This is one of four environment-themed case studies (the others are the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, Right to Roam in UK and Sheffield Street Trees). This case study is the story of how women in India in 1974 successfully resisted the cutting down of their forests by hugging the trees and setting up groups to guard them. The lessons explore the concept of ownership, introduce the idea of ‘impact assessment’ and use P4C discussion in and out of role.

This lesson is one of two alternative core lessons (the other is Bristol Bus Boycott) to be completed after Lesson 1 and 2. It introduces an important idea of the “Pillars of Support”, which will be referred to in subsequent case study lessons. It uses a mystery activity as a way of engaging the learners with the case study. Groups are given different parts of the OTPOR story and have to piece together what happened by asking the other groups questions. For it to work it is important that that no one knows the whole story at the start of the lesson.

Enquiring into Violence and Non-Violence. There are many nuanced definitions of non-violence but most seem to agree that non-violent action is not just about doing anything without using violence. Non-violent action has the aim of undermining violence whether it is physical, structural or institutional. The main part of this lesson is a discussion activity which encourages learners to decide where they would put an action on a spectrum from violent to non-violent. The main part of this lesson is a discussion activity which encourages learners to decide where they would put an action on a spectrum from violent to non-violent. Many of the examples are contentious and the learners need to listen to each other and will potentially change their minds when they hear good reasons. Through this activity the learners will hopefully start to understand some of the complexities around the concepts of violence and non-violence. “Looking at principles of non-violent protest and deciding which ones we like and which we would question (orange for challenge, yellow for agree and annotations) gave the children a chance to critically analyse some complex ideas and to start to think about how their own values affect their reaction.”

This lesson uses relatable, fictional scenarios to enable the learners to think about their own understanding of violent and non-violent actions before engaging with actual historical case studies. Pictures of objects which could be used in non-violent or violent actions are introduced for the learners to think of their own creative uses and consider whether their ideas are violent or non-violent. These objects can be spotted in the subsequent case studies and will be used again in the final lesson to evaluate learning. The activity is designed to be open-ended and creative rather than to directly teach how the objects could be used. “Pupils were highly enthusiastic and engaged in the content.”