What Does a Joyful, Justice-Centered Classroom Look Like

It would be good for doctoral students to learn to create joyful, justice-centered classrooms. Doctoral students, in Ed.D. program are being trained to work as educational professionals. One thing they must learn is that in today’s educational environment, educators in K through 12, have a dual imperative to teach for joy and to have classrooms where justice, critical consciousness, and transformation can take place. Teaching for joy can mean that educators teaching for engagement, to satisfy curiosity, and affirmation. Justice in the classroom can be thought of as a combination of things like equity, critical consciousness, and transformation.

When one hears the word joy, they may think the notion is frivolous and lacking in seriousness. But those notions are far from the truth. All human beings, even educators are entitled to joy in their work. Educators who do find joy in their work are more likely to continue in their work over the long haul. They are also more likely to weather the inevitable storms that come when one works in education. Joyful educators should be thought of as the goal, not as something to avoid. Justice is a goal that should be the aim of every profession. Educators should aspire to have justice in their classrooms. When students learn in classrooms where justice is the norm, they are more likely to seek out and work for justice in all areas of their lives.

Doctoral student can see this article as a way of navigating the balance between joy and justice in the classroom, in their dissertations, and in their community work.

We Must Have Joyful, Justice-Centered Classrooms

Doctoral students need to be taught that they do not need to choice between rigor and joy or justice and celebration in their educational practice. They should also be taught the ideas of joy and justice in educational practice is not something new or part of a “woke” agenda. Scholars have been pushing this idea and ideas like it since before the 1970s. To support this idea, doctoral students should look towards the work of scholars like Bettina Love, bell hooks, and Paulo Freire to support the idea that there is no need to make those binary choices. Love for example pushed for teaching methods that allowed students to thrive and not merely survive on their educational journeys (Love, 2019). Hooks advocated for education to be seen as a liberatory practice and emphasized the need for an engaged pedagogy that honored student voice, emotional well-being , and critical thinking (Hooks, 1994). Freire, (1970) introduced the idea of critical pedagogy as a dialogic, student-centered approach that challenged oppression while cultivating critical consciousness. The work of these scholars make room for the argument that joy can be a form of resistance and justice can be a source of joy.

I recall a friend telling me a story about an incident in her doctoral program. Her program, unlike mine, had a seminar on equity in education. The program was rigorous and involved a lot of reflective narrative work. Classroom discussions centered on how joy and justice could inform curriculum policy and practice. Student assignments involved analysis of how race, class, gender, nationality and the like shaped educational access and outcomes. Students were encouraged to reflect on their own identities and experiences as educators, researchers, and community members. One of the class assignments required students to bring in artifacts that represented resistance in their communities. One student brought in a video of her young daughter reciting Langston Hughes, “I, Too.” The student said she brought the video because it showed that justice doesn’t have to be harsh and serious. It could be hopeful, funny, and joyous. This is just the idea we are trying to convey in this article, doctoral students need to learn that in their classrooms, and in their educational practice, there is room for both joy and justice.

Challenges of Balancing Joy and Justice in the Classroom

Doctoral students face a multitude of common tensions that must be successfully navigated. These tensions include:

Institutional constraints such as standardized curricula, grading policies, and assignment due dates
Burnout and institutional labor
Navigating student resistance
Balancing personal responsibilities with professional expectations

One way of managing these tensions is journaling. The act of journaling enables doctoral students to process their feelings and emotions about situations. Once the feelings and emotions are in the journal, the student can then reflect upon what they meant and how those feelings and emotions can be used to navigate situations in the future. Journaling also enables the doctoral student to keep a real time record. When the student reads the journal entry after some time has passed, they will be able to identify common themes and occurrences. This analysis and identification may prove useful in planning how to handle similar feelings and emotions in the future.

Strategies for Creating a Joyful, Justice-Centered Classroom

The use of inclusive language, flexible formats, and co-created norms can help create a joyful, justice-centered classroom environment. Inclusive language involves gender-neutral terms such as “they” instead of “he/she.” It also includes avoid deficit based language like “limited proficiency” and instead uses terms like “emerging bilingual speaker.” When one uses inclusive language they name systems of oppression like racism, ableism, and colonialism instead of using vague euphemisms, such as cultural misunderstanding, special needs, and Western influence.” This matters because it helps students develop a sense of belonging and makes their identities visible. Flexible formats means offering multiple ways for students to access content, demonstrate learning, and participate in class. This matters because it honors access needs, life circumstances and access needs. Co-created norms are agreements developed collaboratively with students to guide accountability, shared values, and interaction. This mattes because it fosters a sense of shared responsibility for the learning environment.

Embedding joyful routines in the classroom can to create joy and justice in the classroom. This ca be done by use of gratitude journals, storytelling, and creative writing prompts. Permitting students to celebrate small wins will also help create joy and justice in the classroom. To achieve these goals, educators can center justice in context and process. This ca be done by using culturally sustaining texts and example or by facilitating critical dialogue ad inquiry-based learning. The use of feedback loops, journaling and feedback loops are a way of using iterative course design to bring joy and justice into the classroom. Finally by modeling vulnerability and growth educators can bring joy and justice to their classrooms.

Implications for Research and Dissertation Work

With this article, we encourage doctoral students to apply this lens to their own research. Doctoral students should ask, how “how does my methodology honor joy and justice?” or “do my research questions have roots in liberation, healing, or transformation?” It is possible to write a dissertation that balances rigor with relationality. Rigor with rationality looks like using qualitative or mixed methods with clear epistemological grounding. It includes centering participant voices, reflexivity, and contextual depth. This can be accomplished by maintaining transparency while honoring emotional, cultural, and ethical nuances.

Let’s examine these ideas in practice. My disseration, was entitled, “We Love Our Kids Too: Black Parents Supporting the Academic Success of Their Children in Affluent, Predominantly White School Districts,”

Theoretical Framework: Endarkened Feminist epistemology

Methodology: Endarkened narrative inquiry

Relationality: Centered the experiences of Black parents, whose narratives are often pathologized, and through thick rich descriptions showed the value of those parental voices

Rigor: I anchored my dissertation research in endarkened feminist epistemology which challenges dominant paradigms by centering Black knowledge, traditions, and ancestral wisdom. The framework itself is rigorous and demands critical reflexivity, ethical accountability, and ontological clarity. The research also used layered storytelling, counter-storytelling and dialogic engagement which required disciplined attention to voice, context, and meaning making. The research design foregrounded Black parental agency in an affluent predominantly white school district, a population that is often marginalized in educational research.

Scholarly Contribution: this research contributed to critical race parenting scholarship, educational equity, and narrative justice. This research expanded the canon and offered methodological innovation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is essential that doctoral student learn that joy and justice are not endpoints. Instead, they are daily practices that every educator should make part of their educational practice. Doctoral students should see themselves as architects of possibility. Each day, educators and doctoral students should ask daily, “what does a joyful, justice-centered classroom look like in my hands?”

References

Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). New York: Continuum

Hooks, B. (2014). Teaching to transgress. Routledge.

Love, Bettina L. We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon press, 2019.