Board Game Experiment Builds Perspective About Affluence and Poverty in Education

A board game designed by a University of Cincinnati doctoral student is gaining international interest as she examines how the game influences preservice teachers to “play for peace.”

Jennifer Killham, a doctoral student in UC’s educational studies program in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH), will take part in a research poster presentation March 30-April 1 at the International Family Therapy Association’s XIX World Family Therapy Conference in The Netherlands.

The meeting, themed, “Coming Together for Peace, Justice and Healing,” is aimed at promoting research and education to support the health and well-being of families.

Through her work with the UC Urban Center for Social Justice, Peace Education and Research (UCSJPER), Killham designed and tested the board game, “War Between Suburbs: How Do We Achieve Peace?” A project she has worked on since 2007, Killham tested the game with dozens of undergraduates in teacher education and graduate students in educational studies to build perspective about working in affluent and impoverished school districts.

“My work focuses on how to develop the ability of future teachers to see themselves as part of the solution in building peace and in developing an awareness of social change and issues related to social justice,” explains Killham.

Killham researched areas of crime rates, graduation rates and income level to develop the game that divides teams into what they might face if they teach in an affluent or an impoverished school district, and how those issues affect school climate. “One of the goals of this game is to generate dialog, to get preservice teachers talking about how to foster hope in the complexity of these communities, moving past stereotypes,” Killham says.

From the very start of the game as the players create their own avatars, they’re experiencing challenges affecting the school district that was assigned to them. For instance, the players selected for the impoverished school district get a smaller bag of tools to create their avatar, perhaps with a dried up magic marker.

“I’ve seen really good work come out of the lesser bag, so the lesson for them was, just because you don’t have all the neatest tools, it doesn’t mean that you still can’t do amazing things,” Killham says. “For the preservice teachers that get the bigger bag and more affluent school, we look at the pressures that they face because of those financial resources. Sometimes, they’re overwhelmed on how to use everything in their bag to create the avatar,” Killham says.

Two-to-four people can play at a time, rolling a dice and moving on spaces that present challenges about teaching in an affluent or impoverished school. The game holds references to research on those social issues.

Killham is currently at work on developing the game to address school social issues such as bullying and violence prevention.

The UC Urban Center for Social Justice, Peace Education and Research (UCSJPER) is distinct among the 200 Peace Education programs in universities around the nation. UC is one of only two universities nationally to house peace education programs in colleges of education. UCSJPER reports it has the only program that includes an urban education component. The center provides courses, workshops and professional development opportunities for teachers and community partners.

“The center has been instrumental in my work, providing me with guidance over the past few years,” says Killham, who previously earned her master’s degree in education from UC.

UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services has been dedicated to excellence in teaching for more than a century. The college prepares students to work in diverse communities, provides continual professional development and fosters education leadership at the local, state, national and international levels.

UC’s graduate programs in education were ranked 55 out of more than 200 schools by U.S. News & World Report.