Teaching about indigenous people with Minecraft Education

Abstract

This thesis investigates the potential of Minecraft Education (ME) as a tool for teaching Norwegian lower secondary school pupils about indigenous people, with a particular focus on the Māori people of New Zealand. A five-week intervention was carried out in two eighth-grade English classes in the south of Norway, where three weeks were dedicated to playing ME in the "Ngā Motu" world to learn about the Māori people and their culture. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, and the data collected were used to evaluate the effectiveness of ME in addressing the research questions. The findings indicate that under the right circumstances, ME can be a valuable resource for teaching pupils about indigenous peoples, while also offering additional benefits in areas such as language learning, social and emotional development, and increased motivation, interest, and engagement for learning.