Games today make up a large part of children’s and young people’s lives. The Domestic Players Barometer (2020) shows that 78.7% of Finns play digital games and the youngest participants are the group that plays the most. Both pedagogically and commercially developed games can offer the player the opportunity for learning and development. Competitive gaming presupposes, among other things, functioning cooperation and good communication skills. However, there is a need to better understand commercial games from a pedagogical perspective.

The aim of the project is to understand gaming in- and outside of school from a player perspective. To analyze learning and identity construction that take place when playing commercial digital games online, as part of activities in esports and school. The purpose of the project is based on the questions and needs that the pilot project Identity Construction and Co-Construction in CS:GO has revealed. By collecting data and analyzing gaming in and out of school, the primary purpose of the current project is to develop knowledge about cooperation, identity construction and language use in Finnish-Swedish digital online gaming environments both inside and outside school.

Research group

Project leader Fredrik Rusk (Doctor in Education) and project researcher Matilda Ståhl (Doctor in Education). Together with Bachelor’s and Master’s students in applied pedagogy at FPV, Åbo Akademi University, which are supervised by the project researchers.

Advisory board

Fredrik Rusk, University Lecturer in Education
Matilda Ståhl, Project Researcher
Karl Ögland, EsportsEdu guru, School of Gaming Finland,
Miles Harvey, PhD, Adjunct faculty, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, United States
Marianne Määttä, Chair, Female Gaming Finland.