Joanne Lawrie

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.

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.