Minecraft and Bad Objects in the Classroom

Background: Minecraft is widely used in classrooms but also criticized for reflecting colonialist and extractive logics, leading some educators to question its pedagogical value and consider it a bad object. Analysis: This article argues that students’ familiarity with Minecraft makes it a useful site for ethical and critical learning. It reviews major critiques of the game and presents the Allegorical Build as a pedagogical approach that engages, rather than avoids, these ideological tensions. Conclusions and implications: Engaging critically with games like Minecraft can help students examine the relationship between digital culture and colonial industrialism. Rather than dismissing such platforms, effective pedagogy meets students where they are—within the game itself.