In this inquiry, I explore, expose, and extrapolate upon sociopolitical and environmental absurdism as an environmental academic and educator based in Alberta, Canada--a well-known, and somewhat infamous, centre of oil and gas production and energy development in general. Moving beyond Alberta as a catalytic example, I introduce and discuss…

Using multimodal conversation analysis, this study closely examines moments when an instructor's embodied explanations elicit laughter from his students -- which we refer to as laughing moments -- in an English as a second language classroom. Such laughing moments can exhibit students' attention to the teacher's explanation and also illuminate…

Teachers' content-related humor matters for the quality of higher education. However, little is known about the circumstances under which teachers use it. From a socio-cognitive perspective, teachers' achievement goals and self-efficacy appear to be relevant personal precursors. We investigated their effects on content-related humor in two…

Research on humour in second language classrooms has widely focused on the roles, social functions and markers of humour in interaction; however, little attention has been paid to the sequential mechanisms of humour and the relationship between repair and humour. Therefore, drawing on a conversation analytic approach, this study investigates…

Teacher emotions are important yet understudied in the classroom. The current study explores how teachers manage their emotions in the classroom. More specifically, we apply the five feeling rules that describe how college instructors' emotional labor performances shape their experiences in the classroom. Through a qualitative theoretical thematic…

This study (N = 326) was conducted to examine the associations among instructor humor, inappropriate conversations, and instructional dissent. First, results showed students are more likely to employ rhetorical dissent when they perceive their instructors as humorous in the classroom. Second, using expectancy violations theory as a guide, results…

This study examines lecturers' and learners' perceptions on humor use in Tunisian tertiary classrooms, focusing specifically on the English major. The ultimate aim is to explore the types and frequency of humor use on the one hand and whether teachers regard humor in the same light as their students on the other. To this purpose, a mixed-methods…

Instructors use humor in the classroom in numerous ways, including behaving stupidly, offering impersonations, manipulating their nonverbals, telling a story, joke, or pun, and using a costume or prop. How students decode their instructors' use of humor impacts their feelings about the course and their instructors. In this study, we investigated…

English-medium instruction classes in higher education are increasing in countries where English is not the first language. Though these courses offer advantages, they also offer concerns and challenges. One of these challenges is creating a rapport between a teacher and students who are working in a language that is not their own. Rapport is…

Authority is one of the most problematic and ambiguous concepts in social and educational theory. Authority is a relation that is based on disparities of knowledge, expertise or experience. Drawing on teaching observations and interviews with undergraduate students and lecturers about their experiences of large-group teaching, I argue that in…

In classrooms in India where the instructional language is to be English, speakers use reported speech in Indian regional languages for pedagogical purposes, renegotiating the roles and statuses among languages in the multilingual setting. Reported speech is a form of indirect speech used when a speaker quotes another in a way that they voice the…

Despite its popularity among students, terrorism is a sensitive and emotive topic that is difficult to learn, and challenging to teach. Given the lack of a simple definition, terrorism is hard to explain objectively and comprehensively. Perceptually value-laden and provocative, it can reinforce stereotypes and prejudices against a group of people…

Given the loss of heritage languages due to assimilation of the dominant English language in U.S. society within three generations of migration to the U.S. (Wiley & Valdes, 2000), it is of paramount importance to examine how we can maintain and enhance heritage languages. Humor is a pragmatic tool which one can utilize to increase…

This article describes a Microsoft Excel-based application that uses humorous voice synthesis and timed competition to make it more fun and engaging to learn management science decision criteria. In addition to providing immediate feedback and easily customizable tips that facilitate self-learning, the software randomly generates both the problem…

Background: There is some evidence that humor can be used effectively in teaching, to maintain student interest in the material and potentially to reduce academic stress. Purpose: To examine the relationship between students' appreciation of a professor's use of humor and course evaluations. Methods: 128 undergraduate and graduate students…