Development of a Serious Game for Practicing Pronouns

One primary aspect of civic education is to build inclusive societies where everyone can feel valued, respected andcelebrated for their individual diverse attributes. While a civilised society exercises tolerance, empathy, compassion andforgiveness, in the daily walks of life there are no second chances to make the correct first impression. Many individuals areexceptionally apprehensive when having to interact with minorities through fear of causing unintentional offence oremotional damage in first encounter situations. Serious games can offer an immersive and educational training experiencewhere mistakes can be made with far fewer ramifications than in real life making them significantly more risk free. This paperexplores the development of Pronouns in Practice, a serious game designed specifically to address inclusive communication,with a focus on pronoun use. This paper will review the literature on the use of serious games in Equality, Diversity andInclusion (EDI) related areas particularly looking at pronoun related training in the Educational Sector. The prototype will beconstructed using subject experts in conjunction with user and design requirements identified in the literature review and adesign framework that is outlined. The paper will present a preliminary design framework for development and evaluationof serious games in EDI related subjects and will particularly look at the use of simulations in initial human interaction withthe use of pronouns. The paper intends to produce a prototype to address alleviating concerns with general interactionassociated with using pronouns.