Triple Fun! Pedagogy, Play, and Parent Involvement in Religion-Based Board Games

Abstract

Lil Banoon is an online venture started in 2021 by two sisters of the Dawoodi Bohra community, whose flagship products are two board games; Triple Fun (2021), and Ilm Street (2021). This paper will utilize an autoethnographic methodology, drawing on my own experiences of playing these games with my children, to show how games are being adopted for didactic purposes within the Bohra community. As a parent and educator, I reflect on the process of playing these games as a family, how my children perceive and learn through these two games, as well as the impact of these on parents and educators. I argue that such games foster creativity, provide children with opportunities to explore ideas, and improve developmental skills while also exploring the challenges of incorporating games into our religious curriculum. These games form just one part of a larger focus on the development of teaching aids for religious pedagogy within the Bohra community and Islamic communities in general. I present how the creation and dissemination of these religious games is located within a specific pedagogic and religious environment where Muslim parents seek to introduce new pedagogies to inspire a love of religion against Islamophobic and racist sentiments.