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