Serious Games in EDI Education: A Preliminary Discursive Literature

In Higher Education Institutions Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) training sometimes has great variability and may lack sensitivity. As a result, the process often lacks depth and does not provide the ability to make mistakes in a more risk free/simulated practice environment in a simulated practice way. EDI can often encompass and touch on rather uncomfortable subjects that people would much prefer to avoid such as racism, discrimination, sexuality, religion, disabilities, marginalisation, lack of representation, unconscious bias and micro-aggressions, professional dilemmas, and ambivalence. People tend to avoid having difficult conversations and asking questions to enhance understanding. Serious games can offer a vehicle to explore some of these issues in a simulated, risk free, immersive environment with no real world consequences. They are a legitimate academic discipline used in a number of diverse fields such as business, mathematics, and soft skills. This paper will perform a preliminary discursive review of the use of games-based learning and serious games in EDI education and associated terms to produce valuable empirical evidence. The study will review developmental, evaluation and development frameworks for developing serious games for potentially difficult contexts in line with EDI i.e. resistance, ambivalence, and challenging confrontational discussions.