Teachers’ beliefs about the impact of games on the academic and social experiences of diverse and at-risk children in schools: a Deleuzian perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper explores teachers’ beliefs about the ways in which the use of digital games in schooling contexts impacted upon students who they believed to be in some way at risk of educational or social alienation or failure. Drawing upon the theoretical resources provided by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, the paper explores opportunities games-based learning created for students who had previously been positioned in narrow, limiting, or marginalized relationships to academic achievement or social acceptance. In describing teachers’ beliefs about the various lines of flight that games-based learning was able to spark, the paper argues the importance of continuing to explore how at-risk learners might benefit from particular uses of games in schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital games
• games and school
• diverse learners
• rhizomes

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the contribution of our Industry Partners including the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and six Queensland Schools. Particular thanks must go to the students and teachers who participated in the research. I acknowledge also members of the Serious Play Research Team: Catherine Beavis, Michael Dezuanni, Joanne O'Mara, Leonie Rowan, Sarah Prestridge, Jason Zagami, and Yam San Chee. Research Assistance was provided by Roberta Thompson, Christy McGillivray, and Colleen Stieler-Hunt, and the statistical consultant for the project was Sandy Muspratt. Particular thanks must go to Catherine Beavis for encouraging the analysis undertaken by this paper and to Chris Bigum for his insightful (and irritatingly accurate) comments on the early drafts. Finally I would like to thank and acknowledge the journal reviewers for their excellent and focused feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Leonie Rowan is an Associate Professor in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University. Her research interests relate to the social context of schooling, educational technologies, transformative pedagogies (including the potential of games-based learning), teacher education, and pedagogies for higher education.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council via the Linkage Grant Program [LP110200309]: Serious Play: Using Digital Games in School to Promote Literacy and Learning in the Twenty First Century.