“The experience of entering in the first person into different situations of migration was chaotic and emotionally powerful. We gradually became deeply immersed in the emotions of our roles.” Teacher, Croatia
Months of intensive work have brought to life Lives in Motion’s new, non-formal educational tool for young people stimulating critical, complex and decolonial understandings of migrations: a six part role-play game based on original, heterogeneous testimonies, maps and power analyses of migrations from Europe to Africa, Africa to Europe, between North-South-East-West Europe and from the Middle East to Europe. The tool’s transnational team of developers have now put this original educational resource to the test with a series of fruitful testing events in Palermo, Cluj, Lisbon and Zagreb inviting diverse members (teachers, educators, youth workers) of their educational communities to play in first person with the tool and contribute directly to its final stage of development.
“The roleplay’s scenarios are so realistic. Their authenticity and relevance makes them really meaningful.” Teacher, Romania
The teams facilitating the events across the different countries and cities gathered constructive feedback from teachers and educators according to a common testing methodology which also promoted the highly transnational quality of the game: participants discussed the tool’s learning objectives, values and framework before taking an active part in real time simulations of the game and all its stimuli and accompanying materials and thus imagining every detail of the game in their own classroom. Each element of the tool was then broken down, commented on and improved in rich moments of exchange and knowledge-building, where teachers and non-formal educators collaborated to make this game as practical, effective and accessible as possible for students.
“The stories in the game allow us to understand European colonialism and its contemporary legacy and at the same time break through the eurocentric perspective that permeates current understandings of migrations.” Teacher, Italy
Here are some examples of the constructive suggestions that emerged across the events:
→ Simplify the tool’s language, instructions and rules so that students can make choices with more depth, understanding and clarity;
→ Refine role and scenario descriptions so that they are even more concrete, imaginable and realistic, especially when it comes to the roles of people working in immigration and asylum systems;
→ Create more stimuli to solidify the impact of the role-play game experience on students’ understanding of migrations (post-activity written reflections and follow-up tasks e.g interviews with friends, family and other community members about the topic);
→ Strengthen safer learning space guidelines, provisions and debrief questions to avoid stereotyped interpretations of different roles or question and deconstruct eventual stereotypes;
→ Adapt debrief questions so that they encourage students to reflect on their own experiences and own positions in relation to migration and activate higher senses of responsibility;
→ Make some of the accompanying materials, e.g power analyses more interactive and something students construct directly, with guidelines;
“We really like the tool’s connection to SDGs, which will help students understand the global relevance of migration challenges and the importance of creating supportive societies.” – Teacher, Portugal
The collection of this feedback in each context, which will undoubtedly fortify the transformative potential of the tool, were real moments of collective learning; as Paolo Freire would say, moments of “educating each other, together, with the mediation of the world.” The Lives in Motion team of tool developers will now re-work the game according to their educational communities’ suggestions, ever more inspired to provide teachers and students with the stimuli to engage in critical, empathetic and transformative ways with the pluriverse of human migrations.
Listen to the thoughts of one of our teachers in this audio interview!
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.