After the competitive adrenaline induced by our co-constructed games had subsided, reflecting on the 11th Education Community of Practice workshop revealed a compelling example to us of what accounting education could be. It was particularly valuable as early career educators to learn from colleagues and experts who have spent decades developing and refining these ideas. The event balanced the flexibility needed for innovative teaching with enough structure to ensure that learning remained grounded in accounting concepts. Held on Monday 8 June 2026, right before the CSEAR conference, the workshop invited participants to explore the theme “Deepening learning through games and place in sustainability accounting education” in the most fitting way possible: by collaborating, creating and reflecting together. 

Coordinated by Caroline Linhares, Michelle Rodrigue and Shona Russell, the event created a wonderfully open and energising space for experimenting with innovative approaches to social and environmental accounting education. 

The morning session focused on place-based learning and was led by David Derichs and Nick McGuigan. Working in small groups, participants were assigned an accounting concept, such as earnings quality, cost volume profit, double materiality or asset valuation, and were invited to identify a place within Tampere University that could help communicate that concept. They were then asked to describe the place and reflect on the possibilities it offered as a medium for teaching and discussion. The structure of the exercise allowed us to ask questions that would be unlikely to emerge in any other setting: “How do you teach the concept of double materiality through the medium of a car park?” Questions such as these encouraged us to connect accounting abstractions with the often-overlooked objects and spaces around us. In doing so, accounting concepts became rooted in a particular place, making the learning experience both engaging and memorable. This was a powerful reminder that accounting education does not have to begin with abstract concepts alone. It can begin with landscapes, communities, buildings, bodies, histories and lived experiences. By connecting accounting themes to those meaningful places, the session encouraged us to ask new questions. What can a place teach us about accounting? How might sustainability issues become more tangible when rooted somewhere familiar? And how can students learn differently when accounting is connected to what they see, feel and inhabit? 

The afternoon continued in the same spirit of experimentation with two game-based sessions. One focused on the biodiversity offsetting game, facilitatedby Nina V. Nygren and Ville Kankainen. The second, which we attended, was titled “Playing and creating games for sustainability” and was organised by Leland Masek and Daniel Fernandez Galeote from Tampere University. 

To engage in game-based learning, a foundational question first needed to be addressed: what exactly is a game? What initially appeared to be a simple question quickly became surprisingly difficult to answer. Through a range of game experiences and interdisciplinary perspectives, we reflected on the roles of strategy, rules, emotions, competition, cooperation, and uncertainty, and how these elements shape our understanding of what constitutes a game.  

We were introduced to four possible goals of game design: simulation, entertainment, metaphor and education. This framework helped us see how games can serve different purposes in the classroom, from modelling complex sustainability issues to creating more emotional, imaginative or reflective learning experiences. What made the session especially engaging was its incremental and playful structure. We began by asking what a game is, then gradually moved through different types of games before playing, adapting and designing our own. Step by step, we explored how an entertainment or simulation game could be transformed into an educational experience. The process made game design feel accessible, creative and pedagogically rich and with so much laughter along the way, it was genuinely a joy to take part in. 

Finally, in groups, we were challenged to design a game using only hands, words and paper. Without complex technologies or polished materials, we focused on the essentials: what players do, what choices they face, what tensions emerge, what learning might happen, and how the game feels. As the game took shape, we found ourselves planning, testing and redesigning all at once, which was a lively process where creativity and evaluation naturally went hand in hand.  

By the end of the session, each group had developed a prototype that other workshop participants could play and test. The feedback process was one of the highlights of the day. It revealed how much can be learned from observing others interact with a game: where they hesitate, where they laugh, where they become competitive, where they collaborate, and where the educational message becomes clearer, or needs rethinking. 

The ECoP 11 workshop showed us how games can open up new ways of teaching sustainability accounting: They make complexity visible and help students engage with social and environmental issues intellectually, emotionally and collectively. Just as importantly, they can bring joy into the classroom, and that joy matters when we are teaching difficult and urgent social and environmental issues. 

We left the workshop inspired, energised and excited to bring these ideas into our own classrooms. Many of us arrived curious about games and place-based learning, we left with prototypes, practical insights, new questions and, above all, a renewed enthusiasm for reimagining sustainability accounting education. Thank you to Caroline Linhares, Michelle Rodrigue and Shona Russell for coordinating such a rich, thoughtful and joyful event, and to all contributors and participants for their creativity, openness and energy.