Laughing matters: humour as advocacy in education for the disabled

Abstract

Humour is an advocacy tool used by women organisers in Sāmoa, an Independent State in the Pacific. Examining the use of humour (jokes, sarcasm, banter, and clowning) in social action research reveal creative ways that advocates and activists can challenge systems of normalcy. This paper examines humour as an informal conversational and non-confrontational strategy used by (non)disabled Indigenous women to support the creation of schools for disabled students. Thematic analysis of the data shows that the women’s use of humour supports their agenda of transforming exclusive structures in education and policy. Using humour as an organising strategy also shifts mainstream thinking about disabled people as easy targets of offensive and degrading humour. The paper explores humour as an organising strategy that provides new supports into inclusive spaces for the education of disabled people in the global South.

Keywords:

• Ableist
• disability
• humour
• joking
• Sāmoa

Notes

1. The term ‘disabled’ is used as opposed to ‘people with disabilities’ to acknowledge the identity marker that most women in this study prioritised. They remark that disability is intrinsic to their identities and a source of pride. ‘Ableism’ refers to discrimination against people with disabilities and favouring of people who are able-bodied based on the belief that disabled people are inferior. Hehir (2002) suggests that educational programmes can counteract ableism by acknowledging disability within diversity programmes and helping disabled students develop in more.

2. Aoga Fiamalamalama (loosely translated to English as School of Better Understandings) and Loto Taumafai (School of Trying Your Best,) non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the late 1970s and were the only educational settings identified with intellectual and physical disabilities.

3. Humour is broadly defined in this essay to include joking, clowning, satire, sarcastic phrases, and laughter.

4. Petelo Taavaomaalii and Molioo ‘Sumeo’ Si’itia.

5. www.SamoanMusicAndVideo.com, retrieved November 29, 2014. The women organisers incorporated the cultural expectations and rules of engagement similar to the fono or formal chiefly meetings. As a result, the women used humour and jokes in informal spaces drawing on cultural protocols for hierarchy and respect to offset a more direct response to exclusion but also garner support for their cause (Simanu-Klutz 2011).

6. Samoa is composed of different islands groups from American Samoa, a U.S. unincorporated territory. After WWI, the Samoan archipelago was divided between the United States and Germany. The eastern islands were under American US Navy Administration, while the western islands then called Western Samoa, now called Samoa, were under German rule, and then New Zealand administration. Samoa became the first Pacific island to decolonize & gain independence in 1962 (Meleisea 1987).

7. For more information on Pacific Disability Forum, checkhttp://www.pacificdisability.org/What-We-Do/Capacity-Building.aspx.