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Abstract
Gamification has emerged as a prominent innovation in contemporary education, yet its influence on the enactment of educators’ professional subjectivities remains underexplored. As such, little is known about how online gamification applications like Kahoot shape the dynamic ways educators perceive, understand and enact their professional selves within higher education contexts. Adopting a tripartite framework of knowing (epistemological), being (ontological) and doing (praxiological), this qualitative study employed visual-elicitation interviews and remote observations with ten lecturers at a Middle Eastern college. The analysis revealed three key themes shaping educator subjectivities: creating and sharing quiz content; conforming with institutional culture; and infantilizing students with gamified learning. The findings suggest that Kahoot influenced how these educators perceived and performed their professional roles, enabling them to position themselves as creative content developers and aligned institutional practitioners, while also raising concerns about appropriate pedagogical approaches in tertiary contexts. This study demonstrates how gamification applications may actively shape professional subjectivities in higher education, emphasizing how successful gamification requires careful consideration of both institutional support and educator agency. Moreover, the findings offer important implications for professional development, institutional policy, and the thoughtful integration of gamification across diverse cultural contexts in contemporary higher education.
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Author Contributions
Natalie-Jane Howard: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft. Elizabeth J. Cook: Writing – Review & Editing, Visualization. All authors have read and approved the final version of this manuscript.
Acknowledgments
We would like to sincerely thank the participants in this study and the anonymous reviewers for their time and helpful feedback. Ethical Statement As this study involved human participants, ethical approval was obtained from the research site’s institutional review board prior to data collection. All participants received a detailed information sheet and provided written permission by signing a consent form, for both interviews and observations. The participants were informed they could relinquish their consent at any time if they felt uncomfortable or did not wish to continue.
Educator Professional Subjectivities in Gamification: … (Natalie-Jane Howard & Elizabeth J. Cook, 2025)
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-forprofit sectors.
View statement in PDF · PDF page 13Competing Interests
The author declares no competing interests.
View statement in PDF · PDF page 13Generative AI Disclosure
No generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were used in the writing of this manuscript.
View statement in PDF · PDF page 13References
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Natalie-Jane Howard, Elizabeth J. Cook