Situating Ethics in Games Education

Abstract

This paper posits that Inventing Games (IG), an aspect of the games curriculum based on principles of Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU), opens up important spaces for teaching social and ethical understanding. Games have long been regarded as a site for moral development. For most teachers, however, ethical principles have been seen as incidental rather than teachable. Preliminary findings from two studies with students and teachers have shown that students can question foundational knowledge, such as constructs around gender, race, and ability, as they work together to design game structures. Thus, IG processes can foreground ethical decision-making in both game construction and game play.

Keywords: ethics, Curriculum Inventing Games, physical education, Teaching Games for Understanding