Abstract:

Digital games are firmly embedded in children’s media culture and are increasingly used in educational settings, particularly in primary education. Yet their educational value depends not only on motivation and interactivity, but also on the norms, identities, and ideas of belonging they convey. This contribution examines how Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPoC) are represented in digital games and discusses what these representations imply for critical media education and anti-racist reflection in schools.

The paper presents a mixed-methods study of 30 digital games, including serious games and entertainment titles. Quantitative frequency counts were combined with qualitative content analysis to examine not only the visibility of characters, but also their narrative roles, playability, visual design, and contextual framing.

The findings reveal a clear structural imbalance. Across 1,782 human-like characters, only 267 were coded as BIPoC, corresponding to about 15% of the sample. In five of the 30 games, no BIPoC characters appeared at all. Where they were present, they were often limited to secondary or non-playable roles or offered mainly through optional avatar customization rather than as fixed protagonists. In more than one third of the games featuring BIPoC characters, stereotypical portrayals were identified, including colonial, exoticizing, or seemingly positive reductions to athletic or musical talent. Serious games showed somewhat higher relative diversity in some cases, yet an explicit educational purpose did not automatically ensure inclusive representation.

For educational practice, the results show that the pedagogical use of digital games requires more than technical, curricular, or motivational criteria. Representation-sensitive selection, guided classroom reflection, and anti-racist media education are essential if digital games are to support inclusive learning rather than reproduce exclusion. The contribution thus offers an empirically grounded perspective for educators who seek to use digital games critically and responsibly in contemporary education.

Keywords:

Digital games, representation, diversity, critical media education, anti-racist education, primary education.