Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a foundational aspect of the transformatory capability of sustainability science at the individual and group levels. Despite international frameworks to promote and monitor the development of sustainability competences, evidence of the efficacy of ESD remains limited and even challenging. This article proposes drama-based educational approaches, as part of an increasing body of arts-based methods used in sustainability science, which materially impact a wide range of sustainability competences. Drama is a practice-based approach that intentionally uses carefully designed educational activities involving body, story, interaction, and collaboration to generate sustainability awareness, knowledge, mindsets, and action taking for individuals and groups within higher education. Examples of applied drama practices can include various forms of role play, forum play (playing out roles and pausing/fast-forwarding/reversing to explore possible solutions), and legislative theatre (where participants collaborate with lawmakers to address local issues). This article draws on an international project applying drama methods across disciplinary areas, and outlines how drama methods may contribute to sustainability competences applied in practice. As a result of this, we propose further research to inform future high-impact practices of applied drama for the field of ESD.

The aim of this research is to explore if and how role and imaginary play in ECEC settings can contribute to fostering education for social sustainability. The research draws on documentation from ECEC educators engaged in Lindqvist’s (1995) play pedagogy during an Erasmus exchange between Icelandic and Swedish preschools. Rooted in Vygotsky’s theories of play, aesthetics, and cultural development, this research builds on Lindqvist’s (1995) early childhood play pedagogy with emphasizes on the role of socio-dramatic play between adults and children in the creation of collaborative idiocultures of play (Fine, 2012; Lecusay and Nilsson, 2024). The study draws on an interpretivist, qualitative methodology (Creswell, 2013). Narrative analyses together with concepts from drama pedagogy (Hallgren, 2018; 2022) are applied to characterize educators' reflections and perspectives on the relationship between children's play and social sustainability (Lindqvist, 1998; Nilsson and Lecusay, 2024). Informed consent was obtained from the participating educators. Preliminary findings indicate that educators perceive character and fantasy play in ECEC settings as contributing to social sustainability. Their reflections highlight how imaginative environments and active educator facilitation shape their understanding of the relationship between play and social learning, as well as their role in fostering relational trust—key components in developing sustainable educational practices. These findings suggest that national ECEC policies should emphasize the value of adult–child fantasy play as part of sustainability education. Practice can be supported through professional development and leadership initiatives that help educators integrate collaborative storytelling and drama into everyday pedagogy to foster inclusion and social learning.

This chapter introduces some central elements and general characteristics of applied drama by briefly addressing its roots and teaching approach. Four genres are presented: role play, process drama, Forum Theatre/Legislative Theatre, and forum play. Role plays usually concern a specific situation, allowing participants to experience the issue at stake by taking another person’s perspective, to understand how different characters’ motives and agendas affect their views. Process drama evolves over time and is co-created by participants and facilitators. It proceeds from a ‘pre-text’, a fictive frame, allowing the topic to be explored from many angles, using different drama conventions or strategies. Forum Theatre is a rehearsed, open-ended theatre performance about injustice/oppression. Legislative Theatre is an extension of Forum Theatre, where the process includes performing in front of lawyers and politicians to affect legislation. Forum play is more improvised and adapted for educational settings. This chapter is particularly valuable for non-specialist drama facilitators in higher education interested in learning more about applied drama.

‘The River’ is a process drama focusing on a river and its surroundings over time. A process drama has a fictional framework and is built up by a variety of drama conventions such as narration, still images, improvisation, and role-taking. Drama conventions enable experiencing from multiple perspectives, slowing down pace, and deepening reflection to offer different ways of acting. Imagination is central and used as a main tool to work with sustainability issues and practice moving between history, present, and the future. Through both historying and futuring, we can create new stories together including hope and different futures. The River is created to give participants the opportunity to explore nonhuman–human relations. Participants will experience the possibility of identifying themselves as part of nature and the emerging practice of nature as a legal person/entity.

Sustainability Teaching for Impact is an essential step-by-step, practical guide for those wanting to inspire and engage higher education students in the areas of sustainability.

This book encourages new and experienced university teachers across disciplines to adopt and adapt dramatic methods, with a view to develop their teaching. It introduces applied drama and performance arts methods that have been tried-and-tested across disciplines to deepen and broaden sustainability knowledge, skills, mindsets, and practices. Sustainability Teaching for Impact assumes no previous experience of the methods, as university teachers – with and without experience in drama – carefully walk you through some of the teaching practices they have used to create an impact in their teaching.

This book is for higher and further education tutors who wish to build on their experience and deliver exciting and accessible classroom techniques and practices that are highly interactive, creative, and engaging to help further the teaching of sustainability.

Sustainability can be characterised as cross-disciplinary, dynamic, value-laden, and ultimately a challenging academic subject for higher education teachers and students alike. Teaching sustainability therefore requires teaching methods which engage, embrace the environment, and energise action towards transformation of our relationship with the world around us. This introductory chapter provides a frame of how to use applied drama and performance in relation to the sustainability competences that it seeks to develop – inspired by Europe’s Green Competences and UNESCO global frameworks. It provides a platform of ideas of how you can utilise this book in your own learning and development journey.

Psykossjukdom, speciellt schizofreni, brukar definieras som en av de svåraste psykiatriska sjukdomarna. Vid psykossjukdom tolkas verkligheten annorlunda och man kan få hallucinationer, till exempel i form av röster samt kognitiva och exekutiva svårigheter. Många drar sig undan och tar inte för sig. Mycket fördomar och stigma är förknippade med schizofreni och självstigma hos den drabbade är därför vanligt.  

Medskapande drama och teater kan bidra till den existentiella hälsan hos patienter med nydebuterad psykossjukdom. Genom konstformen får deltagarna möjlighet att uttrycka sig själva: De blir sedda och bekräftade. Dessutom deltar alla – vårdtagare och vårdgivare, inklusive chefer – på lika villkor, vilket skapar egenmakt och reducerar olika typer av stigma.

Studien Drama och teater – kollektivt skapande för existentiell hälsa i psykosvården undersöker om och hur en kulturintervention med drama/ teater som frivillig verksamhet för personer med nydebuterad psykossjukdom kan resultera i minskat självstigma och ökad självkänsla. Studien genomfördes under 16 månader i tre grupper vid två mottagningar. Studien är unik då den inkluderar multipla perspektiv på drama/teaterverksamheten, eftersom inte bara vårdtagare deltagit i grupperna utan även vårdgivare och enhetschefer. Fokus i rapporten är vårdtagares och vårdgivares erfarenhet av att delta i interventionen och vilka komponenter i drama/teatermetoderna som fungerar positivt i arbetet med självstigma. Drama/teater i psykosvården kan förstås som en aspekt av existentiell hälsa kopplat till meningsfullhet (jfr. Sigurdsson, 2015). Deltagande observation och intervjuer med vårdtagare, vårdgivare och enhetschefer ligger till grund för resultatet som analyserats med hjälp av lek- och drama/teaterteori och perspektiv på kreativt ledarskap baserat på Jons och Buber.

Resultaten visar att drama/teater skapade utrymme för en positiv utveckling där existentiella dimensioner som tydligare självbild och ökad självkänsla noterades i linje med tidigare forskning. Denna studie klargör ytterligare att deltagarnas framåtblick som förknippas med självkänsla, den utvecklade vanan att improvisera, föreställa sig saker och se alternativa handlingsvägar. Att se och bli sedd i ett skapande sammanhang där ledarskapet präglas av ett lyftande och hörsammande arbetssätt hade avgörande betydelse. Verksamhetens metoder kännetecknades av lekfulla kollektiva skapandeprocesser baserade på spontanitet och fysiska gestaltande inslag. Alla deltagare kände sig behövda och tillsammans klarade de av något som tidigare uppfattats som utmanande. De fysiska inslagen gav deltagarna tillgång till fler av de egna kroppsliga resurserna och kropparna blev kroppar med rätt att ta plats. Rolltagande och fiktion möjliggjorde för prövande av olika sätt att vara och agera. När stolthet förkroppsligades i drama/teaterarbetet, minskade fokus på begreppet självstigma och deltagare gav uttryck för tydligare självbild och ökad självkänsla. Det sammantagna resultatet är viktigt då vårdtagare med psykossjukdom ofta upplever skam och självstigma, vilket kan leda till isolering, ensamhet och risk för suicid. Vårdpersonal som deltog i grupperna bekräftade också att de utvalda drama/teatermetoderna och det specifika ledarskapet spelade stor roll i relation till vårdtagarnas minskade självstigma och ökade självkänsla. Det gemensamma deltagandet i drama/teatergruppen stärkte dessutom relationen och samarbetet, den terapeutiska alliansen, mellan vårdgivare och vårdtagare. Vårdgivare upplevde också att drama/teaterarbetet bidrog till deras egen utveckling och trivsel. Enhetschefer har också deltagit i drama/teatergruppernas arbete vid några tillfällen för att själva skapa sig en uppfattning och för att kunna förklara det positiva resultatet och vad interventionerna innebär. Enhetscheferna lyfte även de värdet av insatsen, både för deltagande vårdtagare men även den kompetensutvecklande och stimulerande aspekten i arbetsmiljön för personalen.

The present study, Drama and Theatre – Collective Creation for Existential Health in Treatment of Psychosis, examines whether and how a cultural intervention with drama and theatre as a voluntary activity for patients with newly debuted psychosis disorder, results in reduced self-stigma and increased self-esteem. The study was conducted during sixteen months, in three different groups at two clinics. The study is unique because it incorporates multiple perspectives on the drama intervention, since not only caretakers, but also caregivers and managers have taken part in the group activities. The study focuses on the experiences of caretakers and caregivers taking part in the intervention, and on identifying the different components in the drama and theatre methods which positively promotes the work on self-stigma. Drama and theatre in treatment of psychosis can be understood as an aspect of existential health, connected to meaningfulness (Sigurdson, 2015). Participant observation and interviews with caretakers, caregivers and managers, constitute the basis for the results, analyzed through the methodological framework of play/drama theory and perspectives of creative leadership based on Jons and Buber.

The results show that drama and theatre enabled a positive development where existential dimensions, such as a clearer self-image and a heightened self-esteem, in line with previous research. The participants’ growing capacity of looking ahead with a sense of self-worth was developed through the stimulated habit of improvisation, imagination and identification of alternative paths of action. To see and to be seen in a creative context in which the leadership is founded on an approach of uplifting and paying heed, was of fundamental importance. The methods in the intervention were characterized by playful co-creating processes based on spontaneity and physical enactment. All participants felt needed and together they succeeded in achieving something previously perceived as challenging. The physical elements gave the participants further access to their bodily resources and the bodies became bodies with the right to take up space. Roletaking and fiction enabled explorations of different ways to be or act. When a sense of pride was embodied during the drama interventions, focus on the concept of self-stigma was reduced and participants expressed a clearer self-image and a higher self-­esteem. The cumulative result is of importance, since caretakers with psychosis often experience shame and self-stigma, which can lead to isolation, loneliness and a suicide risk. The caregivers who took part in the interventions also confirmed that the chosen drama and theatre methods and the specific creative leadership played a great role in relation to the reduced self-stigma in the caretakers and their increased self-esteem. The co-participation in the drama intervention also enforced the relationship and the cooperation, the so-called, therapeutic alliance, between the caregiver and the caretaker. The caregivers also experienced that the drama or theatre interventions contributed to their own development and enjoyment. Even the managers participated in the drama intervention occasionally, so that they could make their own opinion about the intervention and be able to explain its positive outcomes. The managers also underlined the value of the intervention, both for the par-taking caretakers, but also as a stimulating and skill developing aspect for the caregivers’ work environment.

När barn bjuds in i eget skapande och gestaltar tematiken i en berättelse, öppnas nya möjligheter för att levandegöra läsningen och reflektera intryck, tankar och känslor. Barnet blir en aktiv, kreativ deltagare som på ett lustfyllt sätt får möjlighet att gå in i och utforska nya världar, påverka dessa, vända och vrida på saker och ting och i det upptäcka nya perspektiv.

I Lek en bok ges en mängd idéer och konkreta modeller för hur drama och gemensam läsning kan kombineras för språkutveckling och estetiskt engagemang, med utgångspunkt i läroplaner och aktuell forskning. Författarna beskriver läsfrämjande genom lek och skapande, äventyr i och utanför roll samt engagerande möten mellan barn och vuxna som utforskar teman tillsammans. Särskilt fokus läggs på metoden processdrama och hur dramaturgin i en bilderbok eller kapitelbok kan anpassas till ett semistrukturerat förlopp.

Boken kan med fördel användas i förskollärar- och lärarutbildning samt av verksamma pedagoger, bibliotekarier och andra aktörer inom skola, omsorg och barnkultur.