Practicing encounters with environmental wicked problems in middle school
An empirical study on pupils’ competence performance and recognition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21589412 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Valentina Pivotti (0000-0001-8298-4020, Malmö University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-23 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Science Education, Part B (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2154-8455 • E-ISSN: 2154-8463 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09500693.2026.2631811 |
| OpenAlex | W7134085600 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 29 |
Our world faces complex, intertwined, and transdisciplinary challenges – such as sea level rise and loss of biodiversity, and schools have been the designated place where young generations should acquire specific competences to face them. In this paper, I frame these issues as Wicked Problems (WPs) and offer an empirical exploration of how middle-schoolers (11–13 years) encounter them. During three workshops in two Swedish middle schools, pupils encountered environmental WPs via process drama, and to navigate these activities, they enacted competences which have been long advocated for. These were made visible by students’ performance as they revealed and used their knowledge and their ability to problematise and empathise. These instances were then acknowledged by peers and teachers, and these moments of recognition impacted how students utilised said competence and performance. Process drama thus opens spaces where students can practice encountering environmental WPs, as well as make use of and acknowledge their competence and performance; these three dimensions are thus in a relation of mutual affect when in a situated educational setting
Affordance · Empirical evidence · Empirical research · Environmental education · Knowledge level · Qualitative research · Science education · Early Childhood Education and Development · Educational Environments and Student Outcomes · Environmental Education and Sustainability
What's the Use?
Becoming (less) scientific: A longitudinal study of students' identity work from elementary to middle school science
Thematic Analysis
Food in the Anthropocene
The use of drama in science instruction—a review of the literature
Teaching wicked problems in higher education
Using the socioscientific issue approach to foster secondary students’ argumentation skills, science self-efficacy beliefs and science interest
‘I wouldn’t want to be the animal in use nor the patient in need’ – the role of issue familiarity in students’ socioscientific argumentation
The role of recognition in disciplinary identity for girls
Towards a Politicized Notion of Citizenship for Science Education
Sociocultural tensions and wicked problems in sustainable agriculture education
Hopeful approaches to teaching and learning environmental “wicked problems”
Post-normal science and mathematics education in uncertain times
Restructuring the science curriculum around grand challenges
Understanding the science experiences of successful women of color
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |