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GAMES CHILDREN PLAY: AN EXERCISE ILLUSTRATING AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION*
A SOCIOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING of the development of our identities is predicated on the notion that such development is a learning process. Most introductory sociology textbooks identify the main socialization agents of this process as family, peers, schools, media, work, and religion. What is far less often acknowledged is the contribution that children's toys and games play in representing and reinforcing dominant conceptions of "appropriate" social identities found in social discourse and in institutional arrangements. In a classroom setting, we invited students to play a variety of board games in order to experience the subtleties of race, class, gender, and political socialization that are embedded in play and to explore how players may challenge and subvert these images and messages. We believe that this approach to investigating and understanding the development of social identities fosters greater student sensitivity and consciousness of role development. This exercise invites students to play a variety of these games (many of which they may have played as children) in order to experience the "hidden agenda" conveyed to children while they are presumably just having fun. The existing literature on the role of games in the socialization process predominantly focuses on gendering rather than race or class processes (Beal 1994; Thorne 1995). The little amount of research that does relate to issues of race socialization and children's play primarily focuses on toys, especially dolls (Clark and Clark 1947; GopaulMcNicol 1988; Powell-Hopson and Hopson 1988; Vaughan 1986). Moreover, literature devoted to analyses concerning children's games commonly conceptualizes games as sports, outdoor games, and group games (Corsaro and Eder 1990; Ignico and Mead 1990; King, Miles, and Kniska 1991; Lever 1978; Moore and Boldero 1991; Peters 1994), or as role playing (Evershed 1994). While the literature has not specifically explored the role of popular board games in socialization processes, taken together, it is suggestive of the role such games may play in reinforcing and repeating the dominant themes of race, class, gender, and political identities found in other socialization agents and institutional arrangements. As Renzetti and Curran (1992) point out, "Toys not only entertain children, but they also teach them particular skills and encourage them to explore through play a variety of roles they...