An educational game on financial literacy for migrants – sensitive to cultural differences, multilingual, career-focused

Background and Problem

Financial Literacy is not a new field of research, either nationally or internationally. However, people whose first language is not German remain heavily under-represented in financial education research to date. One of the few exceptions is a qualitative study on the general financial literacy of refugees in Hamburg. It concludes that the financial education of the refugees surveyed is poorly developed, which is linked to a wide variety of factors, conditions and contexts. Besides the challenge of learning German as the language of education and work, newly arrived immigrants also have to (re)orient themselves in the German financial, economic and labour markets. Closely linked to financial education, however, are also questions of careers orientation, which prove particularly challenging for the target group of people who immigrated as adolescents or adults, insofar as they did not migrate to Germany on the basis of an existing employment contract.

Against this briefly sketched background, the FinDMB project is developing a learning game (Serious Game). It is aimed at (relatively) newly arrived immigrants who are already learning in German courses or integration courses, as well as at young adults in careers orientation classes at vocational schools. The learning game to be developed is intended to support this target group, through learning, in developing their financial literacy and orienting themselves towards a career.

The learning game ‘Monetto’ was previously developed within the CurVe project for the basic financial education of adults. It is aimed – exclusively in German – at people with low literacy. The Müller family is at the centre of the game; an unaccompanied minor refugee features merely as a friend of the family. As a result, the game neither offers opportunities for identification to diverse groups of learners nor takes account of learners' multilingualism. Yet the need for racism-critical game design that offers opportunities for identification to different population groups has been increasingly discussed in Germany too in recent years.

Research questions

• How must learning games be designed so that they enable people who are learning German as an additional language of education and work to develop their financial literacy and orient themselves towards a career?

• How can games and teaching materials for financial education be designed in a diversity-sensitive way, so that they reflect the diversity of the target groups addressed in relation to their everyday lives and engage them in an empowering and motivating manner?

• How can social media and AI tools be integrated into the structure of games in a way that stimulates learning and, in addition, makes it possible to keep the financial education content up to date beyond the research and development period?

• How can a multilingual game for financial education be designed that at the same time enables collaborative play in multilingual groups of players?

Approach

The project is divided into five phases. First, learning objectives derived from research and theory are formulated (Financial Literacy competence models (CurVe, OECD); the Thuringian careers orientation model). In the second step, a needs analysis is carried out, based on three group discussions with learners, teachers and multipliers. Building on the results of these first two phases, a participatory research group is formed – that is, the learning game is developed jointly with learners, teachers and multipliers. A prototype of the game is then tested and evaluated (participatively). After a final revision, the game is printed by a games publisher and a Print & Play version is made available for free download.

Results

The game to be developed is intended to create an innovative learning offer for financial education that is specifically geared to the everyday lives, needs and learning prerequisites of this heterogeneous target group – at the transition from the learning venue into working life. Its innovative content lies, first, in the fact that learners' multilingualism is systematically taken into account in the design of the learning game. Second, by implementing AI tools and drawing on existing social media content on financial education, the rapidly changing content of the financial and labour markets can be incorporated into gameplay on a lasting basis, even after the project ends. The aim here is not to develop new social media content on financial education; rather, learners are guided to access existing content and evaluate it critically, thereby also developing their media literacy, which is often inadequate, particularly among population groups affected by poverty and marginalisation.

Dissemination and Transfer Activities

Thanks to the project's participatory approach and its four cooperation partners (see above), transfer between research and practice is ensured from the very start of the project. The broad networks of the project team and the cooperation partners in vocational and adult education, the employment administration and the scientific community promote the continuous and lasting dissemination of the research results and of the learning game to be developed. The following activities are planned: explanatory videos by learners for learners; presentation of the game at the Bremer Spieletage; (interim) results at specialist conferences and in relevant specialist journals; networking, exchange and discussion with the other 73 projects in the funding line; printing and distribution of the learning game through a publisher and as a Print & Play version.

The project is being carried out as part of the BMBF funding programme ‘Research into Financial Education’. Information on the funding programme and other projects funded under it is available via the link in the blue box.