We know how they feel: global storylines as transformative, ecological learning

This chapter seeks to demonstrate an articulation between Global Citizenship Education/Education for Sustainable Development (GCE/ESD) and an innovative educational project, Global Storylines, which is based on the Scottish Storyline approach. The project has developed Storylines that offer creative and dynamic ways to engage pupils in critical thinking around global development issues and sustainability themes. The project is predicated on the idea that the pedagogies of Storyline, and the associated pedagogies of process drama, may provide opportunities to meet the aims of GCE/SDE, as stated through the UN Decade of ESD, by allowing learners to think creatively, to make connections, to problem solving, to develop complex skills and to examine values, all through the use of multiple modes of learning (for example, visual, aural, vocal and kinaesthetic). Importantly, the chapter argues that the skills practised and values explored through the fictional contexts of Storyline and drama, afford participants opportunities to rehearse active citizenship in relation to key environmental concepts: to propose and practise taking positive action in and for the environment. The chapter also provides examples of Global Storyline planning from the project.