (later named Learn and Serve America), which was a federal programme dedicated to providing grants and other supports for service learning activities in schools and community-based organisations. Further, in 1994, service learning became a recognised method for meeting the aims of federal school funding (included in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act). In addition to these federal policies, several states and school districts mandated the incorporation of service learning into the course curriculum (Spring et al., 2008). Service learning is not yet as widespread in the rest of the world. However, the OECD-project "Innovative Learning Environments" mentions service learning as a pedagogical method to put learners at the centre (the first of the seven principles of learning needed to redesign the learning environments to meet the challenges of the 21st century) (Dumont et al., 2010). According to Furco (2010) "service-learning is one of the fastest growing educational initiatives in contemporary primary, secondary and post-secondary education" (Furco, 2010, p. 228). Outside of the United States, service-learning initiatives are part of the education systems of Argentina, Columbia and Singapore (Chua, 2010; Ierullo, 2016; Perold & Tapia, 2008). Argentina hosts the Latin American Center for Service-Learning (CLAYSS) which was created in 2002 to support students, educators and community organisations in the development of service-learning projects in Latin America. Service learning is not part of any educational policy in Europe although the EU recognises service learning as a way of achieving citizenship education (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2017). Service learning is however emerging in many European countries including Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (Furco, 2010) and currently CLAYSS is assisting in the creation of the Central and Eastern European Service-Learning Network (Regina & Ferrara, 2017). In several European nations there are organisations (nonprofit community-based) with programmes dedicated to providing supports for service learning activities in schools (Luna, 2012): Lernen durch Engagement in Germany, Center for Frivilligt Socialt Arbejde in Denmark, Lernen durch Engagement in Switzerland, Noi-orizonturi in Romania, MOVISIE in the Netherlands and Fundación Tomillo in Spain. School-based service-learning is a teaching strategy that explicitly links community service to academic instruction (Billig, 2000). In the United States, "service-learning" is an official term used by policy makers and educational leaders. Service-learning is distinctive from traditional voluntarism or community service in that it intentionally connects service activities with curriculum concepts and includes structured time for reflection. Service-learning is not an add-on to an existing curriculum, a requirement of a minimum hours of service to graduate or service assigned as punishment. Rather, students are required to use academic knowledge and skills to address genuine community needs. A clarifying example is given by the National Youth Leadership Council (https://www.nylc.org/page/our-philosophy): "Picking up trash on a river bank is service. Studying water samples under a microscope is learning. When science students collect and analyze water samples, document their results and present findings to a local pollution control agency—that is service-learning". Service learning programmes can take many forms and are very diverse in content. However, a common set of elements are critical for a success full implementation of service learning. The National Youth Leadership Council and RMC Research Associates have developed a set of eight quality service-learning standards (the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice) with input from youth, teachers, administrators, youth agencies, policymakers, community members and other stakeholders. The standards are: Meaningful service: Service-learning actively engages participants in meaningful and personally relevant service activities. Link to curriculum: Service-learning is intentionally used as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards. Reflection: Service-learning incorporates multiple challenging reflection activities that are ongoing and that prompt deep thinking and analysis about oneself and one's relationship to society. Diversity: Service-learning promotes understanding of diversity and mutual respect among all participants. Youth voice: Service-learning provides youth with a strong voice in planning, implementing and evaluating service-learning experiences with guidance from adults. Partnerships: Service-learning partnerships are collaborative, mutually beneficial and address community needs. Progress monitoring: Service-learning engages participants in an ongoing process to assess the quality of implementation and progress toward meeting specified goals and uses results for improvement and sustainability. Duration and intensity: Service-learning has sufficient duration and intensity to address community needs and meet specified outcomes. The complete document can accessed at https://www.nylc.org/page/standards. Research shows that the students who participate in service learning may benefit both personally, socially and academically (e.g., Celio et al., 2011; RMC Research Corporation, 2002). Service learning, by connecting education to real world issues and allowing students to address problems they identify, may be particularly efficacious as it increases engagement and motivates students, in particular students who might not respond well to more traditional teaching methods (see, e.g., Bridgeland et al., 2008; Kraft & Wheeler, 2003; Scales & Roehlkepartain, 2005). Motivation for learning and school engagement play a critical role in students' academic success (e.g., Fan & Wolters, 2014; Skaalvik & Valas, 1999). Motivated students tend to do better at school. According to OECD, students who are among the most motivated score the equivalent of more than one school year higher in PISA than the least-motivated students and motivation is further positively related to life satisfaction (OECD, 2017b). Theoretically, Kolb's (1984) model of experiential learning is often referred to as the foundation for understanding how service-learning might work. Experiential learning theory defines learning as "The process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience" and knowledge is defined as: "a transformation process being continuously created and recreated, not an independent entity to be acquired or transmitted" (Kolb, 1984, p. 38). Kolb further suggests that experiential approaches to learning such as service-learning are better at accommodating learners with different learning styles than traditional didactic approaches such as classroom-based teaching. Experiential learning is inspired by pragmatist philosopher John Dewey's six-step process of experiential logical inquiry. According to Dewey the six steps are: (1) encountering a problem, (2) formulating a problem or question to be resolved, (3) gathering information which suggests solutions, (4) making hypotheses, (5) testing hypotheses and (6) making warranted assertions (Dewey, 1938; Giles & Eyler, 1994; Kolb,1984). Kolb's (1984) model comprises these steps into a four stage experiential learning cycle involving: Concrete Experiences, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation and Active Experimentation (Cone & Harris, 1996; Kolb, 1984). Based on this conception, students participating in service-learning are engaged in a cycle in which their work in the community promotes written and/or oral reflection. Under the guidance of teachers or instructors, reflective work may be used to form abstract concepts and generate hypotheses, which may then be cycled back into further concrete experiences. According to Kolb this way of learning allows a variety of students with different learning styles and abilities to develop and integrate their skills (Cone & Harris, 1996). Service-learning provides an opportunity for students to move between perceiving new information through experiencing the concrete, tangible, felt qualities of the world within the community and taking hold of new information through abstract conceptualisation, thinking and analyzing. The pattern in which a learner moves between these levels of experience are thought to reflect an individual learning style, and service-learning is thought to allow each student to move between the levels in a way consistent with their own learning style (Kolb et al., 2002). Another strand of theory which offers a potential understanding of the theory of change behind service-learning is Situated Learning. The term "situated learning" refers to learning that occurs within a particular and authentic context through the individual's social participation. Rather than focusing on learning as a primarily cognitive process involving a number of tasks, situated learning theorists study the process in which individuals become new members of a learning community. According to the theory newcomers within a learning community move from a state of legitimate peripheral participation to full participation through a process that involves continuous negotiation, collaboration and reflection (Wolfson & Willinsky, 1998). In their often cited work: "Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation", Lave and Wenger (1991) focus on acquisition of skills and knowledge that takes place outside of traditional schooling within communities of practice. Based on an ethnographic investigation of traditional and nontraditional apprenticeships in Mexico, Liberia and the United States, Lave and Wenger propose that learning should not be viewed as the mere transmission of knowledge but as a distinctly embedded and active process. Learning is thus perceived as a contextualised process in which content is learned through doing activities. Furthermore, Lave and Wenger suggest that motivation too is "situated", as learners are naturally motivated by their growing value of participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Based on this approach students participating in service-learning inherently become motivated to learn as this enables them to move from being novices to becoming full participants within the learning community. Furthermore, students participating in service-learning may become motivated as they experience how their own participation increases in value as they progress from being newcomers towards the centre of the community of practice. In situated learning the construction of meaning is seen as being tied to specific contexts and purposes. For students participating in service-learning this may be particularly important, as service learning may enable them to socially construct meaning which makes learning matter beyond school. Two systematic reviews with meta-analyses are found in Conway et al. (2009) and Celio et al. (2011), both performing searches up to spring 2008. The review by Conway et al. (2009) analysed four outcomes: academic, personal, social and citizenship outcomes. They included studies of community service or volunteerism as well as service learning without distinguishing between these very different types of interventions (except in a moderator analysis), participants were not limited to primary and secondary education (although all results were shown separately for grade kindergarten to 12 students but without distinguishing between community service or volunteerism and service learning) and many of the included studies did not have control groups. The review by Celio et al. (2011) required included studies to analyse service learning using a control group but participants were not limited to primary and secondary education. Five outcome areas were analysed: attitudes toward self, attitudes toward school and learning, civic engagement, social skills and academic achievement. Separate results for primary and secondary education (grades kindergarten to 12) was only shown for the overall effect, that is, the mean of the five outcomes attitudes toward self, attitudes toward school and learning, civic engagement, social skills and academic achievement. The analysis of primary and secondary education outcomes did not take into consideration that more than one outcome per study was included in the meta-analysis (i.e., they did not take into account the dependencies between the effect sizes). Besides being up to date, the major differences between these two systematic reviews and the current proposal are that we will focus on service learning for primary and secondary education, only include studies with a control group, all relevant outcomes areas will be analysed separately and we will take into consideration the dependencies between effect sizes. In addition, there are several literature reviews of studies conducted in the United States (Billig, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004). None of them is a systematic review and no data synthesis is performed in any of them. The review we plan to do differs in substantial ways from these existing reviews. It is systematic and a meta-analysis will be conducted. The main objective of this review is to answer the following research question: What are the effects of service learning on academic success, NEET status, personal and social skills and risk behaviour of students in primary and secondary education (grades kindergarten to 12)? Further, we will investigate the following factors with the aim of explaining potential observed heterogeneity: study-level summaries of participant characteristics (e.g., studies considering a specific gender, age or socioeconomic level or studies where separate effects for girls/boys, primary school/secondary school or low/high socioeconomic status are available) and quality of the service learning programme according to the standards as outlined in section The intervention. The moderator analysis will be performed as outlined in section Moderator analysis and investigation of heterogeneity. The proposed project will follow standard procedures for conducting systematic reviews using meta-analysis techniques. Randomised controlled trials will be included. In order to summarise what is known about the possible causal effects of service learning, we will include all study designs that use a control group, that is, a group of students not participating in service learning. The control group may be offered treatment as usual or an alternative treatment. The study designs we will include in the review are: Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials (allocated at either the individual level or cluster level, e.g., class/school/geographical area etc.). Nonrandomised studies (service learning has occurred in the course of usual decisions, the allocation to service learning and no service learning is not controlled by the researcher, and there is a comparison of two or more groups of participants, i.e., at least a treated group and a control group). Studies using single group pre-post comparisons will not be included. Nonrandomised studies using an instrumental variable approach will not be included—see the Appendix (Justification of exclusion of studies using an instrumental variable (IV) approach) for our rationale for excluding studies of these designs. A further requirement to all types of studies (randomised as well as nonrandomised) is that they are able to an Studies for example, the treatment is given to teachers in one school only and the comparison group is teachers at school more schools for that separate the treatment effect from the school Even within of teachers in may mean that have to be at the level to be able to a situation of not being able to separate treatment effect from The review will include in primary and secondary education (grades kindergarten to 12) in education. The included to primary and secondary defined as the first two steps in a educational of primary education, secondary education and tertiary or higher education. The number of years a primary schooling across the OECD countries, though most often primary schooling is or after which secondary education (e.g., in the form of The is the for in and most of and the is the for school systems in countries such as Italy, and The age included will between countries, and between states within from to In some countries, kindergarten can however to programmes outside of primary school and include to years. Service learning such will be that is, kindergarten be a part of primary school for a study to be included. to secondary defined as the in a educational The number of years a secondary schooling across the OECD countries, though most often secondary schooling is or The is the for in and most of and the is the for school systems in countries such as Italy, and The age included will between countries, and between states within will from to Studies that meet will be from all will in school and in Service Learning is a curriculum-based community service that integrates classroom instruction as classroom discussions, presentations, or directed with community service activities. Service learning may be or and should have service activities that take place outside of the It should take place in the community including the school as part of the community. Service learning is organised in to an academic course or curriculum and has clearly stated learning Service learning should address real community needs and students in drawing lessons from the service through regularly scheduled, organised reflection or critical Community service or activities that do not integrate classroom instruction will be The primary focus is on of academic success and NEET status employed nor in education or training compulsory The primary outcomes are: on students' achievement tests education, training on students' achievement only will be that is, tests (e.g., and tests (e.g., of tests (e.g., National Assessment of and of academic (e.g., of we do not to studies follow up outcomes in the compulsory NEET status is included as a primary A secondary focus is on of personal and social skills and attitudes towards and risk behaviour as and risk by or by personal and social only and reliable outcomes that have on a different population is i.e., not will be included. of outcomes are from the Skills & or the of the the Skills Scales & and the Scales & 1999). Studies will only be included they at least one of the primary or secondary outcomes. it is not from the of outcome in the studies they are we will use to a is or will not where have a of from a It will be any potential effects have in any included Duration of for will year follow up year follow up than year follow up of The of the is primary and secondary education (grades kindergarten to 12) in public or will be studies will be through searches in literature and in specific to and will be Center example of the strategy used for the on the is The will be to the and of the different literature literature will be & National Research Education Commission of the National Youth Leadership Research American for Center for and Research on Learning and of literature might be the process. specific will be International for Research on Service-Learning and Education of Experiential Education of of of and in the Community in Service-Learning Research The International of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement In order to both studies and literature we will primary strategy will be to related and The review will also of included primary studies for new with will to and ongoing Randomised controlled trials are but we that a of studies will be conducted without of participants. Studies of the effect of service learning are required to have a control group for in the may be for example, time policy or participant They all group or of on risk and participant The will be according to the risk of model outlined in section of risk of in included The risk of makes it possible to between studies with of Studies that have with a risk of will not be included in the data example of a study that may be included is et al. in which students at one school were assigned by classroom to either a for classroom curriculum or a for service learning Another Scales et al. assigned students in schools to where after schools which of their be service-learning and which be control A of analysis of were conducted to service-learning students with control students with on the as the A

School and institutional effects on secondary education transitions in Mexico

The National Project to Counter Stigma and Discrimination was established by the New Zealand government in1997. The Project recognised that people with a diagnosis of mental illness are marginalized and excluded from full participation in society. The Mental Health Foundation was contracted to provide workshops for mental health service providers to shift workplace attitudes and behaviours that were discriminatory or stigmatising. This thesis used a case study approach to capture and evaluate the significance and nature of the transitory form of process drama in three workshops I facilitated in largely Maori communities in the far north of the North Island. The principles of reflective practitioner research informed the use of research tools, data collection and analysis. This research focused particularly on reflective strategies that occurred inside process drama work and the way in which meaning was constructed in that context. The central research question asked: 'In what ways does process drama work to assist people to reflect on their attitudes and behaviours associated with mental illness?' This raised a secondary question: 'What potential is there for a model to counter stigma and discrimination that uses process drama as a central strategy?' This thesis posits a new model for understanding the nature of reflection in process drama. The mimetic notions of the fictional and the real as discrete and defined entities should instead be seen as permeable frames of existence that on occasions collide and collapse into each other. The double paradox of process drama is that, having created an empathetic relationship with the roles taken, we purposefully structure distance so we can then deliberately collapse the distance to create deep moments of reflection. I suggest a more accurate term to describe reflection in process drama is refraction. Refraction acknowledges that, rather than clarity, process drama seeks ambiguity: instead of resolving issues it seeks to further problematise and complexify. The tension of working with a democratic and open-ended art form towards a pre-ordained end as part of the project is closely examined. The impact of performative rituals and proto drama processes as part of the context of working in Maori settings is also explored. A three step model for countering stigma and discrimination is formulated and workshopped. The content of the model is based on an analysis of research undertaken within an anti-racist context, and models that have informed similar mental health campaigns. The form of the model is process drama. An analysis of the workshops demonstrated that the first model developed was limited in its effectiveness. Instead, participants should engage in repeating cycles of generating and investigating images. This leads to the development of what I have termed the Spiral Three Step Model. Although the effectiveness of the Spiral model is not tested in this research, it became apparent that the workshops based on this structure provided opportunities for participants to consider and reflect/refract deeply on their workplace's attitudes and behaviours.

There is a broad willingness to act on global plastic pollution as well as a plethora of available technological, governance, and societal solutions. However, this solution space has not been organized in a larger conceptual framework yet. In this essay, I propose such a framework, place the available solutions in it, and use it to explore the value-laden issues that motivate the diverse problem formulations and the preferences for certain solutions by certain actors. To set the scene, I argue that plastic pollution shares the key features of wicked problems, namely, scientific, political, and societal complexity and uncertainty as well as a diversity in the views of actors. To explore the latter, plastic pollution can be framed as a waste, resource, economic, societal, or systemic problem. Doing so results in different and sometimes conflicting sets of preferred solutions, including improving waste management; recycling and reuse; implementing levies, taxes, and bans as well as ethical consumerism; raising awareness; and a transition to a circular economy. Deciding which of these solutions is desirable is, again, not a purely rational choice. Accordingly, the social deliberations on these solution sets can be organized across four scales of change. At the geographic and time scales, we need to clarify where and when we want to solve the plastic problem. On the scale of responsibility, we need to clarify who is accountable, has the means to make change, and carries the costs. At the magnitude scale, we need to discuss which level of change we desire on a spectrum of status quo to revolution. All these issues are inherently linked to value judgments and worldviews that must, therefore, be part of an open and inclusive debate to facilitate solving the wicked problem of plastic pollution.

Process drama is a form of improvisational drama where the focus is on the process rather than the product. This form of improvisational activities has been used extensively in many domains. For example, role play has been used in health therapy as well as for training health personnel. Creative drama is a form of process drama that focuses on the use of story dramatisation techniques; it has been extensively used to promote language and literature skills as well as creative and critical thinking. In these domains, process drama exhibits itself in physical space. Recently, there have been many advances in technology that allows process drama to be exhibited in virtual space. In this article, we look at the form and structure of process drama. We specifically discuss process drama, especially creative drama. We outline several key factors of process drama that affect its effectiveness as a learning vehicle, including involvement and reflection. Through this lens, we survey several cases of virtual process drama both as a single person experience as well as a multi-user internet-based virtual experience.

As a society, we face increasingly complex and intertwined environmental issues, such as extreme weather events, droughts, sea level rise, and unprecedented loss of biodiversity. The extent and ramifications of these issues remain largely unknown and clear-cut solutions are out of reach. We thus refer to them as environmental wicked problems (WPs). For decades, schools have been seen as the place where younger generations should learn about WPs and acquire a large variety of tools to face them. Instead, in this paper, we turn to emotions, and our aim is to explore how they come to matter in educational activities on WPs. To do this, we facilitate encounters between students and environmental WPs via process drama, thus opening up a space, a happenstance. There, students are not asked to resolve the environmental WPs, but are allowed to experience them, and thus (re)act and relate to situations, as well as human and non-human objects. Under the framing of Sara Ahmed’s ‘sociality of emotions’, we study these happenstance encounters, the emotions that emerge and we then unpack what these emotions do, their work, both to the activity and to its participants.

Rethinking plastic realities in Ghana: A call for a well-being approach to understanding human-plastics entanglements for more equitable plastics governance

The impacts of plastics’ life cycle

Our world faces complex, intertwined, and transdisciplinary challenges – such as sea level rise and loss of biodiversity, and schools have been the designated place where young generations should acquire specific competences to face them. In this paper, I frame these issues as Wicked Problems (WPs) and offer an empirical exploration of how middle-schoolers (11–13 years) encounter them. During three workshops in two Swedish middle schools, pupils encountered environmental WPs via process drama, and to navigate these activities, they enacted competences which have been long advocated for. These were made visible by students’ performance as they revealed and used their knowledge and their ability to problematise and empathise. These instances were then acknowledged by peers and teachers, and these moments of recognition impacted how students utilised said competence and performance. Process drama thus opens spaces where students can practice encountering environmental WPs, as well as make use of and acknowledge their competence and performance; these three dimensions are thus in a relation of mutual affect when in a situated educational setting.

In 1999, a new curriculum was launched at primary school level in Ireland. Surprise was expressed by classroom teachers when it was announced that Drama was to be a separate subject. At that time, some primary teachers were up-skilling in the use of Drama as a teaching methodology but this syllabus required teachers to teach 'process drama' rather than drama as a methodology for teaching other subjects. Process drama is a particularly challenging form of drama. It required the classroom teacher to become a form of playwright where she could weave the story, the content, improvisation and role-play into manageable chunks of rich learning. Many teachers felt were daunted. The curriculum documents were vague. The language was 'high brow'. There was the added complication where teachers were to move beyond role-play (described in the curriculum documents as 'a limited activity' into the complex field of characterization. No longer was the 'shepherd' a simple 'shepherd'. Now, he was a character with feelings, emotion, a background, a history. Many teachers did not know how to realize a character in a drama in their classroom. There was little concrete instruction in the curriculum documents as to how to help students move from role-play to the more sophisticated 'characterization'. When traditionally continual professional development was on offer at local education centres, now (due to the strange newness of this form of drama), CPD courses in Drama 'dried up'. I was one of those CPD facilitators in Drama but now I am nervous of leading teachers astray in teaching characterization. There was an irony in this because I am also a playwright. I began to question my own ability as a playwright. I decided to travel abroad (from Ireland) and conduct research, at Masters level at Cambridge University. Previously I had used action research as my preferred research approach but in this case I opted for case study as I wish to observe or 'notice deeply' the factors at play. My field research took place in Southern Ireland, in my own primary school where I have taught for over 30 years. It took place in May. The Sixth Class students (12/13 years old) were not my students but were senior students with some experience in drama. I chose 'The Titanic' as the story for exploration. I used Interviews, Work Samples and Journaling as my routes to find evidence (if any) of enhanced characterisation through the selection and implementation of some elements of Stanislavski's 'System' for training actors. Eventually, three elements emerged as useful strategies for realizing characterization. What emerged from the study were three qualities of characterisation namely 'voice', 'empathy' and 'emotion'. Results indicated that the three elements could work in certain circumstances but that Sixth Class students are not amenable to Drama in their final months in primary school. Nevertheless, I can see great merit in going beyond role-play to the sphere of characterization. It is easier to experience empathy, emotion and to cultivate voice. My playwriting has improved. My teaching of Drama is richer. I can now help my students to reach inside themselves and, using their imagination, create colourful characterization that may live on in their hearts, long after they have left primary schools. Further study into Stanislavski's 'System' can, I am sure, help teachers teach and delve and explore the personal, the subjective in our sometimes arid classrooms.