What is it about?
This study explores how theatre can help university students better understand environmental injustice. Environmental injustice refers to the unequal way environmental problems, such as pollution or lack of green spaces, affect different social groups. In universities, these inequalities are connected to access to resources, participation in decision-making, and the recognition of diverse student experiences. The research is based on interviews with eight university professors who teach environmental education and have experience using drama-based methods. They describe how activities such as role-play, improvisation, and collective storytelling can help students emotionally connect with environmental issues. By “stepping into someone else’s role,” students develop empathy, critical thinking, and a stronger sense of social responsibility. The study also shows that for theatre-based approaches to be used effectively, universities need proper training for instructors, supportive institutional policies, and suitable spaces and time within the curriculum. Overall, the research suggests that applied theatre can serve as a bridge between knowledge and action, helping higher education address environmental justice in more participatory and meaningful ways.
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Why is it important?
This study is timely because universities are increasingly expected to address climate change and sustainability, yet many programs still focus mainly on technical knowledge rather than social justice. While environmental justice is widely discussed in policy and research, its connection with artistic and theatre-based teaching practices in higher education remains limited and fragmented. What makes this work distinctive is that it brings together two fields that rarely meet in a systematic way: environmental justice education and applied theatre. By grounding the analysis in a clear theoretical model of environmental justice and examining the lived perspectives of university instructors, the study shows how theatre can function as cultural mediation. It demonstrates that drama-based practices are not simply creative additions to teaching, but structured pedagogical tools that support empathy, democratic participation, and critical engagement with environmental inequalities. The difference this work may make lies in reframing sustainability education. Instead of treating environmental issues only as scientific or technical matters, it positions them as social and ethical questions that require embodied learning and participatory dialogue. For universities seeking more meaningful ways to connect knowledge, responsibility, and action, this study offers a concrete framework and practical direction.
Perspectives
Writing this article allowed me to bring together two areas that have shaped my academic journey for years: theatre pedagogy and questions of social and environmental justice. I have long believed that theatre in education is far more than a creative technique; it is a way of thinking about participation, voice, and responsibility. Through this study, I was able to explore how these ideas resonate within higher education, particularly at a time when universities are reexamining their social role in relation to climate change and inequality. What stayed with me most during the interviews was the sincerity with which colleagues spoke about their desire to move beyond conventional lectures and create learning spaces where students feel, reflect, and act. I hope this publication encourages educators to see theatre not as an “extra,” but as a meaningful pedagogical pathway for cultivating critical awareness and democratic engagement in sustainability education.
Adj. Prof. Konstantinos Mastrothanasis
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Exploring Environmental Justice in Higher Education Through Applied Theatre: An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach, Trends in Higher Education, January 2026, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/higheredu5010006.
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