ABSTRACT
Building on the educational premises illustrated in the previous chapters, we now turn to the specifi c learning and teaching methodology of roleplay, and how this can be used to create an educational context for dealing with the complex, transdisciplinary problems of sustainability. As reported earlier, sustainability education poses challenges to the traditional context of science learning. This chapter examines the proposition of a role-play dealing with a complex, global issue to engage students in developing competences that are commensurate with the transdisciplinary and dialogical context of a society in post-normal conditions. In the fi nal part, an illustration of a recent experience of role-playing in a secondary school classroom will focus on the process and outcomes of students’ engagement in the role-play. This chapter has many purposes: to establish the theoretical foundations for using role-play in a framework of sustainability; to illustrate how a role-play can be constructed and used for this purpose and to exemplify the learning processes that are enacted. This will form the basis for a refl ection on the changing nature of knowledge production in the classroom and the wider implications that this can have for education and research at the interface with science and society.
