Humour or humiliation? When classroom banter becomes irresponsible sledging in upper-primary school contexts

ABSTRACT

In a global context where children are increasingly exposed to hostile humour in cartoons like Adventure Time and Spongebob Squarepants, it is not surprising that we see this play out in school settings. More concerning, however, is how teachers can misuse their position of power to wield such forms of humour against students who dare to question their authority. This paper draws on ethnographic data from three regional Australian primary schools to address how the performative violence of hostile ‘humour’ is enacted by male teachers at the expense of less violent and more ‘responsible’ alternatives. I employ gender-based theories and literature to argue that hostile humour is another mechanism through which hierarchies of hegemonic masculinity are maintained and ‘the top dog’ (or teacher) is positioned to have the last laugh.

KEYWORDS:

• gender
• masculinity
• discourse
• humour
• responsibility
• primary school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 School and participant names have been changed to pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natasha Penelope Wardman

Natasha Penelope Wardman has been teaching at the tertiary level since 2009 on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate, face-to-face and online units. Her background is in primary education and her PhD focused on student understandings and experiences of responsibility in upper-primary school contexts. Her teaching and research interests include gender, ethics, social justice and the cultural politics of education with the aim of empowering teachers to navigate the changing educational terrain and envisage new and more inclusive ways forward.