Designing for Early Civic Agency: A Board Game for Civic Engagement in Kindergarten

This work-in-progress paper presents the design and initial expert review of "Become Mayor" (Γίνε Δήμαρχος), an original educational board game for kindergarten children aged 4 to 6. The game aims to cultivate early civic agency by translating abstract concepts of local governance, civic engagement, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into tangible play. Its motivation rests on Greece's "Civic Actions" curriculum, which embeds these competencies from early childhood, and on the recognized difficulty of conveying socio-political ideas to preschool learners. The design draws on game-based learning principles grounded in constructivist pedagogy and is structured using the Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics (MDA) framework, combining a dual taxonomy of nine civic engagement dimensions with the 17 SDGs.

The game is organized around a six-space pathway, scenario cards presenting community problems such as park degradation and accessibility barriers, color-coded resource tokens corresponding to four categories of civic action, and a "Citizens' Council" phase in which groups co-construct solutions under time pressure. Players rotate the role of mayor and ultimately elect a winner through peer voting based on criteria and token balance. The paper reports that the game is complete and has undergone an initial expert review by a convenience sample of kindergarten practitioners specializing in game-based learning. Reviewers highly praised the core concept, learning targets, and aesthetics, and noted that the game fostered collaboration and empathy, particularly in inclusivity scenarios. However, they rated the mechanics as moderate, citing cognitive overload from dense terminology and multiple tactile components, and recommended simplified text, symbolic visuals, and reduced competitive emphasis. Classroom pilot testing is the planned next step.