Boss and Worker: An Active-Learning Exercise in Exploitation and Class Antagonism

Abstract

The scholarship of teaching and learning increasingly recognizes that active and dynamic instructional models promote better, more holistic, and lasting educational outcomes. This article summarizes an in-class engaged learning activity based on the popular playing card game, President. This game requires players to exchange cards with each other in such a way to give some a marked advantage over others. For this reason, the game can help students understand how economic inequality operates insidiously in contemporary society. The data indicate that the activity helped students to better grasp concepts such as exploitation, class antagonism, upward mobility, and the myth of meritocracy. Students demonstrated a richer understanding of these concepts as evidenced by their comments on the individual feedback forms and improved exam scores on related questions. Some commentary on the character of their responses and the effect of the activity for the classroom environment are also provided.