Linking capabilities to functionings: adapting narrative forms from role-playing games to education

This paper explores science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in the context of inequality of opportunity by examining educational systems through two lenses: curricular mode and system scale. Curricular mode classifies learning experiences as addressing knowing, acting, or being, while system scale captures how learning experiences are aggregated into credentials. The paper argues that the curricular mode of being can be better implemented and credentialed within educational institutions if students learn to develop a self-narrative through navigating a multiplicity of learning experiences. Since narrative is implicit rather than explicit in existing university structures, the paper develops a speculative model based on role-playing games that integrates narrative and allows new forms of personalized credentials. The goal of the paper is to initiate a conversation around alternative curricular structures that allow emergent self-narratives within disciplinary structures.