Collaborative Digital Games as Mediation Tool to Foster Intercultural Integration in Primary Dutch Schools

In the Netherlands, the growing presence of immigrant children in schools has fueled scholarly interest in and concerns for examining the process of integration in school environments. The use of digital games has found to be an effective tool to reinforce teaching/learning practices. Several studies have already shown the benefits of the use of digital games in educational contexts. However, most of these studies are focused on how digital games can be used as a mediation tool in the process of knowledge acquisition. The present research proposes a new approach for the study of digital games in the field of education. Drawing from collaborative learning methods, we explore the potential of digital entertaining collaborative games to become a mediation tool in the process of integration of immigrant children with different cultural backgrounds in Dutch schools. This paper1 reports the preliminary results of an exploratory study that sets out to evaluate the potential of digital games as a mediation tool to foster intercultural integration in educational environments.