Literacy practices in Warri gameplay among adult players in New York City

• In Event: Highlighted session: Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy

Proposal

Introduction

Warri is a non-digital game that has its origins in Africa, which is popular in the Caribbean Islands (Stoffle & Baro, 2016). While the origin of the specific African country is not ascertain, researchers agree that Warri was brought by former slaves in the Caribbean (Stoffle & Baro, 2016). Nevertheless, a version of the game is found in almost every country in Africa, as in Cameroon, where the gameplay is a true social metaphor of interactions in the community, and a philosophical approach to life (Owona, 2004). Warri is a Mancala-derived game, which has traveled the world from West Africa to the Caribbean, and the Western world (de Voogt, 2001). Gameplay involves a long, rectangular board with 12 holes, 48 seeds, and is played in an anticlockwise direction by two players who take turn to distribute seeds in holes (Njock, 1985). The goal is to have the last counter land in a cup with only one, or two counters already in it to capture these counters (Ondo, 1990). The player with the most seeds (25) wins the game (Owona, 2004). Of significance with Warri is not just the gameplay, but also the audience participation and community-based practices around the game.

Research shows that games are learning spaces and environments where players engage in multiple literacy practices (Gee, 2013; Steinkuehler, 2007). Yet, unlike digital or video games, board games are still understudied (Carter, Gibbs, & Harrop, 2014), and particularly underexplored are African board games such as Warri in relation to learning and literacy. Thus, teasing out what happens in the Warri board gameplay, the interactions among people engaged in or watching the gameplay will provide a greater understanding of the literacy practices and learning involved in Warri gameplay amongst players, the audience and the community. In this study, literacy is understood as meaning making and production within the game space (Steinkuehler, 2010). Thus, literacy includes practices, social relationships, enacted identities, and forms of meaning making during gameplay (Duncan & Hayes, 2012).

An increasing body of literature shows the importance of interactions among individuals for learning in both formal and informal settings (Spears, 2012). Board games support different forms of interactions, and have the potential to support learning in formal and informal environments (Peppler, Danish, & Phelps, 2013). For example, collaboration, cooperation, and competition are types of interactions sustained by board games (Zagal, Rick, & Hsi, 2006). The present study focuses on the interactions between players and the audience/spectator.

Research Questions

Current board game studies reveal that gameplay facilitates literacy practices critical in different learning spaces (Berland & Lee, 2012). However, Warri has not yet been explored with regard to literacy practices. To discern literacy practices, this study asks the following questions: How do players interact with each other? And, how do players interact with the audience?

Theoretical Framework

To identify the literacy practices Warri players engage in, this study adopts sociocultural perspective on literacy and learning. Sociocultural view of learning, which argues that individuals’ cognitive activity develops through interactions within their sociocultural environments (Lantof, 2000). Learning stems from social interactions between individuals, or as people interact with cultural objects such as board games (Leach & Scott, 2003).

Method

Building on previous work on games the author explores learning as it occurs through audience/spectator interactions with players in the Warri game space. Microethnographic relies on video recordings to gather data on interactions during Warri gameplay (Knoblauch & Schnettler, 2015; Derry et al., 2010). The video segments were selected based on the research questions, analyzed using thematic analysis as discussed by (Clarke & Braun, 2006).

Preliminary Findings

Although data collection and analysis is ongoing and will be completed by the time of the conference, few literacy practices are emerging from the data.

Collaborative criticism refers to criticism that is done collaboratively by members of the audience to cause a player to think about the move he is about to make. This literacy practice is particular to this game, as shown in the excerpt below in interaction between Hastac and Adman (spectators), and Deal (a player) collaboratively criticizing Deal for his move:
Hastac: you are not playing Warri Deal
[you are not making the right move there Deal]
Deal: it’s a 15 in it
[it’s 15 warris/seeds in the hole]
Hastac: right, you are not playing good there, you are not playing good, you did not play good, you are not playing good
[Really, you did not make the right move there, you are not playing well, you did not play well, you are not playing well]
Delva: Becky, Becky (laughter) oh my God (gets up from his seat to hug a member of the audience)
Hastac: you are playing no Warri … Flung that house, flung that house
[you are not playing well … you should have played that hole, you should have played that hole]
Adman: = he was not looking into the house, you no look into the house
[he did not count the seeds/warris in the hole, you did count the seeds/warris in the hole]
Hastac: you are playing no Warri
[you are not playing well]
Adman: yea, you are not counting
[yes, you are not counting the seeds/warris]

This interaction demonstrates collaborative criticism, which helps the player in the game rethink his moves during the gameplay.

Language in use captures the language players used during the gameplay. The language was informed by player’s cultural identity. As Antiguan players in New York City, participants preferred Antiguan Creole (AC) instead of English when playing as a language of communication. According to Delva, AC was preferable “because I feel more free up speaking the way I speak; since I was a child that’s broken English, but I can speak the plain English... yes, it is more comfortable for me”.

This preliminary findings do indicate that a traditional game such as Warri can enhance literacy practices, and shows the need to conduct further research on African traditional board games and literacy practices among the African Diaspora.

References
Carter, M., Gibbs, M., & Harrop, M. (2014). Drafting an army: The playful pastime of Warhammer 40,000. Games and Culture, 9(2), 122-147.
Derry, S. J., Pea, R. D., Barron, B., Engle, R. A., Erickson, F., Goldman, R., Sherin, B. L. (2010). Conducting video research in the Learning Sciences: Guidance on selection, analysis, technology, and ethics. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19(1), 3–53.
Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Introducing sociocultural theory. Sociocultural theory and second language learning, 1, 1-26.
Leach, J., & Scott, P. (2003). Individual and sociocultural views of learning in science education. Science & Education, 12(1), 91-113.
Njock, G. E. (1985). Mathématiques et environnement socio-culturel en Afrique Noire. Présence Africaine, 3, 3-21.
Peppler, K., Danish, J. A., & Phelps, D. (2013). Collaborative gaming: Teaching children about complex systems and collective behavior. Simulation & Gaming, 44(5), 683-705.
Stoffle, B. W., Stoffle, R. W., Minnis, J., & Van Vlack, K. (2014). Women's power and community resilience rotating savings and credit associations in Barbados and the Bahamas. Caribbean Studies, 42(1), 45-69.
Zagal, J. P., Rick, J., & Hsi, I. (2006). Collaborative games: Lessons learned from board games. Simulation & Gaming, 37(1), 24-40.

Author

• Rebecca Y. Bayeck, Penn State University