The stories of the five characters: privilege walk

Topic
- Citizenship & human rights
Learning skills
- Empathy & social awareness
- Critical & reflective thinking
Activity type
- Group discussion
- Role play
Materials
- Printable downloads
Age
- 15 - 17 years
>15 minutes
+5 players
Intermediate
Calm
Large (sports hall, football field)

Contributors

Mobile School

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Everything you need to play this game

Poster 'The stories of the five characters' EN Download general-the-stories-of-the-five-characters-code-kopieren.jpg (35.9mb)
Storylines of the characters
Statements
Poster 'The stories of the five characters' DE Download general-the-stories-of-the-five-characters-de-small.png (18mb)
Poster 'The stories of the five characters' EL Download general-the-stories-of-the-five-characters-el-small.png (18mb)
Poster 'The stories of the five characters' ES Download general-the-stories-of-the-five-characters-es-small.png (18mb)
Poster 'The stories of the five characters' FR Download general-the-stories-of-the-five-characters-fr-small.png (18mb)
Poster 'The stories of the five characters' NL Download general-the-stories-of-the-five-characters-nl-small.png (18mb)

A step-by-step guide to play the game

Divide the different characters among the players. Players take time to read/watch/listen to the story of one of the characters quietly.

Give the players time to empathise with the role. Encourage them to try to think about the characters' lives, what they say, how their daily lives go, whether they have friends, etc. Put on some quiet music to facilitate this process. You can read out some questions for support (see additional game information).

After empathising with the characters, play an introductory game with the players: ask the players to line up in absolute silence.

In what follows, tell the players that you are going to read some statements aloud (see additional game information for some examples). Each time they can answer "yes" to the statement (based on their character), they must take a step forward. If the answer is "no", they just stand.

Read the statements one by one. Give the players enough time to take a step forward or not after the statement.

After the exercise, the facilitator asks the players to turn around 180° and look at their final position. Then give the group a few minutes to step out of their roles, after which you can proceed to debrief.

Begin the debriefing by asking some evaluation/reflection questions (see additional game information for examples).

Extra game information

Supporting questions:

What was your childhood like?
What was the house you grew up in like?
What games did you play?
What kind of work did your parents do?
What does your daily life look like now?
Where, when and how do you socialise?
How would you describe your lifestyle?
How much money do you make per month?
What do you do when you are on holiday?

Example statements:

I grew up in a two-parent family.
It was always taken for granted that I would continue studying.
There were at least 20 books in my house.
I can show my love on the street.
I don't realise that my name can affect my application.
I am addressed by the police on the street because of my behaviour and not my appearance.
I have never been afraid of sexual harassment on the street.
My parents could give me the necessary support with my homework.
I can dress how I want.
I get time off for my cultural celebrations.
I can buy hair products in mainstream supermarkets.
I am judged by what I say and not the emotion behind it.
I can easily use public transport.
I have a place at home where I can relax.
I feel represented in the media.
I was not held back at all in primary and secondary school.
I feel connected to the government.
My teacher/boss has the same cultural background as me.
I still believe there is a bright future for the next generation.

Debriefing questions:

First, ask the players how the activity went and what they thought of it. Then talk about the issues that came up and what they learned from the exercise.
How did it feel to take a step forward, or not?
Talk to some people at the very back. When did they start to realise that the others were not following so quickly? Why did this happen?
Was it difficult or easy to play the different roles? How did they imagine the person they were playing?
Is this exercise a reflection of society?

The stories of the five characters poster show the storylines of the five main characters of the toolkit. The full storylines of the characters can be found in the appendix of the activity bundle. On the left-hand side of the panel, the main characters are shown with a QR code one can scan to listen to their story in different languages. Next to the characters, six green rights and six red rights are depicted. These icons show the main children's rights which are respected and violated in the story of the specific character. In order to interpret the children's rights icons, it might be useful to always have the children's rights overview panel with you.

All children's rights icons used on the posters are created by UNICEF for their child-friendly version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Specific learning objectives

Learning how to take the others’ perspective.
Learning about inequalities in society.

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