From acting to action: developing global citizenship through Global Storylines drama

This paper emerges from research that sought (and seeks) to demonstrate the potential of educational drama to contribute to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and in the related area of Global Citizenship Education (GCE). The work is a response to the directive from UNESCO, in the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, in which educators were challenged to find interesting and meaningful ways of helping young people to develop the knowledge, skills, values and dispositions they will need to become actively involved in building a more sustainable future. This paper argues that because of the unique nature of educational drama and, in particular, because of the specific relationships developed during drama activities developed as part of the pedagogy of Global Storylines, drama can make a valuable contribution to ESD/GCE pedagogy.