Professional subjectivity in Kahoot! gamification: A socio-material framing of the lecturer as inspirational performer

Digital gamification is becoming more prevalent in higher education, yet a research gap regarding the socio-material imbrications arising from this pedagogical practice and its relationship to lecturer professional subjectivities was discovered. This presentation reports on data from a larger qualitative study conducted in a Middle Eastern tertiary institution where the use of Kahoot! is commonplace. Semi-structured interviews with lecturers from varied academic disciplines and observations of live sessions were conducted. The socio-material narrative analysis revealed the lecturers’ subjectivities as inspirational performers, arising both from their social self-presentations and the embedded digital materiality of the Kahoot! platform. The study contributes to the expanding body of socio-material research in higher education and concludes by suggesting that future studies should attend to both the social and materially produced aspects of lecturer subjectivities in gamification.