What is Being and Becoming

This chapter considers the use of computer games to help students construct their personal identity and develop dispositions that become active and responsible citizenship. It argues that the construction of identity requires both performative and narrative components and that these elements can be realized in a learning environment that affords students the opportunity to engage in a dialectic interplay between role playing in a game world and dialogic interaction outside of the game world. Research findings from an initial data set showing how students project their identities onto in-game characters are shared. The findings suggest that role playing in computer games can be effective in fostering attitudes, values, and beliefs desired of citizenship education.