Games for Social Change and Culturally Responsive Gameplay

GamesforSocialChangeandCulturallyResponsiveGameplay

Groups like the UN and Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre have included games in disaster preparedness education, while designers like Elizabeth LaPensée and the Tesa Collective have co-created collaborative games with indigenous or activist communities. Key takeaways include language translation, the inclusion of actual references and organizations within the game, the use of social media to diversify audiences, and the importance of implementation (not just production). Like culturally-responsive teaching which seeks to “center classroom instruction in multi-ethnic cultural frames of reference” Gay, 2009, culturally-responsive gameplay showcases the power of games to function as tools for passing on cultural teachings and practices Lapensée, 2016. Culturally responsive games can serve as sites to pass on Indigenous ways of knowing, with specific values and community teachings integrated into the game’s mechanics. A game design facilitates the transmission of culturally responsive teachings when it actively involves players, requiring them to read pieces of traditional narratives and knowledge about the world around them while playing the game.