skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: Engaging Youth as Game Designers Through Storytelling
This paper investigates storytelling as an approach to co-design research with diverse middle school-aged youth. Using microanalytic methods of interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) and positioning theory (Goffman, 1981) to analyze data from online play-testing and co-design sessions with youth, the paper explores how storytelling enabled youth to navigate and shift between the dual roles of game player and designer, (re)configuring elements of the existing game and incorporating their own stories. This paper advocates for the inclusion of storytelling as a fruitful co-design method in the creation of identity-aligned gaming experiences and more immersive and inclusive virtual worlds.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2214516
PAR ID:
10538002
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
AERA Online Paper Repository
Date Published:
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
Out-of-School Learning, Qualitative Research, Situated Learning
Format(s):
Medium: X
Location:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; (, Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2024)
    Lindgren, R; Asino, T I; Kyza, E A; Looi, C K; Keifert, D T; Suárez, E (Ed.)
    This paper examines youth storytelling during co-design of an identity-expressive educational game for learning data science. Using interaction analysis of co-design interviews with middle school students, we explore how storytelling allows participants to (a) use existing game elements to position themselves and (b) express their interests and identities through imagined game futures. We argue that analyzing youth's interactive storytelling and identity enactments during co-design can inform the development of game narratives that represent diverse youth. Our findings contribute to the design of inclusive virtual worlds for STEM learning that celebrate youth identities and experiences. We discuss implications for engaging youth voices in the co-design process and creating educational games that resonate with diverse learners. 
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the Forty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)
    Lischka, Alyson; Dyer, Elizabeth B.; Jones, Ryan Seth; Lovett, Jennifer N.; Strayer, Jeremy; Drown, Samantha (Ed.)
    This research report analyzes the process of engaging 18 youth in urban emergent communities to enact Digital Mathematics Storytelling to explore their mathematics identities. The youth, in grades 7-11, engaged in the process of crafting and sharing their digital mathematics stories within two week long summer camps. Using a Participant and (Re)design Research Methodology, the research team explored how the constructs of Digital Storytelling, Mathematics Identity, and Storytelling can help us better know how to craft experiences that connect to youth knowledge. 
    more » « less
  3. ; (, Education Sciences)
    MDPI (Ed.)
    In the recent K-12 educational literature, arts-based data visualization has been positioned as a compelling means of rendering data science and statistical learning accessible, motivating, and empowering for youth, as data users and producers. However, the only research to attend carefully to youth’s data-based, artistic storytelling practices has been limited in scope to specific storytelling mechanisms, like youth’s metaphor usage. Engaging in design-based research, we sought to understand the art and design decisions that youth make and the data-based arguments and stories that youth tell through their arts-based data visualizations. We drew upon embodied theory to acknowledge the holistic, synergistic, and situated nature of student learning and making. Corresponding with emerging accounts of youth arts-based data visualization practices, we saw regular evidence of art, storytelling, and personal subjectivities intertwining. Contributing to this literature, we found that these intersections surfaced in a number of domains, including youth’s pictorial symbolism, visual encoding strategies, and data decisions like manifold pictorial symbols arranged to support complex, multilayered, ambiguous narratives; qualitative data melding community and personal lived experience; and singular statements making persuasive appeals. This integration of art, story, agency, and embodiment often manifested in ways that seemed to jostle against traditional notions of and norms surrounding data science. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; ; ; ; (, Association for Computing Machinery; CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
    There are many initiatives that teach Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy to K-12 students. Most downsize college-level instructional materials to grade-level appropriate formats, overlooking students' unique perspectives in the design of curricula. To investigate the use of educational games as a vehicle for uncovering youth's understanding of AI instruction, we co-designed games with 39 Black, Hispanic, and Asian high school girls and non-binary youth to create engaging learning materials for their peers. We conducted qualitative analyses on the designed game artifacts, student discourse, and their feedback on the efficacy of learning activities. This study highlights the benefits of co-design and learning games to uncover students' understanding and ability to apply AI concepts in game-based learning, their emergent perspectives of AI, and the prior knowledge that informs their game design choices. Our research uncovers students' AI misconceptions and informs the design of educational games and grade-level appropriate AI instruction. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology)
    Abstract The paper examines the concept of participation in co‐design practices with children and youth. Rooted inParticipatory DesignandParticipatory Action Researchframeworks, the paper draws from multi‐disciplinary literature to survey existing definitions of the relationships, roles, and types of human interactions in participatory co‐design. The paper advocates for the active role of children and youth in the co‐design process and presents models of youth participation. The paper highlights the importance of understanding and clearly communicating various degrees of participation, with the ultimate goal of empowering youth and involving them in brainstorming, planning, decision‐making, and interpretation stages of the design process. We introduce the concept ofconscious co‐designand the need to reflect on the design process at a meta level inParticipatory DesignandParticipatory Action Research. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email