Designing Gender Inclusivity and Equality

In consideration of the labels and definitions of gender identities, and the differences in experience of stasis or fluidity of gender, this paper describes a role for design in the political activities of gender diversity inclusion and equality as a facilitator of open-minded debate and decision-making. The process of design in ‘enabling the improvement of qualities of life’, can positively transform the way we see, think and behave, and so, not only can it enable creation of products and services to support inclusive practices, it can also be socially innovative in developing new models and policies for inclusion and equality. One particular model is the Gender Cube, which enables individuals to dimensionally define and consider their gender identity rather than seek to fit to a category, labelled by society, with its incumbent expectations. With consideration of both personal and social constructs of gender, experienced alone at home and socially in our cities, it is argued here that inclusion cannot be seen as simply an attitude of ‘not excluding’, but must actively develop coherence in both perspective and behaviour through mindful acceptance, integration and equality. The limitations of an androcentric, male dominant, binary model, and associated behaviours are discussed, including the need for a more balanced and credible engagement in supporting the design of gender inclusivity, for equality to be achieved for the expressions of the full range of gender identities

Gender-Inclusivity Framework (GIF): A Conceptual Framework for Supporting Gender-Inclusivity in Games

Despite the dramatic growth of gender and games research, many challenges remain in designing a more gender inclusive game. This research addresses the problem of how to support gender-inclusivity in games by incorporating theories in games and gender. Existing research in games and gender tend to focus on finding out how each gender plays and their preferences in games. However, there is little evidence that researchers have approached the issue of gender inclusivity in games with the intent of building a cohesive understanding of gender inclusivity in games and the relationships that exist between the different dimensions and components. Consequently, the aim of this research is to develop an integrative conceptual framework that can support gender inclusivity in games. The development of the Gender Inclusivity Framework (GIF) aimed to understand the makeup of gender inclusivity in games, how to define gender inclusivity in games and measure the level of gender inclusiveness in games. Drawing upon established theories and prior research findings, the proposed framework suggests that gender inclusivity in games can be determined by 3 dimensions: (1) gameplay, which describes the game behaviour and include non-violent action (NVA), game support (GS), forgiving gameplay (FG), non-violent challenge (NVC), feedback system (FS), variety of activities (ACT), personalization (PER) and collaboration (COLL); (2) content, that relates to the aesthetics elements of a game and consists of character/avatar portrayal (AVP), game world graphics (GW), sound/music (SM) and storyline (STOR) and; (3) genre, which categorizes games into twelve broad genres: racing, simulation, classic/board, strategy, sports, shooting, role playing game, platform, children, puzzle/quiz, action and adventure. Each dimension in the framework is divided into individual components that can be modified or further investigated in future studies. Each component in combination describes the dimension in terms that can be measured and evaluated in empirical studies. Hence, the combination of dimensions and components used to construct the framework provide the description of gender-inclusivity in games, which in turn is expected to predict the degree of gender-inclusiveness in games. For educators, GIF allows the identification of gender-inclusivity components in games so informed decisions can be made on how to evaluate and choose appropriate games for classroom activities. For researchers, GIF provides a common framework in which to conceptualize their research and make it easier to see how individual variables fit into the larger picture. For game designers, GIF enables deconstruction of the concept of gender inclusivity in games into smaller, conceptually distinct and manageable component to guide the design of gender inclusivity in games

Equality - Focus on Sport, Football and Inclusivity

This edition contains features on: • LimbPower – new status as a National Disability Sports Organisation • Football and inclusivity - Dr Dan Parnell • Games Starters volunteering opportunity at the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association’s World Games in 2015 • Sporting Equals - Boxing in Mosques • A selection of recent information • A brief look at some local work • Calendar of forthcoming event

Promoting race equality : engaging with research

Research shows that schools which are successful at promoting equality of opportunity for BME pupils are characterised by certain principles. • High expectations. • High quality teaching and learning. • An ethos of inclusivity and respect, welcoming of diversity. • Effective partnership between parents and schools

Religion vs. Spirituality: A Contemporary Conundrum

The problem with which this essay is concerned is perhaps peculiar to contemporary first world western culture. It is, like many of our cultural problems such as inclusivity, addictions, and family breakdown, ironically a product, to a large extent, of our unprecedented abundance, leisure, and freedom. The problem is the relationship between religion and spirituality

A Conceptual Framework for Supporting Gender-Inclusivity in Games

Gender-inclusivity in games has been a much debated issue and despite the dramatic growth of gender and games research, many challenges remain in designing a more gender-inclusive game. Gender-inclusivity in games may support certain features and in turn may even determine the features of applications built based on it. This poses a challenge: although we have good techniques for analyzing, designing and evaluating current games, our techniques for gender-inclusive games are much less formed. We present a brief outline of some unresolved issues concerning gender-inclusivity in games and the gaps in designing a more gender-inclusive game. There is little reported experience in the issues that arise in determining what features should go into a gender-inclusive game and for determining the success or failure in the evaluation of those features. The questions that arise from this situation are how to define gender-inclusivity in games, how to incorporate gender-inclusivity into a game creation process and how to accurately measure gender-inclusivity in games. We propose a framework that defines gender-inclusivity in three key themes: (1) gameplay, describing the game behaviour and how a player experiences the game. It include non-violent action (NVA), game support (GS), forgiving gameplay (FG), non-violent challenge (NVC), feedback system (FS), variety of activities (ACT), personalization (PER) and collaboration (COLL); (2) content, describing the aesthetics elements of a game. It consists of character/avatar portrayal (AVP), game world graphics (GW), sound/music (SM) and storyline (STOR) and; (3) genre, categorizes games into twelve broad genres: racing, simulation, classic/board, strategy, sports, shooting, role playing game, platform, children, puzzle/quiz, action and adventure. On-going research is being planned for experiments to validate the framework through expert reviews, game evaluations and game design projects. We believe the results may extend to other domains in technology enhanced teaching and learning applications to commercial games design