A book co-edited by several Michigan State University College of Education scholars encourages joy and play in the classroom, and how they can be an important, critical asset to learning.
It’s all explained in “Gameplay as Teaching Practice in Literacy Education,” available this month through Routledge.
Joy, play and fun are broad concepts of the novel and informed approach offered by the book's co-editors: Vaughn W. M. Watson, Jin Kyeong Jung, Jungmin Kwon, Lucía Cárdenas Curiel and Joanne E. Marciano. Most are from the MSU College of Education's Department of Teacher Education; Jung is an assistant professor at Texas Tech University.
"[The book] invites educators to envision children, youth and families in their gaming and play as authors, makers, informed readers, writers and more,” said Watson, an associate professor and lead editor.
In other words, as children play and create stories and games, it’s more than just fun — it’s making them into storytellers.
Lived experiences complement book
The co-editors would know — they were all K-16 educators before transitioning to academia. All of them also saw gaming and play throughout their careers and in their personal lives.
The online game Roblox, for example, can be used to “navigate languages, cultures and countries through gameplay practices,” explained Kwon. She was previously an English as a foreign language teacher in Korea and then an educator for bilingual learners in the U.S. before transitioning to the MSU faculty.
Even non-digital games — like the word-guessing game “Taboo” or card games — can be used to review literary elements, or just to learn outside of the normal cadence of classroom time, explained Marciano. She taught in New York City for 13 years as an educator where she learned “the importance of centering joy in establishing and sustaining relationships with students.”
Watson (a former high school English teacher for 12 years in Brooklyn) and Cárdenas Curiel (a former bilingual and Spanish K-12 educator in Mexico and the U.S.) also used games in their respective classrooms.
Though their collective experiences were in the past, the co-editors stress that the book is important for today’s contexts.
“We want to situate (game)play in today’s current sociopolitical context as it creates opportunities to feel joy and pleasure when accountability and policy pressures surround children and youth (bi)literacy development and learning,” Cárdenas Curiel explained.
All co-editors contributed to one or more chapters in the book, often with MSU College of Education graduate students.
“This demonstrates how our work as the (Game)Play Collaborative seeks to support the next generation of educational researchers in contributing to literacy research in ways that render visible the intersectional identities of children and youth as strengths in teaching and learning,” Marciano added.
Meet the (Game)Play Collaborative
The verbiage is an intentional choice: The (Game)Play Collaborative was created by the co-editors as a publicly visible way to show their intentionality of studying teacher education while “in collaboration with communities, educators and one another,” Watson explained.
In fact, the idea of the book was kickstarted from earlier research rooted in community. Cárdenas Curiel, Marciano and Watson co-published a paper with their daughters on how a video game expanded their learning (Reading Research Quarterly, 2025).
From there, the (Game)Play Collaborative blossomed; the 2026 book is a culmination of dozens of scholars and communities equally committed to collaboration.
The collaborative nature of the group and the book is what makes it so special.
“The book highlights the stories and (game)play experiences of students and families from diverse backgrounds,” Kwon shared. It is aimed toward educators across K-12 contexts, as well as teacher educators, graduate students and researchers broadly interested in the book’s topics. “We provide concrete and practical resources and suggestions for teachers and practitioners .... [including] tips for integrating culturally relevant (game)play practices into classrooms, a list of various (game)play activities from diverse communities and a template for creating a platform to share culturally relevant games.”
“Gameplay as Teaching Practice in Literacy Education” is available through Routledge.