Evaluating the Hazagora Serious Disaster Board Game: An Interaction Analysis of Higher Secondary School Students in Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan ranks among the most climate-vulnerable nations globally, yet sustainable disaster risk reduction (DRR) is frequently obstructed by significant gaps in public awareness and risk communication. At the school level, traditional pedagogical approaches often fail to create long-term behavioral change, necessitating more participatory and experiential learning methods. This study evaluates the efficacy of the "Hazagora" serious board game as a tool for risk communication and disaster resilience education within the secondary school context of Peshawar, Pakistan. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study utilized Interaction Analysis (IA) to examine the socio-material dynamics of knowledge co-creation. Five game sessions were conducted with 30 sample size from Government Higher Secondary School, Cantt No 01. Data collection involved synchronized participant observation and video recordings to capture verbal exchanges, paralinguistic features (e.g., laughter), and non-verbal gestures. Interactional units were coded according to nine parameters, including consensus-building, reflection, and knowledge transfer. Additionally, a quantitative resilience index was calculated post-session based on resource management, infrastructure durability, and population retention. The findings reveal that higher interactional quality, characterized by "we-centric" language and social synchronization, directly correlates with superior community resilience scores. For instance, "Green Land" achieved a peak resilience score of 122 through advanced consensus-building and the application of prior safety training (socialized through school scouts). Conversely, "Mini-Peshawar" recorded the lowest score (28), highlighting localized failures in communal support. Qualitative patterns demonstrated that shared laughter and anecdotal analogies (e.g., localized metaphors for mutual funds) facilitated the internalization of complex scientific building codes and proactive resource management strategies. The results underscore that Hazagora surpasses mere entertainment, acting as a catalyst for metacognitive processes where players transition from individual roles to collective crisis response. The game’s iterative loops of action and reflection enable students to construct conceptual maps of disaster risk, effectively bridging the gap between abstract hazard concepts and lived realities in Peshawar. This study advocates for the integration of serious games into the national school safety framework to nurture emergent, peer-driven learning and community-level resilience.