In 1984, in her essay The Uses of the erotic, Audre Lorde states:
The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference
Ten years later, Bell Hooks asserts
The first paradigm that shaped my pedagogy was the idea that the classroom should be an exciting place, never boring. […] Neither Freire’s work nor feminist pedagogy examined the notion of pleasure in the classroom.
This year Camfied, has edited a whole book about Joy Centered Pedagogy which she argues:
joy-centered pedagogy promotes intellectual vigor and disrupts those aspects of traditional notions of rigor that suggest learning should hurt.
All three of these women are hugely influential on my teaching and facilitation practice, I strongly believe joy enhances the possibilities of the classroom becoming the equitable utopian space that it has the potential to be. There are currently so many challenges to bringing pleasure, excitement and joy into our classrooms: noisy open plan spaces, exhausted students and staff, rigid curriculums. An art school should be a space full of excitement, play and curiosity, but so often it is instead one of stress, deadlines and anxiety. The art school, and perhaps universities in general have become professionalised to such an extent that it is hard for students to feel free to play when there is so much pressure to perform. The opposite of joy isn’t suffering; it’s numbness, sometimes inviting joy into a space is to invite all feelings. Creating a space where students grief and anger is also welcome opens the door to joy.
I want to look in one of my case studies into strategies for making my teaching more joyful.
Reference:
hooks, b. 1994. Teaching to Transgress : Education As the Practice of Freedom, Taylor & Francis Group.
Lorde, Audre, 1984. “Uses of Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” in Sister Outsider. The Crossing Press
Camfield, EK, 2025. Joy Centered Pedagogy in Higher Education: Uplifting teaching and learning for all, Taylor & Francis Group.