#419: Distributed Cognition Meets Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Cognitive Journey Through Board Game Redesign

This paper presents a qualitative thematic analysis of a focal group engaged in redesigning a board game in junior high school. Grounded in distributed cognition and culturally relevant pedagogy, we identify four interconnected themes that explain how collaborative sense-making accelerates: (1) Digital and cultural tools as semiotic resources; (2) Peer dynamics and unequal influence; (3) Distributed leadership and participation; (4) Dialogic facilitation and knowledge construction. The findings enhance our understanding of how a group’s cognitive engagement becomes most productive when material, symbolic, and cultural resources converge, highlighting the fragile yet transformative role of cultural relevance in equitable, design-based learning.