Role-Player Game Character Analysis: Performative Narrative for School Climate Improvement

• In Event: It's Not a Game: Challenging Dominant Narratives Through Counterhegemonic Epistemologies

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of school climate issues related to giftedness, gender, disability and racialized identities using an innovative approach based on role-player game (RPG) character development which pushes the boundaries of performative narrative analysis by questioning realities, data and voice in order to collaboratively open up space for potentialities in school improvement. RPG character analysis intensifies the dialogue between human and more-than-human participants by expanding narratives through group performance, blurring the perceived virtual-actual boundaries and cultivating discussion about implicit biases in schools. Characters were introduced to educational practitioners through a role-playing game about issues of unjust treatment of students perceived as different (gifted and black, gifted and learning disabled, and gifted and female) during professional development.

Authors

• Anani M Vasquez, Arizona State University

• Sarup Rani Mathur, Arizona State University