Drama and environment: joining forces to engage children and young people in environmental education.
Curtis, David J. ; Howden, Mark ; Curtis, Fran 等
The world is in a state of serious environmental decline with the
plight of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental
degradation (Worldwatch Institute, 2012). There is an increasing
realisation that the arts have an important role in influencing beliefs
and attitudes towards the environment that may complement legislative or
policy tools (Kagan & Kirchberg, 2008). Mirroring this realisation
is interest in incorporating the arts in environmental education,
although in Australia and internationally there are relatively few
practitioners who use drama as a tool in environmental education (Adcock
& Ballantyne, 2007) and reviews of environmental education typically
overlook such use (e.g., Gralton, Sinclair & Purnell, 2004;
Rickinson, 2001).
The Australian New South Wales (NSW) Drama curriculum (NSW Board of
Studies, 2003) provides opportunities for societal issues, and the
environment in particular, to be studied in the drama classroom through
performative studies. Accordingly, drama teachers are increasingly using
the skills developed in the drama curriculum to tackle broader
educational and societal issues (McCammon & McLauchlan, 2006). The
NSW Environmental Education Policy (NSW Department of Education and
Training, 2001) provides guidance on incorporating environmental
education across the curriculum, not only through science, geography,
but also the creative arts. This approach is also reflected nationally
(Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Heritage,
2005) and internationally (UNESCO, 2010). Thus, there is a recognised
overlap between the approved drama and environmental education
curricula, which this article seeks to explore.
The utilisation of drama in environmental education can take many
different forms. In 'theatre-in-education'
('demonstration theatre'), professional theatre practitioners
develop a work, typically in consultation with experts such as
scientists, and perform it to school students (Australia Council for the
Arts, 2003; Nicholson, 2011; O'Toole, 1976). For example, Wan
Smolbag is a theatre group from Vanuatu that travels the Pacific Islands
raising awareness about health and environmental issues (http://www.
wansmolbag.org/DynamicPages.asp). Other examples are provided by Adcock
& Ballantyne (2007), and Peleg and Baram-Tsabari (2011). A variation
on theatre-in-education is where a teacher or performer uses drama or
music to enrich the presentation of material. Examples include Ramsey
(2002), who used folk songs to help educate young people about ecosystem
fragility, and the group Morganics, who used hip hop song-writing and
performance to engage Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people in
issues about health and the environment (Vanclay, Lane, Wills, Coates,
& Lucas, 2004). Groupdevised theatre (also called
'play-building', 'pedagogical theatre' or
'process theatre') is where the participants develop a piece
of theatre (Burton, 2011). They may be given a partially developed
script and then develop it further, or they may just be given some
introductory information to stimulate their imagination. Other ways of
using drama in science or environmental education are through historical
drama (Begoray & Stinner, 2005) and role play and drama simulations
of particular phenomena (sometimes called 'creative drama based
instruction'; Appleby, 2005; Cokadar & Yilmaz, 2010; Dorion,
2009; Hoot & Foster, 1993; Metcalfe, Abbott, Bray, Exley, &
Wisnia, 1984; Odegaard, 2003; Ozdemir & Ustundag 2007; Vargas,
1995). Drama can also explore environmental themes when incorporated
into large multi-arts performance works; for example, the Long Line
event that dealt with ecology, microbiology and human history of
Morecambe Bay in the United Kingdom
(http://www.welfare-state.org/index.htm).
There is an extensive literature on the positive educational
benefits of studying the arts at school (Fiske, 1999; Deasy, 2002), and
the arts are recognised as having an important role in
'transformative learning'--that is, encouraging a 'deep
structural shift in core thoughts, feelings and activities' (Ewing,
2010, p. 33). Those who have used the arts in environmental or science
education have found that they can:
* increase student interest and allow the ability to make
connections between environmental crises and cultural impact (Ramsey,
2002);
* motivate children to express themselves and engage them on a
personal level about ecological concerns (Hoot & Foster, 1993);
* encourage pluralistic and evaluative thinking (Appleby, 2005);
* assist in discerning patterns and understanding abstract concepts
(Cokadar & Yilmaz, 2010; Dorion, 2009);
* integrate knowledge (Begoray & Stinner, 2005; Odegaard,
2003), and strengthen the affective dimension of environmental
interpretation (Adcock & Ballantyne, 2007).
As stated by Bergmann (1999), the arts can assist the learner to
better understand the complexities, interrelatedness and
interdependencies of environmental issues, as well as concept formation,
value clarification, emotional recognition, self-positioning,
embodiment, and moving from despair to positive guiding visions.
According to the environmental sociology and social psychology
literature, there are many factors that affect the environmental
behaviour of individuals, and the ways these factors interact are
complex (Jackson, 2005; Kollmus & Agyeman, 2002). Models of
people's behaviour fall into two categories:
'internalist' and 'externalist'. Internalist
perspectives embed the implicit assumption that people act as autonomous
agents. In the Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned Behaviour,
beliefs and attitudes influence how a person intends to act, which in
turn influences how one actually behaves (Jackson, 2005). In
Schwartz's Norm Activation Theory, the awareness a person has of
the consequences of their actions greatly influences how they behave
toward the environment (Jackson, 2005). Other models have built in
additional internal factors such as values, personal characteristics,
gender, personal experiences, habits, class, family, peer group, tastes
and preferences, self-concept, genetic makeup and personality (Kollmus
& Agyeman, 2002). Triandis' Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour
integrates many of these factors into a single model (Jackson, 2005).
While these internalist factors can be important in influencing a
person's behaviour, people are constrained or influenced by many
external forces beyond their control, such as physical structures,
institutional factors (e.g., incentives and regulations), situational
constraints, and the influence of elites and social norms (Jackson,
2005; Kollmus & Agyeman, 2002). These external forces can outweigh
the internal and consequently there can arise a gap between a
person's environmental attitudes and how they end up
acting--sometimes called the 'attitude-action gap' (Kollmus
& Agymen, 2002).
The environmental sociology and social psychology literature is
largely silent on the role of the arts in affecting environmental
behaviour. Nonetheless, literature on the impact of the arts on society
more generally dates back to Plato and Aristotle, and it has long been
recognised that the arts can influence values, beliefs, attitudes,
knowledge and awareness of consequences, and the development of a civil
society (Belfiore & Bennett, 2006)--the same factors that influence
pro-environmental behaviour in citizens (Jackson, 2005; Kollmus &
Agyeman, 2002). There is a significant contemporary arts practice that
aims to bring environmental issues to the public's attention and
influence many of the factors that affect behaviour (e.g., Kent, 2010).
From 2002 to 2007, authors D. Curtis and Reeve collaborated on
research that examined how the arts shape environmental behaviour
through case study analysis and practitioner interviews of people
working in the arts and environment sectors (Curtis, 2007; Reid, Reeve,
& Curtis, 2005). A component of that work was an examination of the
use of the arts in environmental education, and authors Ryan and
Blomfield were interviewed as arts practitioners who performed theatre
in schools to enhance environmental education. The environmental
education component of the work included a classroom experiment with
secondary school drama teacher F. Curtis and internationally recognised
climate change scientist Howden that examined the effect of a
theatre-based approach to climate change communication (Curtis, 2007).
In this article, we have collaborated with two other environmental
theatre practitioners (authors Scrine and McColm) to reflect on the
lessons we have gleaned from our respective case studies. Our objectives
are to assess whether drama is effective in helping people adopt
pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour, and what aspects of a
drama-based approach may be useful in doing so.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Methodology and Theoretical Underpinnings
The article draws together results from five case studies. One or
more authors were associated as a participant and/or researcher with
each case study. The case studies were selected because they illuminated
particular effects of drama in an environmental education setting as
well as different ways of using drama (theatre-in-education--case
studies 1, 2 and 3; play-building--case studies 1 and 5; and a
multi-arts performance --case study 4). In addition, the five case
studies were selected because, collectively, they provided evidence of
the arts affecting some of the key factors that influence environmental
behaviour (Figure 1).
To connect our observations with theories that explain why people
adopt pro-environmental behaviour we have used a simplified model for
environmental behaviour taking elements of Triandis' Theory of
Interpersonal Behaviour and Schwartz's Norm Activation Theory
(Jackson, 2005; Figure 1). In this model, knowledge (i.e., awareness of
consequences) and attitudes and beliefs influence an intention to change
behaviour, and this is an important precursor to actually adopting
pro-environmental behaviour. We recognise that this model is necessarily
simplistic--a more complete model for the integration of the arts and
environmental behaviour is provided by Curtis, Reid, and Reeve (in
press).
The methods used in these case studies are summarised in Table 1.
Quantitative data were collected for case studies 1, 2, 4 and 5 from
surveys and questionnaires of audience members and participants. Survey
methods and analysis are summarised with the descriptions of individual
case studies in the next section. Surveys and interview questions and
more details on analyses are available from the authors on request.
Additional qualitative data were collected, including participant
observations and documentary evidence (all case studies) and informant
interviews and focus group interviews (case studies 1,2,4 and 5).
Analysis of qualitative data followed Neumann (1997). While considerable
qualitative data were collected, for conciseness we have mostly used
quantitative data to summarise particular insights and supplemented
these with our own participant observations.
As a way of connecting the case studies, we drew on narrative
inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). We recognise that providing
five case studies that differ in their methods and level of
methodological rigour, instead of a single case study analysed in
greater detail, means that we run the risk of reduced reliability in our
results. Narrative inquiry allows researchers to construct a coherent
story from different types of data (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). It
seemed to us, as researchers and practitioners, that these case studies
when seen together, provided a clear narrative. Using narrative inquiry
allowed us to combine different types of sociological data to create a
coherent story, provide a context for the work, insert ourselves as the
researchers into the narrative, and integrate own observations with the
findings of other authors to create an overarching thematic analysis.
Before presenting each case study, we briefly describe the context
of each case study.
Case Study Contexts
Case study 1: Evergreen Theatre
Evergreen Theatre is based in Calgary, Canada (Evergreen Theatre,
2002). Author Ryan was founding Artistic Director. The company performs
across Canada, the United States and Australia, and uses drama to teach
scientific and ecological research, basing their material on the
Canadian science curriculum. They mostly perform at schools and have
created shows on the greenhouse effect (global warming), garbage and
recycling, biodiversity, ecology, the water cycle, energy, electricity
and other aspects of science. The company uses both theatre-in-education
and play-building techniques. The intent of the scripts is to be
humorous and playful (making much use of painted foam), and sets are
minimalist (usually consisting of an appliqued cloth backdrop held up
with PVC pipe, and transported in a bag). This case study was examined
through survey data from the show WINGing It on the physics of flight
and how flight is used by animals. The audience of Grade 6 students were
surveyed using a set of quizzes designed to test their knowledge of the
subject matter in the show. The survey contained questions that tested
the subjective and objective knowledge of the student. Students were
tested just before the show, immediately after the show, and then 2-3
months later.
Case Study 2: Leapfish
Leapfish is an environmental education company based in Sydney,
Australia (www.leap. com.au). Author Blomfield founded the company and
is Artistic Director. Leapfish uses theatre-in-education techniques in
environmental education projects on themes such as the history of
electricity, global warming and the greenhouse effect, water
conservation, recycling and ecological footprints. These themes are
explored through a combination of circus skills, magic, dramatic
narrative and audience participation in performances at festivals,
schools, museums and conferences. Leapfish's show Cool Solutions
(and its associated workshop) was performed at 13 schools. A survey of
participating students and families was undertaken at the beginning of
each program and a second approximately 3 months after program
completion. The first survey asked a series of questions about patterns
of energy or water use in the home and asked families to devise a plan
comprising three activities to reduce their energy or water consumption.
In a second survey, families recorded their consumption and their
utility bill information for the previous 3 months and the bill
information for the same time in the previous year. Copies of the survey
questionnaires and material associated with the program are available
from the authors upon request. A full description of the case study and
its analysis is provided in Reeve (2009).
Case Study 3: Eaton Gorge Theatre Company
Eaton Gorge Theatre Company is based in the Illawarra region of
Australia (http://www. egtc.com.au). Authors Scrine and McColm founded
the company and are joint Artistic Directors. The company writes and
produces plays especially for children relating to environmental issues
such as water conservation and climate change. They mostly work with
local government to assist in their environmental programs and in
schools, and use both theatre-in-education and play-building performance
types. The case study of their show on water conservation Tapstar is
examined through the participant observations of authors Scine and
McColm.
Case Study 4: Plague and the Moonflower
This is an ecological oratorio by Ralph Steadman and Richard
Harvey. The community of the Australian rural city, Armidale, staged the
work in 2002 (Curtis, 2003), and in 2003 took it to the Woodford Folk
Festival and performed as one of its major amphitheatre events (Curtis,
2006, 2010). It involved approximately 300 participants, including
orchestra, adult choir, children's choir, dancers, actors and
Indigenous performers. The chorale tells the story of the Plague Demon,
which represents the side of humanity that destroys the natural
environment. The Plague Demon is transformed through his encounter with
the Moonflower--a rare plant that grows in submerged Amazonian
rainforests and was brought alive by the artist Margaret Mee. Author D.
Curtis coordinated and designed the production and author F. Curtis
directed and performed in it.
The case study was examined through analysis of survey data and
interviews of participants and audience members (Table 2). A full
description of the qualitative analysis is provided in Curtis (2007,
2010) and the quantitative analysis in Curtis (2007). In the second set
of performances (2003), initial hypotheses framed after the first
concerts were tested using a standard survey. The participants were
surveyed about a week before the first performance (at the dress
rehearsal). Questionnaires were distributed to the cast, and 100 were
returned. Immediately after the Armidale performance, five audience
members filled in a similar questionnaire. At Woodford on the day after
each performance, seven volunteers were stationed for 1-2 hours at a
location at the festival where many people were passing. They asked
people in the crowd on a random basis (roughly every fifth person
passing) whether they could fill in the questionnaire, and 65 were
completed. Mostly, people filled it in themselves, although some of the
volunteers asked the questions and filled in the form. The ages of
respondents were grouped into quartiles: under 18, 19-40, 41-50, 51 and
over. The survey data were analysed using the SPSS software (SPSS Inc.,
2001).
Case Study 5: Climate Change Play-Building Experiment
About 240 Grade 9 to 10 Drama students (aged 14-15) were involved,
from three schools. Author F. Curtis organised the experiment in one of
these schools, and authors D. Curtis and Reeve conducted the
experimental aspects and data analysis. Each school group consisted of
four classes. One class from each school group received a 40- to
50-minute Powerpoint-assisted scientific presentation on climate change
by author Howden. These classes were provided with uniform reading
material on climate change that they supplemented with internet
research. They then developed a 20- to 30-minute theatre piece
summarising or responding to the scientific information. The time for
devising the shows was 6-8 weeks, and they were then performed to
audiences of secondary school students derived from the remainder of the
school group.
Tests containing questions on knowledge and behaviour were
conducted before and after exposure to the material. Knowledge was
assessed as the percentage of correct answers to 36 multiple-choice
questions. Environmental behaviour was scored on the basis of 13
questions about student behaviour on a scale from 1 (where the person
had never done the particular pro-environmental behaviour) to 4 (where
the person had often done the behaviour). An additional question was
asked on what the student planned to do to lower their greenhouse
emissions. The questionnaire was pretested to ensure that it was pitched
at a level that adequately separated respondents and measured
improvement. It was subjected to a discriminator analysis (Kerhoe, 2000)
to ensure multiple-choice options were evenly balanced and modifications
made accordingly. Five groups were tested: (1) audience who only saw the
scientific lecture; (2) audience who only saw the performance; (3)
audience who saw both the lecture and the performance; (4) a control
group that saw neither the lecture nor the performance; and (5) the
performers. Complete questionnaire data was compiled from one school
(presented here). The first questionnaires (those of the participants)
were not labelled with student names in the pretest. This meant that
individual student performance for each question could not be traced
through time, so an independent samples t test was employed. This
problem was rectified for subsequent tests and the more powerful paired
t test was employed. For the measure of planned behavioural change, the
Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used where a paired sample was available
and a chi-squared test was used where it was not. Qualitative data was
compiled from all three schools to compare the approaches of the
teachers and elucidate participant outcomes.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
Data Presentation
Knowledge and Awareness of Consequences
Four case studies provided quantitative and qualitative data on
increasing student understanding following drama intervention. Audience
surveys of Evergreen Theatre showed increases in understanding by
students (Figure 2). Those who achieved good results in the preshow test
increased after the show ('post-show'). For example, the
objective tests went from 18% getting good results pre-show to 52% after
the show. Two to three months later ('Final') there were still
36% of audience members achieving a good score. Poor to mediocre results
went down a corresponding amount.
In Plague and the Moonflower, 43% of participants (mostly people
under the age of 18) said it allowed them to learn about environmental
issues (Curtis, 20061). Eaton Gorge Theatre achieved high recalls on the
messages in their water saving play, indicating that their work achieved
an increase in awareness. In the play-building experiment, those
students who developed a play increased their knowledge more than any of
the audience groups, from an average of 39% to 53% of questions answered
correctly and this was statistically significant (Table 3; p < .0005,
independent samples t test). Thus, the process of developing a piece of
theatre enabled these students to significantly improve their knowledge
of the science of climate change. This was illustrated when the
performance group performed a second time to a local primary school.
Following the show, the performers led a question and answer session. It
was clear that they had gained considerably in confidence over the
material and were able to explain much of the science to the younger
students.
Beliefs and Attitudes
One case study provided quantitative data on an effect of the drama
intervention on beliefs and attitudes. In Plague and the Moonflower, 74%
of survey respondents (a combination of audience and participants)
reported that it made them reflect about humanity's relationship
with the natural environment (Curtis, 2006):
[It] inspired me to appreciate [the] beauty of nature and the
environment more [and to] appreciate clean air and absence
of'Plague' in my environment. It was more appreciation rather
than action ... I guess that appreciation feeds that action. It was an
aesthetic appreciation. It's that beauty.... To me the whole
performance was so beautiful it was inspiring. (Female adult audience
member)
Sixty per cent of respondents reported that it made them feel
strongly towards the natural environment, while 59% reported that it
affirmed their beliefs about humanity's relationship with the
environment.
Intention to Change Behaviour
Two case studies provided data on the intentions of audience
members to change their behaviour. Sixty-seven per cent of survey
respondents said experiencing Plague and the Moonflower made them intend
to change their environmental behaviour in some way (Table 4). In the
play-building experiment there was a shift in the way students answered
'What do you plan to do to lower your greenhouse gas
emissions?' The participants in the play-building and the audience
members who saw the scientist and the performance in combination were
more likely to list actions that they would do differently to any other
group, and this was statistically significant (using the
independent-samples t test for the participants and the paired-samples t
test for audience members --see Table 5).
Changes in Environmental Behaviour
Leapfish's Cool Solutions provided data on actual changes to
people's behaviour following a drama intervention. The families of
the children exposed to the performance and workshop reduced daily
electricity consumption by an average of 16% (Reeve, 2009). There was a
38% increase in the numbers of low energy light bulbs installed, a 23%
decrease in the length of showers people were taking and a 41% decrease
in the number of appliances left on standby when not in use (Table 6).
Following Eaton Gorge Theatre Company's show Tapstar, the
water supply agency (Shoalhaven Water) measured a significant reduction
in water use across the municipality. Eaton Gorge's performance was
part of an award-winning overall social marketing program to reduce
water consumption. Work was not done by the agency to separate the
effects of the different components of the program. However, in
statements made to co-authors Scrine and McColm, the agency considered
that the impact of the Tapstar show was significant in its success.
Reasons Why Drama Has Positive Effects in Environmental Education:
Connecting Our Findings With the Literature
Taken together, our five case studies demonstrate that
incorporating drama into environmental education can have positive
effects on each of the key stages of our behavioural model (Figure 1) in
building knowledge, changing beliefs and attitudes, and encouraging an
intention to change behaviour. According to Kollmus & Agyeman
(2002), these factors are important in influencing how people act toward
the environment and even in actually changing environmental behaviour.
In this section, we reflect on why drama may have these effects,
referring to our objective results from the previous section, interviews
conducted with the practitioner co-authors, and the relevant literature.
Drama Can Be Integrated With Other Activities
Environmental education places considerable emphasis on
experiential learning (Stone & Barlow, 2005). Adcock &
Ballantyne (2007) concluded that drama is a holistic tool that is useful
for addressing serious issues in an engaging, non-confrontational and
inspiring manner that gets people thinking. Our case studies confirmed
that the characteristics articulated by Adcock and Ballantyne make drama
of benefit when integrated with environmental education. The case
studies by Leapfish, Evergreen Theatre and Eaton Gorge all successfully
integrate performances that are engaging and non-confrontational with
experiential learning activities such as workshops. These activities
provide their audiences with simple solutions (such as turning off the
lights) that they can do immediately. They have found that unless the
performance is integrated with an active environmental program it runs
the risk of being just entertainment, a problem that has been long
recognised in theatre-in-education (O'Toole, 1976).
Process Drama Combines All Learning Styles
Process drama combines all the learning styles which traditional
reading, writing and arithmetic methods of teaching do not
(Poston-Anderson, 2008; Sinclair, Jeanneret & O'Toole, 2009).
People learn in different ways, whether as audio or visual learners, or
symbolics who learn through reading and writing, or kinaesthetic
learners who learn through doing. As Adcock and Ballantyne (2007)
concluded, drama provides a multi-sensory experience that reinforces the
interpretive messages. Case studies 1 and 5 demonstrated this aspect of
drama. In setting up devised theatre projects, Evergreen Theatre would
ensure that students use all learning modalities. Typically, students
would do some reading and research in the starting point of their
devising. This would tend to be very focused reading because they were
conducting research to find creative, dynamic, problem-driven,
character-based things that would excite them. They would then typically
incorporate other learning modalities such as audio (often through
music) and kinaesthetic (through movement). Similar processes were at
work in the play-building experiment. We found that devising the piece
of theatre was possibly more important than the final performance. While
the performance is important to aim for, play-building allows the
students to explore and sometimes even redefine themselves and engages
the student on many levels. While processing information, they would
also create ideas and make original connections.
... the thing that makes the process valid is that it engages you
on so many different levels ... you're processing information, but
you're also processing and creating ideas and making original
connections ... somehow all of a sudden you're going 'ha
ha' and suddenly ... you've made a connection ... that's
why scientists are so passionate about what they do because they've
had to research and explore and do experiments, and that process creates
a passion and a connection.... So in this case kids are making
connections because they take that research material and they are trying
to find new ways to make connections based on stories ... you've
got the power of the story and the phrenastic connection that kids make,
or any humans make, when they have a new idea. (Tara Ryan, interview,
November 27, 2002)
Developing a play also allows students to teach a topic by
performing for their peers or younger students. This enables them to
consolidate their own learning and to act as role models for younger
students. If what they do is presented and seen as exciting, younger
children can empower the ideas and so the process of interest keeps
building. Students engaged in play-building in case studies 1 and 5 did
this and affirmed what Madruga and da Silveira (2003) found--that
younger children can be effectively taught and motivated by older
children through environmentally oriented drama.
A Means of Presenting Scientific Information That Excites Audiences
and Creates Fertile Soil for Later Engagement
Researchers who have examined the use of drama in environmental or
science education remark on the ability of the drama to excite students
(Adcock & Ballantyne, 2007; Dorion, 2009; Lovett, 2004; McShane,
1999). Adcock & Ballantyne (2007) concluded that drama has an
ability to grab and maintain attention and facilitate the emotional and
imaginative engagement of audiences or participants, and that it has
broad appeal. As Dorion (2009) remarked ' ... drama-based
approaches may be viewed as a potentially rich classroom resource for
interactive and imaginative learning'. McShane (1999) and Lovett
(2004) recognised the ability of the arts to provide an empathetic
connection to the natural environment and to help in transcending a
purely scientific or technocratic approach to natural resources
management (NRM). Without the 'celebration, fun and enjoyment'
that flows from the arts, Lovett argued, fewer people involve themselves
in NRM than could be the case. She argued strongly for a broadening of
the approach to NRM outreach in Australia to include music, literature
and other art forms, as occurs more frequently in Canada.
Our case studies confirmed these observations. In each example,
scientific information was synthesised and presented in exciting,
creative and multilayered ways:
... the reality is, if something better [than drama] came along
tomorrow that allowed us to excite, inspire, provoke, engage, new ways
of thinking, new ways of seeing the environment, and the issues around
that, I'd take it, I'd snap it up in a second. What I strongly
believe on a gut level, is that there isn't anything better. (Tara
Ryan, interview, November 27, 2002)
Blomfield speaks of drama's ability to find that
'illogical jump, that totally irrational thing that people
didn't think of, that actually brings together or reconciles or
integrates into areas of conflict' (Thor Blomfield, interview,
April 14, 2003). He recognises the importance of being a role model to
his audience, and finds that theatre is a good way to take his audience
on the same journey of discovery that he had made in researching the
show.
Providing this engagement resulted (in case studies 1, 2, 4 and 5)
in qualitative improvements in understanding scientific issues, as was
also found by McFee and Degge (1980), DeMoss and Morris (2002), and
Peleg and Baram-Tsabari (2011). From our observations, drama can also
provide an interest in audience members that opens them for later
engagement in the environment, which they may receive in more formal
settings. Despite these kinds of results, we have observed that some
scientists do not think using drama is valid as it does not 'get
into graphs or charts'. However, we would argue that if one creates
an interest for people, the graphs and charts can follow. If the drama
practitioner engages and interests people, a base has been created from
which further interest might grow.
One of the major ways that drama can synthesise complex information
is through the conversion to stories (Adcock & Ballantyne, 2007;
Vargas, 1995). This tool was used in case studies 1, 2, 3 and 4. The
theatre practitioners involved in these case studies have all found that
conversion of scientific information into stories helped children to
remember information:
I think that because we are a story culture, that is how we
remember things ... that's why we're addicted to things like
TV and movies ... the beauty of theatre is it's a way of telling
stories ... the mutual powers of the story is that it empowers the
concept. So a person may not leave from a show and say 'gosh, darn
it, I understand climate change way better than I ever did before'
but they will leave with a positive feeling and once they have solutions
... they won't be distracted by a lot of the details around it....
There's nothing linear about memory. Memory tends to grab images
... it often grabs very random things, but we remember those images very
clearly and the beauty of theatre is we get a chance to have those
pictures imprinted in our minds. (Tara Ryan, interview, November 27,
2002)
Drama varies in its effects depending on the way it is employed. In
the play-building experiment (case study 5), the value of play-building
in combination with exposure to expert knowledge is demonstrated in the
increase of climate change knowledge of the students by 36% (Table 3)
and increase in their planned environmental actions by 59% (Table 5).
However, audience members in the experiment did not demonstrate that
they had learnt much from either exposure to the scientific talk or the
performances of the students. A number of things in this trial led to
this unsatisfactory result. The questionnaire was not sufficiently
coordinated with the scientific presentation. Some student groups
(particularly those who saw the show only) did not have enough time to
answer the whole test in the pretest, giving rise to many missing
values. The performers were not given time to memorise and rehearse the
script once it was finalised to ensure that performances were clear and
unambiguous before performing it to the audience that was tested. With
the repeat performance to a primary school, the show was clearer in
intent, subject matter and delivery. The students need to have access to
scientific input as they develop their play also. They made common
errors, such as mixing up the ozone hole with the greenhouse effect; and
the teachers involved, while skilled in drama, all admitted requiring
more scientific input in script development. All of these problems could
be overcome in repeats of the trial.
Nevertheless, the trial did confirm what practitioners in the
performance companies have found: that integration of strong content
knowledge with drama can influence both knowledge and behaviours. If the
intention is to teach an audience about an issue from a performance, the
script needs to be crafted by more skilled practitioners, as was done in
case studies 1, 2 and 3 and by Peleg and Baram-Tsabari (2011), than a
group of teenagers can do from the start over a few lessons. Providing
an already partly completed script that covers the relevant science (as
Evergreen Theatre does) is one way to get around this problem. However,
we have found that there is a difference between demonstration and
pedagogical theatre. In demonstration theatre, the aim is
interpretation, provocation and stimulation. In an hour-long show,
everything cannot be covered in detail. Watching a show does not operate
at a deep cognitive level, whereas in pedagogical theatre, a 'deep
learning', with a slow building up and layering, can take place.
However, a combination of the two may have some impact--for example,
seeing the scientist and the performance gave a greater percentage
increase in response (300%) than seeing the scientist and doing the
play-building (59%) (Table 5).
It could be argued that any students who do extra work on a topic
will learn more than those who just sit in an audience and are spoken
to. This is not in dispute. What the play-building trial showed was that
devising theatre pieces is a valuable science education tool for
students who were not necessarily science orientated. As the case
studies collectively show, drama has many additional advantages, such as
making the topic fun and engaging, mentoring younger students, and
getting beyond seeing scientific issues as just relevant to the science
classroom.
The idea that the arts have an educative function has a long
history (Belfiore & Bennett, 2006). Interpretive sociologists
suggest that ideas may ultimately influence how people behave and that
symbols with shared meanings provide the basis of human communication
(Weber, 1946; Alexander, 2003). The arts are a potent means of conveying
ideas and hence influencing attitudes, and the use of symbols is central
to the arts' role in communication and creating an awareness of
consequences of one's actions--a crucial element in some models
that aim to explain environmental behaviour (Jackson, 2005). Certainly,
our case studies demonstrated theatre's potential to expose the
audience to environmental information and ideas (Evergreen Theatre can
perform to 75,000 children in a year, Leapfish's Cool Solutions
show performed to 4,000 students, Eaton Gorge Theatre Company performs
to up to 10,000 children per year, and Plague and the Moonflower
performed to over 10,000 people). While attendance numbers do not
necessarily indicate improved environmental knowledge, the results from
the surveys reported in this article would indicate there is great
potential in using drama to improve the environmental knowledge of large
groups of people.
Kollmus and Agyeman (2002) highlight many social and institutional
constraints that can provide barriers to students adopting
pro-environmental behaviour, regardless of their attitudes or intentions
(the 'attitude-action gap'). These barriers can include lack
of money, lack of time, lack of family support, cultural norms and
infrastructure or institutional limitations. Such barriers may impact
greatly on young people who experience events such as those described in
our case studies and thus hamper their ability or desire to adopt direct
pro-environmental actions. Nonetheless, we found that these barriers can
be overcome through the careful design of drama-based environmental
education activities with low cost actions for the participants to adopt
(see Table 6). Kollmus and Agyeman (2002) also highlight that an
awareness of consequences and pro-environmental attitudes can lead to a
person adopting indirect pro-environmental actions, such as donating or
supporting an environmental organisation (which can in turn assist in
reducing some of the situational constraints to adopting direct
pro-environmental actions). This distinction of direct and indirect
actions was not explored in these case studies, but could prove to be a
fruitful area for future research.
Conclusion
This article consolidates observations from five case studies that
incorporated drama into environmental education activities and builds on
the work of Adcock and Ballantyne (2007), confirming their conclusions.
In observing and participating in these case studies, we reflect that
drama has several characteristics that make it valuable in environmental
education:
* It provides a means of synthesising and presenting scientific
information in ways that are creative and multi-layered and which excite
students and help maintain their attention and facilitate their
emotional engagement.
* It can create fertile conditions for later engagement with
environmental or scientific topics that are presented in a more
traditional manner.
* Process drama combines all learning styles, which allows deep
learning to take place.
* Drama activities can be readily integrated with other activities
such as workshops to enrich the educational experience.
To provide a theoretical underpinning of our observations, we
related them to social-psychological theories that explain why people
adopt pro-environmental behaviour (Jackson, 2005), and to key factors
that influence environmental behaviour: knowledge (i.e., awareness of
consequences), attitudes and beliefs, and intention to change behaviour
(Figure 1). Observations from our five case studies have led us to
conclude that drama can be effective in helping people learn about
environmental issues and influencing attitudes and beliefs towards the
environment. These effects can encourage people to declare an intention
to adopt pro-environmental behaviour. Four case studies provided
quantitative and qualitative evidence for drama-based activities,
leading to an improvement in knowledge about the environment and the
consequences of one's actions. One case study provided quantitative
evidence that a performance-based approach can influence beliefs and
attitudes while two case studies provided quantitative data on a
drama-based approach that led to participants signalling they intended
to change their behaviour. Another case study led to significant
reductions in water and energy consumption among children and their
families exposed to environmental theatre and associated workshops.
The trial comparing different ways of exposing students to climate
change science revealed interesting interactions between traditional
means of providing information and utilising performance methods and
begs further exploration.
doi10.1017/aee.2014.5
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David J. Curtis, (1) Mark Howden, (2) Fran Curtis, (3) Ian McColm,
(4) Juliet Scrine, (4) Thor Blomfield, (5) Ian Reeve (1) & Tara Ryan
(6)
(1) Institute of Rural Futures, University of New England,
Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
(2) CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship, Canberra, Australian Capital
Territory, Australia
(3) Wollongong High School for the Performing Arts, Fairy Meadow,
New South Wales, Australia
(4) Eaton Gorge Theatre Company, Thirroul, New South Wales,
Australia
(5) Leapfish, Earlwood, New South Wales, Australia
(6) Evergreen Theatre, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Address for correspondence: David Curtis, Institute of Rural
Futures, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia. Email:
irf@une.edu.au
Note
(1) These results are more completely presented in Curtis (2006)
and so are not duplicated in their entirety here.
Author Biographies
David Curtis is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Institute of Rural
Futures, University of New England. He has over 30 years of practical
and theoretical experience of revegetation, farm forestry, landcare and
conservation in rural and urban areas in Australia. His career has
included work as a national and regional manager, university lecturer,
environmental educator, researcher and policy adviser. His ecological
research included a 10-year study into the regeneration and
rehabilitation of ecosystems impacted by rural dieback. His
trans-disciplinary sociology research examined the role that the arts
have in shaping environmental attitudes and behaviours. It found that
the arts could significantly affect environmental attitudes through
aiding in the communication of environmental information, creating
empathy for the natural environment, and catalysing ecological
sustainability. He has organised several large community arts events and
is founder, and current president, of EcoArts Australis Inc.
Mark Howden is a Chief Research Scientist and Theme Leader with
CSIRO, Canberra, Australia and is an Honorary Professor at Melbourne
University. Mark's research has focused on the impacts of climate
variability and climate change on systems we value and how to adapt to
these impacts, addressing: agriculture and food security and the people
involved, the natural resource base, ecosystems and biodiversity,
energy, water, and urban systems. He has also helped developed the
national and international greenhouse gas inventories for the
agricultural sector and assessed sustainable methods of reducing these
emissions. Mark has worked on these issues for over 25 years in
partnership with farmers, farmer groups, catchment groups, industry
bodies, agribusiness, urban utilities and various policy agencies. He
has been a major contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Assessment reports and various IPCC
Special Reports, sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC
participants and Al Gore. He sits on the US Federal Advisory Committee
for the National Climate Assessment and several other science and policy
advisory bodies.
Fran Curtis has a Bachelor of Arts (UNSW) and a Diploma of
Education (Sydney Teachers' College) and is currently Head Teacher
of Performing Arts at Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts. She
has over 20 years experience teaching Drama in NSW schools. She has also
taught Drama Method and held a position as an Adjunct Lecturer in the
Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies at the University
of New England. Fran is also a graduate of NIDA. She completed a
Graduate Diploma in Dramatic Art in Voice Studies and has run workshops
on voice for students, teachers, lawyers, management students and the
tourism industry, as well as private clients.
Ian McColm has been involved in the entertainment industry for the
past 25 years as a performer, administrator, director and writer and has
performed on stage and screen. He has been trained in improvisational
theatre and uses these skills as a trainer for both high school students
and adults. He currently teaches at The EGTC Theatre School, Wollongong
Performing Arts high school, and the Illawarra Grammar School and works
with local disability group Greenacres in their Drama for Recreation and
Transition to Work programs. Ian works full time for Eaton Gorge Theatre
which is a national touring Company.
Juliet Scrine has worked in radio, film and television, working as
an event organiser, drama teacher and actor. With Ian McColm, she
founded Eaton Gorge Theatre Company, which specialises in performances
with environmental education themes for young people. She has appeared
as an actor in film and television in a large number of short films and
advertisements, as well as in theatre. Juliet has worked as a Drama
teacher with the Disability Trust (actors with disabilities) and the
Disability Trust (The Altogether Drama Company), as well as the Youth
Performance Group with Roo Theatre and at Wollongong School for the
Performing Arts.
Thor Blomfield worked as a performer for over 20 years, co-founding
the Legs on the Wall Theatre Company. The company pioneered physical
theatre with story-telling and won a Greenroom award and toured the
world. Following Legs, Thor founded Leapfish--a not-for-profit
environmental education company. Leapfish creates shows, events and
installations that combine arts and performance with education. For the
past 10 years Leapfish has worked with over 20 local councils, 200
schools and numerous government agencies and communities.
Ian Reeve is an Adjunct Research Fellow and former Senior Group
Leader at the Institute for Rural Futures on the campus of the
University of New England. Over the past 28 years, he has undertaken
applied and contract research at the Institute in fields that include
soil science, soil and water conservation, professional, agricultural
and adult education, environmental and agricultural policy, and
environmental sociology. Recent publications of which he is a co-author
include a discourse analytical study of citizen attitudes to wood smoke
pollution, landscape futures analysis of climate change impacts on
coastal settlements and communities in north eastern New South Wales,
and risk analyses of weed spread in Australia.
Tara Ryan. Arts can change the hearts and practices of people, but
can they change their day-to-day lives? Tara Ryan struggles with this
dilemma in her own life--trying to balance her love of theatre (15 years
as the Artistic Director of Evergreen Theatre and 13 seasons developing
environmental theatre with parks in Canada) with her passion for working
in the wild places throughout North America (seven seasons tripping with
horses in the Rockies to almost a decade guiding folks on walking tours
with polar bears and swimming with belugas in the northern reaches). For
Tara, combining the natural world and theatre is a joy, both in the
field and on the stage.
TABLE 1: Summary of Methods Used in the Case Studies
Case studies
1. Evergreen
Theatre 2. Leapfish
[check] [check]
[check]
[check] [check]
[check]
[check] [check]
[check] [check]
[check] [check]
Case Studies
3. Eaton 4. Plague 5. Climate
Gorge and the change
Data collected Theatre Moonflower experiment
Participant observations [check] [check] [check]
Survey of participants [check] [check]
Participant interviews [check] [check]
Audience survey [check] [check]
Audience interviews [check]
Written material [check] [check] [check]
(minutes of meetings,
grant applications,
correspondence, project
documentation)
Photographs [check] [check] [check]
Numerical data of [check] [check] [check]
attendees
TABLE 2: Summary of Performances and Data Collection for Plague
And The Moonflower Case Study
First production Two performances-- Eighteen semi-structured
(2002) Armidale interviews
One focus group (11 people)
Second production One performance-- Seventeen semi-structured
(2003) Armidale interviews
Two performances-- Two focus groups (13 people
Woodford Folk in total)
Festival
Survey of 100 participants
at dress rehearsal
Survey of five audience
members Armidale
Survey of 65 audience
members--Woodford Folk
Festival
TABLE 3: Summary of Questionnaire Results for the Different Student
Groups Involved in the Climate Change Play-Building Trial
Knowledge
(Mean %
of answers
correct)
Treatment Before After
Control (saw 39.5 37.3 ns (1)
neither scientist
nor performance)
Saw performance 35.1 32.1 ns (1)
only
Saw scientist only 34.3 28.3 ns (1)
Saw scientist + 29.4 30.6 ns (1)
performance
Participants (saw 38.8 * 52.7 ** p < .0005 (2)
scientist and did
play-building)
Behaviour score
(Mean of
scores: 1 low to 4
high)
Treatment Before After
Control (saw 2.4 2.3 ns (1)
neither scientist
nor performance)
Saw performance 1.9 1.7 ns (1)
only
Saw scientist only 2.0 2.5 ns (1)
Saw scientist + 2.8 2.5 ns (1)
performance
Participants (saw 2.6 2.8 ns (2)
scientist and did
play-building)
Note: (1) Paired-samples t test; (2) Independent-samples t test;
n.s. = not significant. * combination of 2 classes (39 students);
** one class only (22 students)
TABLE 4: Effects of Plague and the Moonflower on People's Intention
to Change Their Environmental Behaviour
Did the production make you want to
do something different for the
environment? Number % of all respondents
Yes 62 37.6
A Bit 52 31.5
No 35 21.2
Unsure 16 9.7
Not answered 5
People who listed things they 73 42.9
would do differently
Note: Combined responses for audience members and participants. One
hundred participants and 70 audience members were surveyed (170 in
total). Percentages are of those who answered (2.9% of respondents
did not answer).
TABLE 5: The Effect ofAttending and Participating a Performance and
Attending a Presentation by a Scientist on Student Behaviour
Mean score of
planned actions
Treatment Before After
Control (saw neither 1 1 ns (1)
scientist nor performance)
Saw scientist only 0.5 0.83 ns (1)
Saw scientist + performance 0.33 1.33 p = .04(1)
Participants (saw scientist 1.29 * 2.05 ** p = .05 (2)
and did play-building
exercise)
Note: (1) Paired-samples t test; (2) Independent-samples t test.
Scoring of planned actions: 0 = do nothing; 1 = seek information;
2 = unspecified action; 3 = one specified action; 4 = two specified
actions; 5 = three specified actions; 6 = four specified actions;
7 = five specified actions.*combination of two classes (39 students);
** one class only (22 students).
TABLE 6: Changes in a range ofhousehold behaviour measures between
the two surveys following Leapfish s show Cool Solutions.
Second survey
Household behaviour measure First survey (significance)
Average weekly fuel expenditure $73 $78 (ns)
Average number of rooms with lights 2.5 2.1 (ns)
left on at dinner time
Average number of energy efficient 7.2 9.9 (***)
lights
Average number of appliances left 3.9 2.3 (***)
on stand-by when not in use
Average time (minutes) spent in the 12.9 9.9 (**)
shower by the person in the
household who took the longest
showers
Note: A paired t test was used to test the significance of each
change: ns = not significant, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.