Harmful norms in gamification in education

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We want to explore the biases which students experience while working with the gamified educational tools, and thus contribute to the body of the research literature on this topic. In practice, that would mean a more refined set of best practices for the educators and developers of such tools. On a personal level, this article contributes to our ongoing research about gamification in education, providing in-depth qualitative research and methods for use cases often restricted to quantitative or non-inclusive approaches. To situate ourselves, our biases and practices: both authors are white, disabled, of middle class, and reside in Ukraine and Canada. Both authors are non-binary but read as a gender-conforming man and woman, which has resulted in multiple occasions of stereotyping and biases towards both of us in the academic settings in general, and in educational tools in particular. Both authors work extensively within communities for activism and equity in HCI across intersections of identity, and in institutions with students historically marginalised. Their stakes around liberation from ableism, sexism and genderism are rooted in first-hand experiences; their labor within anti-racist, anti-colonial, and anti-classist spaces is not informed by direct experience but through decades of committed grassroots work while living alongside and loving those who experience these oppressions first-hand.

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