Turning Points Boardgame

Turning Points: Exploring Social Inequality through an Interactive Boardgame

The Turning Points boardgame was implemented in the teacher education programme at Radboud Docenten Academie (Radboud University, Netherlands) within the Pedagogical Practice course. It was used to help preservice teachers understand social inequality and reflect on privilege and systemic barriers. In the game, students start with deciding on a name of their pawn, which symbolises a ‘youngster’, the main character they are going to move through life. The students are then given a booklet that contains realistic situations that could happen to their character, starting from its birth to its twenties. In each phase of life, the die is rolled to determine which situation happens to the main character (e.g. You are 8… (5) You have a lot of friends at school, however you struggle with your schoolwork. Your parents discussed it with your teacher and organized extra support or (6) You struggle with school. You often don’t really understand what the teacher is saying and you do not receive support from your parents. They also do not understand the work. There is no quiet place at home to work on your schoolwork). Together, the students discuss how each of these situations – considering all the preceding situations – can influence the chances of their character and how many steps someone will take forward or backward on the path of life (visualised by a ladder on a cardboard). The pedagogical approach involves experiential learning, where students actively engage in a simulated experience and then reflect on its implications. The use of storytelling and second-person narration enhances empathy and emotional engagement. The game also fosters collaborative learning through peer discussions.