Redesigning and Reframing Educational Scenarios for Minecraft Within Mother Tongue Education

The aim of this paper is to describe the opportunities and challenges involved in designing educational scenarios for teaching with the computer game Minecraft in mother tongue education (MTE). The empirical data presented is based
on an on‐going research project, funded by the Danish Ministry of Education, which explores the use of a particular game map entitled “The Mysterious Island” in the context of MTE in five primary school classes (age 7‐8) located at two different Danish schools. The Mysterious Island scenario is a loosely structured Robinsonade narrative that invites the students to “survive” on a deserted island. The empirical data mainly consist of classroom observations collected and analysed using an ethnographically inspired approach to discourse analysis. The data analysis is based on theoretical perspectives on scenario‐based education, which assumes that the educational use of game scenarios can be understood as a dynamic interplay of different domains and knowledge practices. In this way, the educational use of The Mysterious Island is understood as socially negotiated translations between the knowledge practices of the Robinsonade‐based game scenario, the knowledge practices of the disciplinary domain of MTE, the knowledge practices of the pedagogical domain of “schooling”, and the knowledge practices of the everyday domain, especially in relation to the students’ prior Minecraft experiences. In summary, the analysis presents preliminary findings on different teachers’ educational redesign of The
Mysterious Island and the students’ reframing of the various domains and narratives involved. We conclude that the meaningful use of Minecraft in MTE depends largely on the pedagogical approaches of the teachers to redesigning
meaningful game scenarios and opportunities for students to reframe their experiences across the domains and knowledge practices involved.