Building A Culturally-Responsive and Future-Looking STEM Video Game

Abstract

Taking tests “well” is not an essential skill in “real life,” but for the current moment is the primary way students, educators, and schools are evaluated on their knowledge and skills. As a tool of white supremacy and coloniality, tests are incorrectly treated as proxies for general worth and future successes in learning and careers. The neoliberal logics that underpin the testing infrastructures ensure that those who demonstrate achievement are able to engage in deep and authentic learning while those who do not are relegated to ongoing “drill-and-kill” experiences (Au, 2016; Behrent, 2016). Understanding the genre of testing (Hornof, 2008; Poe, 2008) in order to “beat it at its own game,” so to speak, is one way of exposing the “codes of power” (Delpit, 1988) that are denied to and hidden from many urban Black, Brown, and poor students. Understanding the underlying rules and structures is a prime opportunity for a science fiction-themed game, even for elementary students. To help students recognize these rules and to expose the codes of power, we are constructing a game to help urban students in grades 3-5 succeed on standardized math test, particularly the Indiana statewide iLearn exam. This living, changing, evolving working paper provides a place from which to start on this game, drawn from hours of dialogue and research. Inherent within this approach is holding multiple true ideas which may contradict each other in tension.