Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Working Lab Greenland started in Denmark in the spring of 2010.
Since then, there have been performances and events in six different towns in Greenland.
Maniitsoq was the latest in August of 2011.
Working Lab Greenland is a pedagogic method.
It is created to encourage debate in local communities about social issues that are difficult to talk about.
It has been developed by a group of lecturers from VIA University College’s department of Social Education.
Working Lab Greenland uses local social workers who work with disadvantaged children in Greenland.
In the project the social workers are called resource persons.
They are meant to be a local resource and role model with special insight into pedagogic methods and the welfare system in Greenland.
At first, Working Lab Greenland might look like theater.
But it is in fact a pedagogic tool that uses the dramatic tools of theater to start a conversation.
Working Lab Greenland involves the spectator.
It provokes him or her into taking action on the floor as part of the performance.
The dramatic content of such a show is the starting point.
It is followed by various ways of discussing issues and taboos.
Working Lab Greenland consists of five separate parts that supplement each other during an evening’s performance.
The first part is a theater performance.
Here the seven resource persons play a number of scenes -
- about social problems of disadvantaged children and young people in Greenland.
The themes most often evolve around substance abuse, *** abuse and ***, suicide and domestic violence.
The second part is the so-called forum theater.
A dramatic method where the audience is invited to influence the performance on stage.
A scene is played.
It is then stopped and the audience is asked how they would solve the problem of the scene.
The audience can either comment or walk on stage and participate.
The third part is the “corner” exercise.
The whole audience is called onto the stage and is presented with a dilemma.
They get three specific answers and one open answer -
- and then have to move to one of the four corners of the stage according to their answer.
They discuss the issue in their groups and then one of the resource persons interviews some of the participants.
The fourth part is round table discussions.
The resource persons present three themes related to the local community and the groups discuss them.
The fifth and final part is a panel debate where local authorities, politicians and socialworkers are invited to speak -
- and discuss with the audience which can ask the panel questions.
In Maniitsoq the town’s vice mayor and police chief took part alongside a family therapist and the director of an orphanage.
Working Lab Greenland started by equipping seven resource persons with special skills to work with disadvantaged children.
Now these seven have to teach these skills to others, so the project can grow and take root on a bigger scale in Greenland.
They will be working in pairs of two in each town.
The Danish originators from the VIA University College’s department of Social Education -
- will then not need to be involved any longer as the project will become self-sufficient.