01. Introduction

Introduction

1. Introduction to the thesis

This study addresses the creation of interactive, online media in the form of the production of web-browser based games for the purposes of education. We live in a society where digital technology is increasingly used in work, education, and home life, providing diverse opportunities. These opportunities are balanced with potential costs at both a societal and individual level. Over the lifespan of this thesis, there have been significant developments in narratives concerning digital media and participation within online communities. At the start of my work in this area, a concern around a deficit of computer literacy and digital skills in workforce was prevalent, particularly in the area of a lack of computer programming [@livingstone_next_2011]. Despite this concern, the underlying narrative concerning young people and technology was generally optimistic. New technologies were providing diverse opportunities, and the challenge involved ensuring equality for opportunities of access for diverse stakeholders. By way of contrast, present narratives surrounding the concerns surround the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and commercially-driven social media on young people are less optimistic. Specific concerns include: the risk that convenience and automation of tasks, in the form of generative AI and related software services, diminish critical thinking skills making individuals overly reliant on technology [@gerlich_ai_2025]; sophisticated media production and delivery systems which, driven by algorithmically generated suggestions, can foster passive consumption of media in a way which amplifies divisions within society [@ruckenstein_feel_2023]; and the impact on young people of increased screen time and subsequent impact of reduced real life interactions [@livingstone2020parenting]. Young people’s participation in social media and online gaming highlights tensions between opportunities for self-expression and risks to identity formation. These digital environments often create insulated communities that separate young people’s experiences from real-life contexts, leaving parents either unaware of the risks involved or aware but excluded from their children’s online worlds [@avci_systematic_2025].

In response to the risks above, there are increasing calls for young people and families to engage in digital resistance often taking the form of reduced participation in online communities or limited consumption of digital media from corporate sources [@syvertsen_digital_2020; @kuntsman_paradoxes_2022]. However, for young people with their working life ahead of them, avoiding the digital landscape may prove limiting and even alienating. Also, given that digital non-participation may remove critical voices from important debates on our futures, a more tactical and participatory approach may be more productive both on an individual level and for society. An alternative strategy is to support young people to have a more active and critical engagement with media production. A diverse set of stakeholders from educators [@resnick_coding_2020], cultural commentators [@rushkoff_program_2010], media theorists [@ito_hanging_2010] have called for a broader approach to digital education that includes media literacy and hands-on coding experiences via creative digital projects. The unifying ethos is that to benefit from the expressive and empowering potential offered by digital media products like websites, games, videos, music, and podcasts, learners should be able to write as well as read digital formats [@resnick2002rethinking].

This thesis reports on research that brings families together in a new learning environment to learn how to create video games based on early arcade and platform games. As such, this thesis addresses diverse elements including the development of skills needed to participate in computer game design and programming (CGD&P), the process of self-expression and identity development within an emerging community, and possibilities to structure the learning experience to help overcome inherent barriers to participation. This chapter is structured to give an overview of the context, rationale, process, objectives, and significance of this study. While the setting of this study is non-formal in nature, because CGD&P is present and relevant in contexts of both formal and non-formal computing education, the following section outlines the changing contextual features of both areas. Following this, I outline key barriers to participation in game making. The rationale driving this work is then outlined by connecting my personal context with broader motivations. The final sections of this chapter briefly addresses the theoretical framework, research questions, the subsequent research objectives and the potential and significance of the thesis.

2. Context / Background

This introduction begins WITH an exploration of key contextual factors. The immediate context of the core activities of this research was a new learning community involving of home-educating families attending a series of game-making sessions in the setting of my University campus. Sessions involved families, myself (as both a researcher and teaching facilitator), and for most sessions, volunteer university student helpers. This section situates this research within key contextual themes. It begins with the context of non-formal, home education settings before addressing digital making as a more general educational activity in formal and informal settings before addressing game making as a subset of digital making.

Background of informal settings / non-formal and home education contexts

The setting of this research within a non-formal activity attended by families needs clarifying at this stage. The nature of formality in learning is examined briefly here using two dimensions: setting and educational structure. While definitions of informal education are complex, the term generally refers to learning that occurs outside a traditional school environment [@erstad_identity_2012]. However, as Sefton-Green [-@sefton-green_literature_2006] notes, formally structured learning can take place in informal settings, and vice-versa. Other writers [@eshach_bridging_2007, p. 173; @werquin_recognition_2009] use the term “non-formal” to describe learning that happens with less direct instruction than a typical classroom experience but which still comprises an organised learner experience, existing therefore between both formal informal learning on a spectrum. This study uses the term non-formal learning in this way, while informal learning is used more loosely to indicate activities happening outside a classroom context.

To aid the reader in interpreting the findings, this section examines the context of home educating families and the circumstances shaping the participants’ engagement in the study. The processes and motivations driving home education are varied [@fensham-smith_invisible_2021]. These motivations are often categorized into two broad streams: pedagogy and ideology [@galen_home_1991; @rothermel_can_2003]. Addressing ideology, some families choose home education to limit their children’s exposure to mainstream values, such as religious beliefs or consumerist ideals. In terms of pedagogy, popular concepts within home education circles include unschooling and deschooling. Holt’s concept of unschooling [@gray_challenges_2013] emphasises facilitating learning by drawing out children’s interests through everyday activities. Illich’s work [-@illich_deschooling_1971] on deschooling promotes the idea of webs of learning, where learners access educational experiences in varied contexts based on their interests and needs, rather than relying on a single educational institution as the sole source of knowledge. Many home-educating families actively seek and establish networks, using friendships, social networking groups, and email lists to share opportunities and collaborate on learning activities [@doroudi_relevance_2023]. The game-making club that forms the basis of this research can be viewed as one node within the complex web of learning that participating families engage with.

In addition to the concerns of pedagogy and ideology, an increasingly relevant strand of motivation is that of challenges regarding inclusion and support for diverse learners within mainstream educational provision [@ohagan_what_2021]. Some parents withdraw children from school due to a judgement that they are not able to meet their particular educational needs. This may be particularly the case for less visible disabilities including dyslexia, ADHD, autism [@connolly_school_2023]. In a review of the experience of parents home educating children with autism, motivations for withdrawal from school identified included the exclusionary nature of mainstream school, lack of knowledge from teachers, and subsequent lack of inclusive educational practices [@ohagan_what_2021].

Context of digital making

The process of digital game making is located within a wider setting of digital making and its associated culture. Gee [-@gee_what_2004] describes the process of learning in informal environments and the resulting opportunities for participants to follow their own interests and to group together with others who share similar aims, framing the communities as affinity spaces. Gee’s research [-@gee_what_2004] on young people’s participation and learning in digital and on-line communities in part addresses the domain of computer games. He describes the activity and culture created around games as meta-gaming. Examples of meta-gaming include: fan websites and fiction, sharing of tips, creation of imitation games or related artwork. Gee examines how shared discourses and emerging identities develop within these spaces. In a similar vein, researcher Mizuko Ito’s [-@ito_hanging_2010; -@ito_living_2009] ethnographic approach to studies of informal digital consumption and making in the home, charts a progression in proficiency of young makers of digital products within online communities. Her approach connects the affordances of new online tools with a sociocultural view of learning as embedded within social and cultural contexts [@ito2013connected]. Sefton Green [-@sefton-green_mapping_2013] also explores salient themes in digital making including: its alignment with valued digital skills required by the workforce, anxieties around the use of digital technology by young people, and the role of diverse learning settings. He notes the potential of research on the transfer of learning opportunities and learner trajectories between informal experiences, formal learning settings, and professional destinations.

HE ALSO NOTED THE current lack - BUT AS 2013 HOW TO SAY IT’S STILL LACKING?

Observations of young people’s enthusiastic involvement in digital making, media, and game making, and meta-gaming in informal communities have sparked questions on how to leverage this interest as a foundation for other educational aims [@gee_what_2004; @papert_mindstorms_1980]. This underlying question in part informs the ethos of this thesis. Digital making is itself a subset of a long tradition of a broader maker movement within education, of which the underlying ethos can be described as a complex mix of practitioner enthusiasm, industry participation, and progressive educational approaches [@de_vries_maker_2018]. The reduced cost and technical barriers to hardware tools such as 3D printers and microcontrollers ¹ and software provided by free and open source software (FLOSS)² were characteristics that contributed to their widespread adoption by enthusiasts at home and increasingly in education. The engagement of many teachers and enthusiastic volunteers in these initiatives is documented in the proliferation of articles, videos, blog posts, and other resources sharing novel practice ³. This ground swell of activity was also present in community events with a multi-generational audience, e.g. the annual Liverpool MakeFest and a proliferation of monthly Raspberry Jam events in different regions in the UK [@shea2016hacker]. These grassroots, educational technology events bring together teachers, professionals, young people, and their families to engage with diverse technologies listed above in playful, empowering, and technically challenging ways.

Evolutions in web technology have brought new possibilities to making within the internet browser. In early 2013, MIT released a new version of their educational Scratch software, a block-coding tool for beginners ⁴. This introduced new features of an online editor with the default ability to save projects online and therefore accessible in different locations; the ability to comment on and to remix the projects has led to a significant increase in volume and forms of community interaction. For more advanced learners, free web-based courses on authentic, text-based programming languages like Python and JavaScript add interactive elements to online coding tools to scaffold and motivate the acquisition of coding concepts and practical coding skills ⁵. A Mozilla white paper [-@mozilla_foundation_webmaker_2014] outlines the power of exploring web technology as an empowering activity. As part of their Teach the Web and Web Literacy programme, Mozilla created internet browser based tools to support novices to investigate, remix, and create their own pages within simple browser interfaces. One tool of particular significance was Thimble (now deprecated), a code playground ⁶, which allowed scaffolded use of the web technologies, and a social platform and community on which to publish web page projects. The Thimble website became a hub for online activity linked to real-life educational communities and approaches called Mozilla webmaker clubs. Important features of these Webmaker Clubs included activities drawing on home interests to encourage creation and sharing of outputs, and exploration of the digital literacy elements needed to be an effective citizen [@thorne_clubs_2015].

In 2015 I contributed an online course called Quacking Javascript to the webmaker curriculum. In my report on its underlying pedagogical approaches [@chesterman_webmaking_2015], I outlined the following possibilities to increase participant engagement: playful approaches, use of games, and the ability for participants to incorporate popular culture and home interests into their work. I also noted the challenges of applying an experimental, exploratory approach within the confines of a school setting.

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Context of school-based computing education

NOTE - Add sentence explaining why this is important- SOMETHING LIKE - While this study takes place in a non-formal setting, there are wider, relevant contextual factors. In addition the findings of this research are also relevant to the formal context of computing education.

The changing shape of provision in UK digital-focused education in schools can be profitably examined through several key developments. The first is Google leader Eric Schmidt’s speech [-@schmidt_eric_2011, p.8] at a MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh in 2011, critiquing current computing provision in schools, “Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it’s made”. The second was a report “Shut Down or Restart?” by the Royal Society (RSA) [@the_royal_society_shut_2012] released in early 2012. The report recommended steering the ICT curriculum towards computer science and programming, providing funding for professional development and a greater inclusivity in computing education, and increased partnership work with computing professionals. In the same week Michael Gove [@-gove_michael_2012] announced the scrapping of the ICT curriculum. Finally, the new computing curriculum was introduced in 2013 to a mixed response [@dfe2013national]. However, while community responses were collected via a consultation, a clear consensus to avoid removal of too much digital literacy and creative project work was ignored in the final curriculum [@twining_we_2013]. Preston [-@preston_re-engineering_2013] shares Twining’s perspective that Gove and Schmidt’s critique of previous ICT provision was misjudged, and that the ICT had been caught up in decisions that were more political than pedagogical in nature.

A recent report by Kemp and colleagues [-@kemp_considerations_2024] on the future of computing education echoes concerns raised earlier in After the Reboot [@waite_pedagogy_2017] about the 2013 computing curriculum and related exams. Both reviews highlight unequal participation, with girls, ethnic minorities, and students from lower socio-economic backgrounds less likely to take computing qualifications, often due to cultural barriers, subject difficulty, or restricted access to digital subjects. After the Reboot also identified areas of promise that remain relevant to this study, including the potential of game making to increase engagement, the use of design patterns to scaffold coding, and a greater focus on social and cultural aspects of coding. Kemp and colleagues build on these recommendations by emphasising the importance of informal digital making and project work involving coding as inclusive practices. Yet despite this advocacy, the structural limitations of the curriculum and examinations persist. These challenges underline a continuing mismatch between opportunities provided by digital making and the restrictive nature of formal computing provision. As a result, many practitioners and researchers have turned to lunchtime or after-school coding clubs, community initiatives, and informal spaces where creative forms of game making can be explored without the constraints of the national curriculum. This shift highlights the significance of non-formal learning environments as vital sites for innovation, inclusion, and the development of new pedagogical approaches in computing education.

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Digital game making as a subset of digital making

In this thesis, I explore digital game making and participation in coding community practices by home educating families. This section begins by outlining broad contextual motivations for undertaking CGD&P, progresses to briefly describe the context of game culture within families before a fuller summary of potential barriers to undertaking CGD&P. While much research on digital game making focuses on its educational benefits for subjects like mathematics and science, and computer science (via programming in particular) [@kafai_constructionist_2015-1], there are also a diverse range of motivations behind game making, including supporting a STEM-pipeline into industry [@holmes_role_2023; @edwards_stem_2023], developing communication, creativity, and digital literacy (a grouping often framed broadly as 21st Century skills) [@bermingham_approaches_2013; @robertson_adventure_2007], or exploring social and ethical issues [@peppler_collaborative_2013]. An underlying theme to many of these motivations, and one prevalent in advocacy for digital game making, concerns the potential of the overall expressive value of digital media [@resnick_computational_2018]. For Resnick [-@resnick_lifelong_2017], developing fluency, whether with writing or coding, involves developing your thinking, voice, and identity. An exploration of computational fluency and the wider concept of agency is undertaken in more detail in Chapters 2 and 3.

Turning to game making in home education, the wider context of game playing is relevant. While both adult and child novice game makers have the potential to draw on their experience of game playing knowledge in their creations, their experiences may vary widely. Game playing practices and the opportunities provided by participation in wider communities continue to evolve, shifting from a marginal activity to a place within more mainstream culture [@engelstatter_video_2022]. For example, casual and retro games played by both adults and children are increasingly available via smartphones and home consoles [@juul_casual_2012]. Thus, increasing numbers of parents are gamers or have past gaming experience. Studies of varied parental mediation strategies for children’s gaming identify restrictive mediation involving limiting access; active mediation via discussion and negotiation; and co-playing of games as a form of mediation [@eklund_parental_2013; @nikken_parental_2006].

Some classic or retro games have achieved cult status reflected in recent blockbuster films involving Mario, Pac-man, and Sonic the Hedgehog ⁷. Nostalgia around such games and the associated aesthetics of cuteness create a potential for connection between younger and older players [@boyle_retro-futurism_2017]. The sustained popularity of retro games together with easy-to-use game making tools and code frameworks, provides an entry point for game players into game making cultures, a factor reflected in the popularity of projects based on retro games on game-publishing websites which allow amateurs to share their self-made games [@garda_nostalgia_2014] ⁸. The process of making retro games with families lies at a confluence of diverse contexts, motivations, and possibilities. However, while these contexts and related processes may offer opportunities to educators to leverage participant interest and experience to motivate and facilitate the learning experience, there are also significant barriers in play which are explored in the following section.

Barriers to participation in CGD&P

This section considers the key barriers that shape participation in Creative Game Design and Programming (CGD&P). These barriers are foregrounded because they help explain why the field has struggled to develop inclusive and sustainable pedagogical approaches, particularly in informal and community contexts. Drawing on existing studies, the discussion examines several interconnected areas: technical and conceptual challenges, the structuring of learning experiences, access to resources and facilitation, and barriers linked to identity and culture. Although distinct barriers also arise within formal educational settings, these are not explored in detail here, as the study’s focus is on home-education and informal contexts. I have addressed these school-based issues in a recent article [@chesterman_use_2025], which provides a summary not repeated here.

CGD&P inherits some of the intrinsic difficulties associated with computer programming [@sentance_teaching_2019; @gomes2007learning; @joao_cross-analysis_2019]. These difficulties include the complexity of programming language syntax, the challenge of understanding abstract concepts, and problems with transferring skills between different contexts [@gomes2007learning; @rahmat_major_2012]. To address these issues, specialist coding tools have been developed for novice coders, particularly younger audiences. These tools aim to simplify coding syntax, project organisation, and the overall complexity of the coding environment [@yu_survey_2018]. However, this simplification creates a tension between using more authentic programming languages and relying on scaffolded, specialised approaches [@joao_cross-analysis_2019]. Sefton-Green [-@sefton-green_mapping_2013] explores this tension in the context of digital making, contrasting Mozilla Webmaker tools (which use web languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) with block-based systems like Scratch, which can obscure learners from authentic code languages. Papert and Turkle [-@papert_epistemological_1990, p.134] identify exclusionary potential in the dominant formal, abstract approach to computer programming that “emphasizes control through structure and planning”. They characterise this abstract approach as including: a top-down design process involving extensive planning prior to coding, explicit teaching of language principles and syntax, and coding from scratch rather than altering existing products. Papert’s [-@papert_mindstorms_1980] foundational work in programming education addressed these barriers through the inclusive design of both tools and learning environments ⁹.

Difficulties in structuring and accessing learning experiences in informal and collaborative settings present another significant barrier to CGD&P participation. For instance, a key review highlights the limited specific pedagogical approaches for social engagement in CGD&P [@kafai_constructionist_2015-1]. While Chapter 2 will explore existing approaches in detail, it is useful here to illustrate the inherent challenges through an example: the educational practice of tinkering as a way of structuring creative work. Tinkering, in this context, refers to a hands-on, learner-led interaction with materials or digital artefacts, where learners try things out, make small adjustments, and immediately see the results [@vossoughi_making_2015].¹⁰ The learner adapts familiar concepts and processes to new situations, much like a skilled artisan improvises [@papert_childrens_1993, p. 143]. Bevan and Petrich [-@bevan_tinkering_2014] have shown how tacit practices can be made explicit in museum-based physics tinkering, but applying similar approaches to game-making presents distinct barriers. While such open-ended and exploratory methods can drive engagement [@sheridan_learning_2014], they can also make it harder for learners to complete distinct projects, particularly if they lack access to examples, problem-solving guidance, or resources to extend their ideas [@bevan_tinkering_2014]. Rogoff’s work [-@rogoff_organization_2016] highlights a further dimension of this problem. She rejects the simple division between child-led exploration and adult-led instruction [@rogoff_observing_1995, p.211], instead proposing a community-based model of guided participation that blends autonomy with scaffolded involvement from more experienced others [@rogoff_developing_1994]. This highlights a further barrier: although guided participation is widely recognised as valuable, strategies for enacting it in game-making remain rarely documented. Because guided participation is complex and context-dependent, it can be difficult to communicate in ways that practitioners can readily adopt. This creates barriers to dissemination, especially for educators who are less familiar with these approaches, and raises questions about the sustainability of such practices beyond the specific contexts in which they first emerge ¹¹.

Inequality of access to digital making communities and practices presents another significant barrier. Historically, the lack of access to necessary technology, such as high-cost computers, constituted a major issue [@resnick_computer_1996]. While lower equipment costs and the equipping of school and community centres have addressed some of these concerns, technological access represents only one dimension of the problem. Sefton-Green [-@sefton-green_mapping_2013] suggests that even with improved access to equipment, many young people still face barriers. Among those who participate, creative activities resulting in finished digital products are rare, with studies such as Luther et al. [-@luther_why_2010] revealing an 80 percent failure rate in collaborative media projects within the online community studied. Thus Sefton-Green [-@sefton-green_mapping_2013] argues that motivated and capable facilitators are crucial for enabling sustained participation. In addition, the appeal of online digital making communities, as described by Ito and Gee [-@ito_hanging_2010; -@gee_what_2004], is inconsistent due to cultural barriers to participation.

Addressing barriers linked to identity and values, a key theme within CGD&P research is the potential for games to increase participation by those traditionally excluded from computing and digital making cultures [@kafai_beyond_2014]. However, while digital making provides many opportunities to some young learners, Vossoughi et al. [-@vossoughi_making_2016] critique the culture of digital making, underlining the need to integrate not only the values but also the cultural experiences of working-class students and students of colour into the making process. Other researchers also highlight political concerns associated with the often close alignment of maker culture and makerspaces with the STEM industry [@thumlert2018learning; @vossoughi_making_2016], cautioning against approaches and environments that can implicitly favour the impression that digital making is primarily a pathway to joining the computer programming industry through developing employability skills in young people. Thumlert and colleagues [-@thumlert2018learning, p.4] argue against the ongoing appropriation of the framing of skills such as creativity and design thinking, which they propose are increasingly co-opted by market-driven agendas rather than being used for critical and emancipatory purposes. They also warn that this positioning could lead to a return to instruction-based models narrowly focused on curricular concerns, rather than fostering the development of learners’ expression within a community [@thumlert2018learning].

While the widespread appeal of casual and retro gaming, alongside the proliferation of retro games in popular culture, offers a rich repository of knowledge that can be utilised in various educational contexts [@moje_working_2004], Kafai and Burke [-@kafai_diversifying_2017] balance this potential with complex issues of gender representation associated with gaming culture. Addressing gender-based barriers to participation, Papert and Turkle [-@papert_epistemological_1990] identified some girls’ alienation from abstract computing approaches. They emphasised the need for diverse teaching and learning styles to address issues surrounding the early socialisation of women and girls, advocating for the inclusion of personal and concrete working styles. Denner and colleagues [-@denner_what_2008; -@angelides_beyond_2014] highlighted that inclusive gender practice in game making involves allowing participants choice over both the content of their games and the dominant mode of play (game mechanics). Their findings present a nuanced view of girls’ interests in game genres and support research cautioning against gender stereotyping and rigid identities in this area [@pelletier_gaming_2008]. Kafai and Burke [-@kafai_beyond_2014] address gender identities within game design by advocating for the creation of new communities and learning environments that align with participants’ values, rather than attempting to draw girls into existing, male-dominated spaces. Similarly, Buechley et al. [-@buechley_lilypad_2008, p. 431] ask, “How can we integrate computer science with activities and communities that girls and women are already engaged in?”

Margolis et al. [-@margolis_stuck_2008] outlined barriers contributing to a racial gap in computing participation and achievement in the US, including feelings of isolation, limited access to computing opportunities, and a lack of social support. DiSalvo and colleagues [-@disalvo_saving_2014; -@disalvo_glitch_2009-1; -@disalvo_learning_2008] investigated these barriers within a game testers programme, examining how an interest in computer games could motivate access to computing education. Their findings indicated that activities should not only be engaging but also align with the underlying values of the programme’s young, African American male participants.

This section has outlined diverse and relevant contexts for the study, including informal and home-education settings, digital making practices, and school-based computing education. Within this landscape, digital game making appears as a distinctive subset of digital making, offering rich opportunities for creative exploration but also marked by barriers to wider participation in CGD&P, such as access to resources, confidence, and inclusive pathways. These contextual strands frame the rationale for the study, which the next section introduces in relation to the research focus and questions.

3. Rationale for the Study:

Personal context

The use of technology for self-expression reflects my personal and professional trajectory. My journey within the world of technology and education began in the 1990s via my participation in organising and promoting unlicensed music events, free festivals, and related campaigning activity. In the party and protest culture which emerged from the 1994 campaign against the Criminal Justice Bill [@mckay_diy_1998], email lists and websites became important outreach and organising tools. I was an enthusiastic early adopter of these technologies for the purpose of social change. In the 2000s, my focus shifted towards environmental activism, migrant rights, and left-libertarian activities challenging the unaccountability of international finance institutions including the WTO, IMF, and G8 ¹². Self-made media and cultural activity constituted an important part of this movement. The advent of the relatively affordable Hi8 and subsequently MiniDV domestic camcorders and PC based editing software began to remove financial and technical barriers to video production ¹³. In 2000 I began work with Undercurrents ¹⁴, a video activism magazine [@heritage2008video] to run their website and to begin digitising their VHS content for online distribution. My role also involved organising film screenings and music events for outreach. This work culminated in involvement with a broad network of media and internet activists associated with the Indymedia project [@pickard_united_2006]. Indymedia was a volunteer-run coalition of anti-capitalist media activists which was notable for pioneering work in free/libre and open source (FLOSS) ¹⁵ technology and non-hierarchical volunteer organising to enable a federated system of open publishing news websites spanning hundreds of cities and regions.

These decentralised organising and production principles, important to both non-hierarchical protest movements and FLOSS communities, also began to impact broader low-cost, participatory digital culture. In particular, the repurposable nature of digital content and alternative approaches to attribution beyond the restrictions of the copyright system gave rise to widespread remixing as a creative process [@lessig_remix_2009]. Lessig [-@lessig_free_2004] describes the possibilities and resulting activity using the term free culture. I later co-authored An Open Web ¹⁶, a book which celebrated the opportunities provided by open source and decentralised web technology to create a more egalitarian environment of digital participation and, importantly, noted emerging risks to this mode of participation. I shared relevant approaches with local organisations by undertaking internet and media creation training and community development in Manchester and Salford ¹⁷. I also undertook writing and later organisational work with FLOSS Manuals ¹⁸ and the Mozilla community ¹⁹, writing documentation and online learning resources for media creation and collaborative processes aimed at individuals and informal educators.

Discussion around the launch of a new UK computing curriculum in 2013 championed the possibilities of creative digital production within the classroom [@livingstone_next_2011]. In that year I undertook a Masters in Computing and in the following year a PGCE in Computing. As part of my PGCE dissertation, I designed and delivered a pilot scheme to teach JavaScript in playful ways. The learning materials were made available as open educational resources (OER) as part of Mozilla’s online teaching resources ²⁰. Unfortunately, the constraints of the school context and the new curriculum hindered the kind of authentic activities that first attracted me to teaching Computing in schools. Instead, after completing my PGCE, I joined Manchester Metropolitan University in a role focusing on community education partnerships as part of the EdLab project ²¹. This work provided opportunities to pursue creative, project-based approaches to teaching technology to young people and families and led me to undertake this PhD study.

Connecting my experience to broader contextual themes

My experience above informs the broad rationale of this thesis in several ways including: to explore pedagogical structures facilitating collaborative production, to investigate dimensions of learning agency, and to explore the formations community based learning experiences in ways which are sustainable and resilient. This section briefly explores connections between my experience and these themes in turn.

Addressing pedagogies, the theme of tacit knowledge of practitioners, knowledge which is embedded in practice but hard to articulate, is a common challenge in education [@kratka_tacit_2015]. Bruner [-bruner1999folk] calls these practices folk pedagogies. Rogoff [-@rogoff_developing_1994, p. 219] reflects that initial first impressions of a ‘chaotic’ environment of learning happening in non-formal settings are misleading stem from a lack of understanding of the underlying structure of the mutual activities at play. We can see that this aspect is relevant to a wider rationale of this study to addresses issues of structuring learning to address barriers to facilitating CGD&P. As such, the research process requires precision in both reflection on and communication of process which I have observed in myself and others working in this field.

Turning to outcomes for participants, early in the research process I reflected that while I had an intuitive sense of what a successful group session felt like within creative media project work, I lacked clear language to communicate this. In activist and community development settings the motivations of social change, autonomy and a broad sense of empowerment seemed appropriate as an end goal for learners. As this research progressed, informed by existing research, my interests have coalesced around development of varied dimensions of agency within learning communities. To help reflect on this issue, this thesis engages with a complex and dynamic picture of participant agency (see Chapter 3 in particular).

This thesis also continues a strand in my work of advocating for community-based, replicable and sustainable approaches to learning. Much of my previous work has revolved around community approaches to learning be it at a festivals, social centres, arts centres or community workshops. Within these varied communities I had fulfilled a role of organising and facilitating outreach events and online communications with an aim of bringing more people into community activities. Underlying this activity was a personal belief that the process would be beneficial to both the communities involved and the people I was recruiting ²², a belief that continues. This research addresses an inequality of access to digital participatory culture with the understanding that such access has the potential for significant benefits for participant. I have ensured that learning resources created as part of this research process are freely available, replicable, and sustainable OERs ²³. These factors, along with a desire to use an authentic web technology coding language and process, drove my rationale to create a novel toolset for the purposes of this study rather than to adopt or adapt existing game making tools.

Rationale of home education settings as a site of research

The involvement of home-educating families as the primary participants of this study is a result of both practical and wider factors. My engagement with game creation rather than media or web co-production as an educator marked a significant shift in personal practice. This new direction originated from a consultation with home educators as part of my university outreach and partnership work with the EdLab project. At the consultation, parents and children asked if we could lead activities which drew on the children’s interest in digital games. Parents asked if we could find a way to teach computer coding using this interest. Minecraft was a named example of a computer game which involved some elements of creative processes. Figure 1.x shows one of the products of this consultation. The names at the top of the image are those of YouTubers making content around Minecraft.

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The contextual features outlined above align with practical factors to make home educators a good fit for this thesis. Research in school settings is sometimes hampered by practical issues such as timetable considerations and lack of time for project work outside of the subject curriculum. These factors are largely absent when working with home-educating families. In addition, the alignment with the needs of participants was also a relevant factor in this work with home educators, allowing for reciprocity in the research process.

Summary problem statement of the thesis

Despite the growing recognition of CGD&P’s educational potential, effective pedagogies, particularly those suitable for informal learning environments, remain under-explored [@denner_does_2019; @gardner_what_2022]. Existing approaches may not fully draw on the collaborative, cultural, and community-based dynamics of these settings, which can limit opportunities for meaningful participation and the development of valued aspects such as learner agency, prior knowledge of games, and an understanding of game design principles. Furthermore, the abstract nature of programming concepts can pose a significant barrier, and there is a need for pedagogical strategies that effectively connect these abstract dimensions with concrete design practices in CGD&P. This gap also leaves practitioners with limited guidance on how to design or facilitate activities that balance creative freedom with accessible entry points. Addressing this challenge, the research focuses on informal contexts where these dynamics are particularly visible, while also aiming to generate insights and frameworks that could be applied more broadly to support inclusive and engaging game-making practices.

4. Theoretical framework, research objectives, and questions

Summary of the theoretical framework of this thesis

In choosing a theoretical approach which aligned with the goals of the research questions and my role as both a practitioner and a researcher, it was vital to select a framework that could address potential complications within the research process. Constructionism is a foundational guiding theory in game making studies [@papert_mindstorms_1980], illustrated in particular, by Kafai and colleagues outlining the value of making constructionist games [kafai_constructionist_2015]. Despite the value of these contributions to this domain of research, I am in agreement with Ang et al. [-@ang_case_2011, p.539] who see value in constructionist framings of the pedagogical value of constructing tangible products in a community setting but locate the deficit of “a systematic framework for analysing the construction activities within a learning community”.

The focus of the research required a framework containing concepts able to do the following: analyse the evolution of participant agency in the learning process, accommodate authentic learning contexts, conceptualise barriers to participation, and support a mutual approach to involving the community in design changes. To meet these needs I have chosen cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and supplemented it with specific techniques of design-based research (DBR). CHAT as a theoretical framework provides tools to study the impact of past cultural activity of participants on present, emergent activity. CHAT also provides powerful concepts to explore a complex and dynamic picture of participant agency which aligns with the context of undertaking CGD&P for motivations of participant empowerment within broader contexts. DBR complements this by treating the research setting as both a site of inquiry and of iterative design, where cycles of intervention and reflection can respond to emergent contradictions. This makes it particularly suited to informal learning environments, where pedagogical approaches must adapt to participant needs while remaining grounded in authentic practice. In this way, DBR not only generates insights into learning processes but also produces practical resources and strategies that are directly usable by educators and communities. Chapter 3 explores the use of activity theory and DBR in more depth in relation to these needs.

Research aim, objectives, and questions

This research explores how socio-cultural approaches, particularly cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), can inform computer game design and programming (CGD&P) pedagogies. The study aims to enhance inclusive, engaging, and effective learning experiences within non-formal settings, with findings intended for broader application.

The overall aim of this study is best represented via the primary research question (PRQ) of this thesis:

How can pedagogies to support CGD&P be enriched using socio-cultural approaches to foster inclusive learning in non-formal contexts?

To address this aim, the study is structured around three core objectives that align with the sub-questions below and the overarching goal of enriching pedagogical approaches to CGD&P using activity theory as a socio-cultural approach.

The first objective, linked to RQ1, is to create a novel toolset and pedagogy that respond to gaps in the current research landscape and the limited resources available to practitioners. The study adapts my existing practice in facilitating web production to a new context: game-making using text-based code with families. This includes the use of FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) and industry-standard web technologies, with the aim of enhancing the longevity, authenticity, and extensibility of the game-making toolset. Through a design-based research approach, the study will identify and analyse the manifestations of contradictions within evolving CGD&P activities and explore their role in driving learning and innovation.

The second objective, linked to RQ2, is to develop a clear yet flexible pedagogy informed by gameplay design patterns (GDPs) ²⁴. Given that few studies provide detailed accounts of pedagogical approaches to supporting learners in the game design process, this research explores how GDPs can function as mediating tools. The investigation considers their role in supporting the development of learner agency and in facilitating the appropriation of complex game design knowledge within CGD&P learning environments.

The third objective, linked to RQ3, is to bring greater conceptual clarity to the social and cultural motivations underpinning novice participants’ engagement in CGD&P. The focus here is on understanding the development of learner agency through the lens of activity theory, and on examining how game-maker identities emerge within the context of a novel community of practice. This objective explores how these identities are nurtured and sustained across different learning communities, and what pedagogical strategies support this developmental process.

From these objectives, three sub-questions follow:

• RQ1. What contradictions emerge during participation in CGD&P activities and how can they be addressed via pedagogical change?
• RQ2. How can the use of a collection of game design patterns support CGD&P, in particular in relation to abstract and concrete dimensions of existing pedagogies?
• RQ3. How do learner agency and game-maker identity develop within CGD&P communities of practice, and what pedagogical strategies best support this evolution across diverse learning contexts?

Justification of limitations in scope of the thesis

The scope of this thesis is on game making as a practice rather than the broader scopes of game-based learning or playful learning. This presents some challenges as the process of game making undertaken in this research drew on those related areas. To address this limitation, at times relevant information is included in appendices or footnotes. As will be outlined in Chapter 4, while this study used two distinct toolsets to undertake game making, I focus only on the design utilising text-based coding rather than the one which used block based coding approaches. This decision is due both to the necessity to reduce the breadth of scope to fit within the focus of a targeted PhD dissertation and due to the practicalities of analysis of a large amount of data gathered. Finally, despite the potential of online collaborative making offered by internet based communities, this research retains a focus on in-person community. This decision is informed by a lack of similar research and my interest in the potential of community formation in real-life spaces.

5. Significance of the study

This section examines the significance of the study by exploring the wider implications and potential contribution of this research. While there has been a large body of research on the value and practice of game making for educational purposes, it remains a dynamic field with many avenues for further investigation. This study introduces a novel approach by utilising an accessible coding environment with a modern game development library specifically suited for novice learners. This has the potential to lower the barrier to entry for individuals new to game development and programming, providing a more intuitive and engaging starting point, which in turn can foster greater participation and a more diverse range of learners in this field. The research process has yielded practical resources for educators in the form of freely available software and open-licensed educational materials. This provision of tangible tools that can be directly implemented in educational settings and by independent learners, potentially broadens access to game making as a learning activity.

Another key area of contribution is the development of a pedagogical approach which enhances the diverse benefits and motivations associated with engaging in CGD&P. The promotion of computational thinking (CT) has been a key factor in the development of the UK’s computing curriculum. However, the claims of early advocates that CT skills could be applied widely in subjects beyond computing are now advanced more cautiously to avoid the danger of over-promising [@tedre_long_2016]. In contrast, the specific pedagogy which emerged from this research, based on participants’ flexible use of game design patterns, aligns with the broad ethos of this study to prioritise learner agency within a non-formal setting. This focus offers a potentially more inclusive and motivating approach to learning, allowing this study to contribute to understanding practices that address barriers to participation associated with more formal or industry-focused learning or making environments [@vossoughi_making_2016]. The emphasis on learner agency is directly supported by the accessible toolset, allowing novices more control over their creative process.

To effectively capture and analyse the social and cultural development within this emerging community, and to understand how these factors influence the implementation and impact of the pedagogical approach, this research employed a unique combination of data collection and analysis methods that may offer valuable insights for the field. The methodology, detailed later in this thesis, involved the concurrent analysis of participants’ on-screen activities and 360-degree video recordings of their interactions. This innovative methodological approach can provide a rich, holistic understanding of collaborative digital making, capturing both the technical processes and the crucial social dynamics that influence learning and participation, thereby offering a more nuanced perspective on how pedagogical approaches are enacted and experienced in a community setting.

Furthermore, this thesis contributes to ongoing discussions about disseminating pedagogical practices in game making, an area often lacking detailed description in existing studies [@kafai_constructionist_2015-1]. The detailed description of the learning design in Chapter 5 facilitates the communication of specific workshop practices and pedagogical approaches to both researchers and practitioners, addressing the challenge of abstract or context-bound findings [@hoadley_creating_2002-1]. This careful documentation of process makes the findings of this thesis more accessible and replicable, fostering a stronger connection between research and practice and potentially informing the adoption and adaptation of the pedagogical approach in diverse contexts. To this end, the study is guided by research processes that aim to share design heuristics in a format accessible to a broad audience, potentially informing the design of future learning experiences and tools that further promote learner agency.

Finally, this thesis contributes to emerging socio-cultural interpretations of agency through the analysis of this community game-making context. While not presenting an entirely novel theoretical framework, this situated analysis offers valuable empirical insights into the nuanced ways in which agency develops within a collaborative digital making environment, adding to the growing body of work in this area and potentially informing future research on learner empowerment in technology-rich settings, particularly in relation to how pedagogical choices and the design of learning environments can foster or hinder agency.

6. Chapter outline of the study

This introduction has covered key contextual, motivational, and theoretical considerations relevant to this study. This section now outlines the structure and indicative content of the chapters of this thesis. Chapter 2, the literature review, begins the exploration of the key themes and threads that are integral to the findings of this study. One of the challenges of this work is to explore the details for a non-expert audience. While the literature review will begin to disambiguate some of the terms used in the thesis, there is in addition a glossary which outlines short definitions of technical terms used. The glossary is included as an appendix to this study and as a summary table is in the literature review. Key strands of the literature review include: a review of existing studies on game making; an overview of the impact of constructionism on the field; the value of project-based learning approaches; a detailed exploration of varied game making pedagogies including in particular those that used design patterns as a basis; and a summary of game making programmes. The chapter ends by revisiting the problem statement of this thesis in line with gaps in existing research.

Chapter 3 details the theoretical framework used for this study, taking as its base the use of activity theory. I also explain how the design based research (DBR) approach aligns well with the aims of the research questions and the use of concepts and the leading approach of third generation activity theory (3GAT). This separate chapter allows for discussion of concepts aligned with the theoretical framework, including: the iterative, mutual, and emergent nature of the resources and processes; the process of identifying units of analysis; and transformative conceptions of agency.

Chapter 4 describes the methodology of the study. I describe and justify the process of data gathering using computer screen capture and 360 degree cameras and other varied means. I explore the challenge of processing and analysing large amounts of research data and justify the resulting prioritisation of data. I also begin to describe the phases of learning delivery.

Chapter 5 takes the form of a process within design-based research, a design narrative, to provide a detailed description of the tools and pedagogies that emerged from the development process. To explore emerging tensions in design in a way which communicates relevant context, I outline key conflicts in interrelated activity systems using the terminology of third generation activity theory (3GAT). The chapter discussion begins by exploring themes of authenticity of tool use, the mutual nature of the evolution of the design, and initial barriers and corresponding interventions.

Chapter 6 focuses on the implementation of individual game design patterns (GDPs) and in doing so addresses how data gathered informs thinking on RQ2. The chapter undertakes a systematic analysis of the use of game design patterns by participants, drawing on detailed observations of practice from video recordings in three planes of personal, interpersonal, and community activity. A discussion section explores implications and observations from these findings in relation to existing research and concepts.

Chapter 7 continues the discussion of the findings of Chapter 6 in relation to existing research on programming pedagogies in relation to abstract and concrete dimensions of computing education. The chapter then addresses gaps in the existing landscape of CGD&P research through examining participants’ development of agency via game making, thus addressing RQ3. It discusses the characteristics of an inclusive pedagogical environment that helped participants become part of an emerging community of game makers. The chapter explores in particular the role of design interventions to support and nurture the expression of learner identities. It concludes by summarising findings for a broad audience, addressing in particular processes facilitating relational agency.

Chapter 8 concludes the thesis with a final discussion on the significance of my findings in line with other research and identifies areas for future work. It provides a synthesis of the study as a whole, with reflections on how the research questions have been addressed, and considers implications, limitations, and directions for future development.

In summary, this introduction has outlined the core motivations for this study and summarised key, relevant contextual domains. It has also highlighted the complexities of and introduced the structure of the thesis, emphasizing central strands such as authenticity, barriers to participation, and inclusive pedagogical strategies. The subsequent chapter will provide a detailed examination of pertinent research on effective pedagogies and essential theoretical concepts needed to follow this study. This review, in particular, clarifies crucial frameworks underpinning the study’s first research question and lays the groundwork for a later exploration of how design-based research and third-generation activity theory are employed to address the research questions.