Learning Ecological Justice and Game Design by Creating Transformational Games

Paper Title

Learning Ecological Justice and Game Design by Creating Culturally Relevant Digital Transformational Games

Publication Info

• Topic area: Ecological justice education through culturally relevant game design.
• Keywords: Ecological justice, transformational games, culturally relevant pedagogy, BIPOC youth, game design, Twine, constructionist learning, social justice, interactive narratives, computational literacy.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing game-making initiatives often focus on STEM skills, neglecting social and cultural dimensions. Serious climate games frequently miss opportunities for emotionally meaningful narratives and systemic engagement.
• Significance: Ecological justice disproportionately impacts minoritized communities, making it crucial to connect environmental education to social justice and community contexts.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research highlights transformational games' potential to foster ideological shifts and critical thinking. However, gaps remain in leveraging game design as a tool for ecological justice education, especially for underrepresented BIPOC youth.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A three-session workshop where BIPOC high school students design transformational games about ecological justice using Twine, guided by culturally relevant pedagogy.
• Novelty:
  1. Integration of ecological justice education with game design for BIPOC youth.
  2. Use of culturally relevant pedagogy to connect ecological justice to students' lived experiences.
  3. Application of transformational game design frameworks to empower novice designers.
  4. Examination of how Twine's mechanics shape representations of ecological justice.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Workshop 1: Community building, ecological justice basics, and game design fundamentals.
  • Workshop 2: Transformational game design principles, story drafting, and Twine introduction.
  • Workshop 3: Advanced Twine techniques, peer playtesting, and final game presentations.
  • Data collection: Pre- and post-surveys, worksheets, game artifacts, and thematic analysis.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Students created eight playable games addressing topics like food systems, fast fashion, air pollution, and wealth inequality.
  • Games often connected ecological justice to structural inequality, reflecting students' community contexts.
  • Participants demonstrated shifts in ecological justice knowledge, attitudes, and civic engagement.
• Advantage over baselines: Students integrated culturally relevant narratives and systemic perspectives, addressing gaps in existing climate games that focus narrowly on individual actions.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Participants: 16 BIPOC high school students aged 14–18 from low-income backgrounds.
  • Methods: Close play analysis of games, thematic analysis of surveys and worksheets.
  • Metrics: Transformational goals in games, alignment with ecological justice concepts, student reflections.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited workshop time constrained narrative complexity and persuasive techniques.
  • Twine's mechanics shaped games toward binary choices, limiting systemic representation.
  • Future research could explore alternative game development tools and longer workshop durations.

Summary

This study demonstrates how culturally relevant pedagogy and transformational game design can engage BIPOC youth in ecological justice education. Through three workshops, participants created interactive narrative games that connected ecological justice to their lived experiences and community contexts. The findings highlight how game design facilitates externalization of knowledge, perspective-taking, and iterative learning, while also revealing constraints imposed by Twine's mechanics. Future work should explore diverse game development platforms and extended curricula to deepen systemic representation and refine persuasive strategies in student-designed games.