“No harm done”: Teachers’ humorous talk about children’s safety
issue cover
VIEW FULL TEXT HERE

Keywords

teachers
child safety
humour
interpretative repertoires
outdoor classrooms

How to Cite

Sullivan, R. K. (2014). “No harm done”: Teachers’ humorous talk about children’s safety. The European Journal of Humour Research, 2(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2014.2.1.sullivan

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the forms of humour employed by New Zealand primary school teachers when talking about childrens safety in the outdoor classroom. A discourse analysis, guided by the notion of interpretative repertoires (Potter & Wetherell 1990, 2004), suggests a tension between safe practice and enjoyment with humour as a mediating factor. Three repertoires were named from analysis: safe practitioner; adventurous risk-taker; fun, pleasure and excitement seeker. A surprising and unexpected aspect was the place of humour in teacherstalk, as analysis indicated that humour was an interpretative resource employed in all three repertoires. I suggest humour is a mechanism through which teachers negotiate and manage both providing for childrens enjoyable outdoor educational activities and ensuring their safety.

 

https://doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2014.2.1.sullivan
VIEW FULL TEXT HERE

References

Andkjær, S. (2012). ‘A cultural and comparative perspective on outdoor education in New Zealand and friluftsliv in Denmark’. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning 12 (2), pp. 121–136.

Bonaiuto, M., Castellana, E. & Pierro, A. (2003). ‘Arguing and laughing: The use of humor to negotiate in group discussions’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 16 (2), pp. 183–223.

Braun, V. (2008). ‘“She’ll be right”? National identity explanations for poor sexual health statistics in Aotearoa/New Zealand’. Social Science & Medicine 67(11), pp. 1817–1825.

Brown, M. & Fraser, D. (2009). ‘Re-evaluating risk and exploring educational alternatives’. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning 9 (1), pp. 61–77.

Breivik, G. (2007). ‘The quest for excitement and the safe society’, in McNamee, M. (ed.), Philosophy, Risk and Adventure Sports, London: Routledge, pp. 10–24.

Burr, V. (2003). Social Constructionism. (2nd edition). London: Routledge.

Christensen, P. & Mikkelsen, M. R. (2008). ‘Jumping off and being careful: Children’s strategies of risk management in everyday life’. Sociology of Health & Illness 30 (1), pp. 112–130.

Everts, E. L. (2003). ‘Identifying a particular family humor style: A sociolinguistic discourse analysis’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 16 (4), pp. 369–412.

Fine, G. A. & De Soucey, M. (2005). ‘Joking cultures: Humor themes as social regulation in group life’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18 (1), pp. 1–22.

Gubrium, J. F. & Holstein, J. A. (2003). ‘Analyzing interpretive practice’, in Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (eds.), Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, pp. 487–508.

Hill, A. (2010). ‘Reflections on beliefs and practices from New Zealand outdoor educators: Consistencies and conflicts’. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education 14 (1), pp. 30–40.

Kotthoff, H. (2006). ‘Pragmatics of performance and the analysis of conversational humor’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 19 (3), pp. 271–304.

Lupton, D. & Tulloch, J. (2002). ‘Risk is part of your life: Risk epistemologies among a group of Australians’. Sociology 36 (2), pp. 317–334.

McCreanor, T. & Nairn, R. (2002). ‘Tauiwi general practitioners’ talk about Maori health: Interpretative repertoires’. The New Zealand Medical Journal 115 (1167), pp. 1–8.

McKenzie, P. J. (2005). ‘Interpretative repertoires’, in Fisher, K. E., Erdelez, S. & McKechnie, L. E. F. (eds.), Theories of Information Behavior: A Researcher’s Guide, Medford, NJ: Information Today, pp. 221–224.

McLauchlan, G. (ed.). (1989). A History of New Zealand Humour. Auckland: Penguin Books.

Ministry of Education. (2009). EOTC Guidelines: Bringing the Curriculum Alive. Wellington: Learning Media.

Mulkay, M. J. & Gilbert, N. (1982). ‘Joking apart: Some recommendations concerning the analysis of scientific culture’. Social Studies of Science 12, pp. 585–613.

Mythen, G. (2007). ‘Reappraising the risk society thesis: Telescopic sight or myopic vision?’. Current Sociology 55 (6), pp. 793–813.

Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (1990). ‘Discourse: Noun, verb or social practice?’. Philosophical Psychology 3 (2/3), pp. 205–219.

Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (2004). ‘Analyzing discourse (1), (2), (3).’, in Yates, S. J. (ed.), Doing Social Science Research, London: Sage Publications, pp. 246–262.

Sanguinetti, J. (1999). ‘Teachers under pressure: Discursive positionings and micropractices of resistance’. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference, Melbourne, 29 November–2 December 1999.

Talja, S. (1999). ‘Analyzing qualitative interview data: The discourse analytic method’. Library and Information Science Research 21 (4), pp. 459–477.

Stainton Rogers, W. (2006). ‘Logics of enquiry’, in Potter, S. (ed.), Doing Postgraduate Research, London: Sage Publications, pp. 73–92.

Taylor, S. (2003). ‘A Place for the future? Residence and continuity in women’s narratives of their lives’. Narrative Inquiry 13 (1), pp. 193–215.

Tulloch, M. I. (2004). ‘Parental fear of crime: A discursive analysis’. Journal of Sociology 40 (4), pp. 362–377.

Tumkaya, S. (2007). ‘Burnout and humor relationship among university lecturers’. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 20 (1), pp. 73–92.

Vaughan, E. (2007). ‘I think we should just accept ... our horrible lowly status: Analysing teacher-teacher talk within the context of community practice’. Language Awareness 16 (3), pp. 173–188.

Warner, S. L. (1991). ‘Humour: A coping response for student nurses’. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing V (1), pp. 10–16.

Wattchow, B. & Brown, M. (2011). ‘Outdoor Education: Myths, dubious claims and the denial of place’, in (ed.), A Pedagogy of Place: Outdoor Education for a Changing World, Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, pp. 26–50.

Weisfeld, G. E. (1993). ‘The adaptive value of humour and laughter’. Ethology and Sociobiology 14, pp. 141–169.

Wetherell, M. (1998). ‘Positioning and interpretative repertoires: Conversation analysis and post-structuralism in dialogue’. Discourse & Society 9 (3), pp. 387–412.

All authors agree to an Attribution Non-Commercial Non Derivative Creative Commons License on their work.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.