Humour in educational settings

Humour is a multifaceted phenomenon which is very close to human existence. It is an umbrella term to represent complex humorous phenomena which is widely researched across disciplines. In the discipline of education, several theories have been devised to explain the use and impact of humour. There have been numerous studies about perception and impact of use of humour in educational settings abroad but there is a dearth in the context of India. Hence, there is a need to abridge this investigative gap. To address this, objectives were formed to study teachers’ perception about use and impact of humour in educational settings in its various dimensions such as teaching, learning, testing, school environment and leadership or administration. Another objective was to study teachers’ understanding about different types of humour used in educational settings and its appropriateness. To study these objectives in detailed and enriching manner, the qualitative approach was used. For it, 25 teachers were interviewed in Bhagalpur district of Bihar state, India. Objective wise data analysis was done. All teachers reported that they use humour frequently or occasionally in the educational settings and its appropriate use had a positive impact on teaching, learning, assessment, leadership and overall school environment. Four cases of different types of humour, i.e., spontaneous, planned, content-related and content-unrelated humour were presented to teachers to gauge the understanding about them and their appropriateness of use, to which teachers gave a variety of responses.