In migrants’ shoes. A game to raise awareness and support long-lasting learning

• Main Authors: Francesca Antonacci, Maresa Bertolo, Ilaria Mariani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) 2017-04-01
• Series: Italian Journal of Educational Technology
• Subjects: Inclusive education; Action research; Play experience analysis; Social change; Identification; Migrant emergency
• Online Access: https://ijet.itd.cnr.it/article/view/858

This contribution looks at the game as a technology for communicating, sharing and learning. It poses a specific focus on the play activity as a means to address cultural integration, presenting the analysis and research outcomes gleaned enquiring the persuasive urban game AHW (full name removed for blind peer review) and its application to a group of adolescents who manifested hostile feelings towards foreigners. The game intends to immerse players into awkward situations to problematise and modify their former mindset, prejudices and biases towards migrants, fostering effective learning outcomes able to affect behaviours and increase empathy. The enquiry is an action research conducted via pre- and post-experience qualitative questionnaires, short interviews and focus groups. The analysis reveals that players were involved in processes of moving, uncomfortable identification that lessened existing prejudices, increasing the comprehension of certain immigrants’ conditions and fragility, with relevant outcomes in terms of persisting transformative learning.