| Preamble |
This Chapter is part of the PolyCIVIS Handbook on Participatory Methods for Teaching about the Polycrisis in Higher Education. The objective of this Handbook is to serve as a reference resource for teaching about the polycrisis in Higher Education in a participatory manner, a need which has not only been foreseen by the PolyCIVIS project in its inception phase, but also confirmed and further substantiated in a number of meetings and workshops during the project’s lifetime.
This Handbook is not a coursebook to teach what the polycrisis is, but a methods book, to provide instruments for teaching about the polycrisis in a participatory manner. It is to be made available online as a multimedia live resource, presenting different participatory teaching methods for uptake by the Polycrisis-interested community in Higher Education, together with supporting materials such as method descriptions, references, examples and case studies.
The different methods proposed are presented in one chapter for each group of methods, which also includes, in the digital edition of this Handbook, a live survey to collect peer feedback from the community itself, on the usefulness and ease of use that community members (Higher Education tutors, students, researchers as well as practitioners) may themselves find specific methods to have within, and for, their own contexts and audiences.
| What do we mean by thin participation techniques? |
Arts-based participation techniques use creative forms such as puppetry, collective art, poetry, painting, collage, playdough, performance, visual storytelling and creative inquiry to support learning, dialogue and shared meaning-making. These methods invite students to think, feel, imagine, make and reflect together. In higher education, arts-based participation is not limited to arts disciplines; it can enrich sustainability, public health, migration, governance, engineering, education and social sciences. For teaching the polycrisis, arts-based methods help students explore uncertainty, grief, hope, conflict, memory, justice and possible futures through expressive and collaborative forms that conventional academic discussion may not fully capture.
| Indicative starter sources for information about these methods |
| Additional sources of information about these methods |
Kroflin, L. (Ed.). (2020). Applied puppetry in education, development, and therapy: Theory and practice. UNIMA Education, Development and Therapy Commission / Academy of Arts and Culture, Osijek.
https://www.unima.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Applied-Puppetry-FINAL-za-web.pdfSmith, M. (2022). Applied puppetry: Communities, identities, transgressions. In L. Kroflin (Ed.), Applied puppetry in education, development, and therapy: Theory and practice. UNIMA Education, Development and Therapy Commission.
UNIMA Education, Development and Therapy Commission. (n.d.). Education, development and therapy commission. Union Internationale de la Marionnette.
https://www.unima.org/en/commission/education-development-and-therapy/Bernier, M., & O'Hare, J. (Eds.). (2005). Puppetry in education and therapy: Unlocking doors to the mind and heart. AuthorHouse.
Bishop, C. (2012). Artificial hells: Participatory art and the politics of spectatorship. Verso.
Kester, G. H. (2011). The one and the many: Contemporary collaborative art in a global context. Duke University Press.
Helguera, P. (2011). Education for socially engaged art. Jorge Pinto Books.
Tate. (n.d.). Socially engaged practice.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/socially-engaged-practiceRefugee History. (2022, September 29). Collective poetry and refugee history.
http://refugeehistory.org/blog/2022/9/29/collective-poetry-and-refugee-historyHirsch, M. (2012). The generation of postmemory: Writing and visual culture after the Holocaust. Columbia University Press.
Cahnmann-Taylor, M., & Siegesmund, R. (Eds.). (2008). Arts-based research in education: Foundations for practice. Routledge.
Leavy, P. (2015). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Sullivan, G. (2010). Art practice as research: Inquiry in visual arts (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Knowles, J. G., & Cole, A. L. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of the arts in qualitative research. SAGE.
Cian, L., Krishna, A., & Elder, R. S. (2019). Collaborative art: A transformational force within communities. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 4(4), 323–338.
https://doi.org/10.1086/705023Lacy, S. (Ed.). (1995). Mapping the terrain: New genre public art. Bay Press.
Lowe, S. S. (2000). Creating community: Art for community development. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 29(3), 357–386.
https://doi.org/10.1177/089124100129023939Leavy, P. (2020). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
Springgay, S., Irwin, R. L., & Kind, S. (2008). A/r/tographers and living inquiry. In J. G. Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp. 83–91). SAGE.
Sava, I., & Nuutinen, K. (2003). At the meeting of word and picture: Between art and inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(4), 515–534.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800403254217Elbrecht, C. (2013). Trauma healing at the clay field: A sensorimotor art therapy approach. Jessica Kingsley.
Malchiodi, C. A. (2011). Handbook of art therapy (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Van Lith, T., & Beale, C. (2025). A grounded theory exploration of sensory and kinaesthetic engagement with clay. Journal of Clinical Art Therapy.
https://www.jocat-online.org/a-25-vanlith-bealeBarone, T., & Eisner, E. W. (2012). Arts based research. SAGE.
https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452230627Leavy, P. (Ed.). (2018). Handbook of arts-based research. Guilford Press.
Irwin, R. L., & de Cosson, A. (Eds.). (2004). A/r/tography: Rendering self through arts-based living inquiry. Pacific Educational Press.
| Indicative participatory teaching scenarios for these methods |
Students create a shared collage representing the polycrisis through images, words, textures, maps and symbols. The collage includes zones such as fear, loss, denial, resistance, care, inequality and transformation. Students then annotate the collage, explaining what each layer reveals about crisis interdependence and collective responsibility.
Each student writes one line from the perspective of a future citizen, ecosystem, displaced person, policymaker, child, ancestor or non-human actor. The class arranges the lines into a collective poem about crisis, memory, grief, resilience and hope. The poem becomes a shared reflective artefact.
Students use puppets or symbolic figures to represent human and non-human stakeholders in a policy hearing: rivers, forests, students, refugees, emergency workers, future generations, insects, energy grids or public institutions. The method allows difficult conflicts to be discussed through mediated, symbolic voices.
Groups paint or draw one part of a shared mural: climate, housing, energy, migration, public health, digital media or democracy. The sections must connect visually. The final image becomes a discussion tool for exploring systems, borders, conflicts and possible bridges.
Students use playdough or simple modelling material to represent an abstract concept such as resilience, collapse, trust, scarcity, adaptation or solidarity. Each student explains their model, then groups combine models into a shared installation of the polycrisis.
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