Playing critically : Using digital intercultural simulation games in higher education

Abstract

Intercultural educators have long used simulation games as pedagogical tools. Research has indicated their great potential for purposes such as teaching ethics and civics which align with the aims of critical pedagogy. These include facilitating dialogue, illustrating the dynamics of systemic structures, the centrality of language and communication, and understanding the fluidity and complexity of systemic power and privilege in general. Still, there are also certain difficulties or weaknesses, the most notable of which is the juxtaposition of simulations’ tendency to simplify reality and critical pedagogy’s aim to uncover the complex ways in which structures and power are intertwined. This chapter considers possible starting points for designing and utilising simulation games in critical intercultural education. Looking at game design, the concepts of games of emergence and procedural rhetoric are considered. Regarding gameplay and the following debriefing, the concept of a ‘third space’ is explored as a possible way into imagining differently.