Kahoot! Gamification as an Instructional Technology

Abstract

Gamification is rapidly becoming an established pedagogical approach in higher education, especially since shifting to online teaching during the pandemic. Following a research gap in the socio-material literature, this chapter examined gamification practice using poststructuralist readings of lecturers' professional subjectivities. It reports on a data set from a larger qualitative study conducted in a higher education institution in the Middle East, where Kahoot! is frequently used for course review. Semi-structured interviews with nursing division lecturers and live observations of their online lectures were conducted. The socio-material analysis revealed four themes that highlight how narrative acts as well as how material affordances and constraints are enrolled into lecturer subject positioning, with three categories reinforcing professional subjectivities and the final subverting their ideational positioning. Contributing to the growing body of socio-material scholarship, the chapter concludes with some recommendations and fruitful avenues for further research in this field.