Repositioning Vulnerable Youth Through Educational Esports Programmes

This study examines how vulnerable young people aged 16 to 25 experience competitive esports within Danish STU special education programmes, using thematic analysis of interviews with ten students across three programmes and framing the work through Dialogic Self Theory. Its central thesis is that esports participation can reposition students who have often found conventional schooling isolating and stressful, offering them greater ease, autonomy, and a sense of belonging within a supportive community. The authors present these conclusions as preliminary, acknowledging the small sample size and the possibility that participants were selectively chosen.

The most significant finding is that students overwhelmingly describe their esports experiences more favourably than their previous schooling, and that participation fosters committed community relationships rarely found in their recreational gaming. Interpretive analysis identifies four distinct "I-positions" toward esports, labelled individual gamer, social gamer, curious gamer, and serious gamer, revealing that students relate to teacher-selected games in markedly different ways. This variation produces a central tension for programme designers, since alignment between educator choices and student preferences shapes engagement. One dissenting case illustrates this tension sharply: a student who did not choose the programme and disliked its games reported predominantly negative feelings.

The study's scope is limited to three Danish STU programmes and a small group of participants, with interviews conducted in a Danish national context. The authors caution that findings depend on researcher interpretation and on teachers having selected which students were interviewed. The accompanying literature base draws on Danish national benchmark data and prior research linking esports and game-based learning to the development of youth skills.