Being Peer Gynt: How students collaboratively make meaning of a digital game about a literature classic

Kenneth Silseth,Magnus H Sandberg

doi:10.1177/20427530211022928

Kenneth Silseth, Magnus H Sandberg

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/20427530211022928

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Abstract

Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt digs deep into the question of what it means to be oneself. An upcoming computer game version invites players to take on the role of Peer and thereby raises new questions about identity and identification. By recording dyads of students who play an early version of the game and analysing their interaction during gameplay, we examine how students collaboratively make meaning of the computer game. This study employs a sociocultural and dialogic approach to meaning making. In the analysis, we draw on Gee’s theory on multiple player identities and see the dyads playing together as two real-world selves negotiating on creating one virtual self through a co-authorship of situated meaning in what Gee calls the projective stance. To better understand their cooperation in this undertaking, we also apply Goffman’s term activity frames. The analysis shows how the dyads approach the game in different ways by establishing frames in which they interpret, impersonate or recreate Peer, in order to make meaning of their gameplay.

Highlights

Research on game-based learning has shown the benefits of using games as learning tools across educational settings and disciplinary domains (Arnseth et al, 2018; de Freitas and Oliver, 2006; Squire and Barab, 2004; Wouters and van Oostendorp, 2013)
This is important because it generates knowledge about how students respond to the potential of games as resources to engage them in discussions about topics and issues that have traditionally been approached by discussing literature
We have examined students’ collaborative meaning making when playing a video game adaption of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and their negotiation of a shared projective stance when playing the game together

Summary

Introduction

Research on game-based learning has shown the benefits of using games as learning tools across educational settings and disciplinary domains (Arnseth et al, 2018; de Freitas and Oliver, 2006; Squire and Barab, 2004; Wouters and van Oostendorp, 2013). Regarding the disciplinary domain of literature, some scholars have explored how games can be used to engage students in literary classics (Barab et al, 2010; Berger and McDougall, 2013; Marlatt, 2018). This body of research indicates that games can be analysed and understood by applying traditional literary analysis and that they may offer different perspectives by way of their special affordances, such as player agency. This is important because it generates knowledge about how students respond to the potential of games as resources to engage them in discussions about topics and issues that have traditionally been approached by discussing literature

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