Feeling Games: The Social Emotions of Agency Development in Education

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Playing With Pedagogy: Generative Games and Imaginative Teaching (Table 29)

Abstract

How can learning communities support agency and autonomy as purposes of education through game play? I apply C. Thi Nguyen’s theory of striving play, which proposes that games played with a certain mindset can support individual agency development, to the widespread use of games in educational settings. I ask what precursors shape individual ability to engage in striving play, and argue that the ability to strive is shaped by the socio-structural and affective conditions of individuals within learning communities. The case of Model UN illustrates the socio-structural and affectvie complexities and possibilities of game play. Educators must attend to the social, structural, and affective elements of game play to account for support individual striving and agency exploration in educational settings.

Author

• Penelope Lusk, University of Pennsylvania