title: ‘Are You ‘Avin a Laff?’: A pedagogical response to Bakhtinian carnivalesque in early childhood education

authors: White, Elizabeth Jayne

subjects: Bakhtin

abstract: Rabelaian carnivalesque provided philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin with a means of exploring the significance of humour through an examination of Middle Age peasant culture and the influence of the Renaissance on its legitimacy. This article argues that a similar phenomenon exists in modern educational settings and provides evidence to suggest that very young children are highly capable of working within this genre as a strategic orientation. It is proposed that the role of the early childhood teacher within this ‘underground culture’ is to be a dialogic partner who recognizes their dual horizontal and vertical roles as both insider and outsider: appreciating humour with children but expecting (and celebrating) the child’s position within a distinct culture that necessarily resides outside officialdom. In doing so, the article concludes that teachers will gain deeper appreciation of the important role of humour as a means of positioning the self within institutions characterized by power dynamics that are typically beyond the young child’s control. Moreover, the teacher has greater opportunities to recognize the potential of humour as a form of social mobility and agency on the part of the child.

text: ‘Are You ‘Avin a Laff?’: A pedagogical response to Bakhtinian carnivalesque in early childhood education Rabelaian carnivalesque provided philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin with a means of exploring the significance of humour through an examination of Middle Age peasant culture and the influence of the Renaissance on its legitimacy. This article argues that a similar phenomenon exists in modern educational settings and provides evidence to suggest that very young children are highly capable of working within this genre as a strategic orientation. It is proposed that the role of the early childhood teacher within this ‘underground culture’ is to be a dialogic partner who recognizes their dual horizontal and vertical roles as both insider and outsider: appreciating humour with children but expecting (and celebrating) the child’s position within a distinct culture that necessarily resides outside officialdom. In doing so, the article concludes that teachers will gain deeper appreciation of the important role of humour as a means of positioning the self within institutions characterized by power dynamics that are typically beyond the young child’s control. Moreover, the teacher has greater opportunities to recognize the potential of humour as a form of social mobility and agency on the part of the child.

year: 2013

title: Ballycross RFC: Sectarianism, masculinity and racism in a Northern Irish rugby club

authors: Kavanagh, Thomas Richard

subjects: Ethnography

abstract: This thesis is a study of Ballycross RFC, a rugby club in Northern Ireland. With a history of violent conflict and a society that remains largely segregated by religion, politics, education and housing, Northern Ireland provided a dynamic and complex context to this season-long ethnography. 
As a British sport, rugby has traditionally been a Protestant domain and the Catholic minority population at the club were made very aware of this. Through the use of banter, sectarian statements that sought to maintain the status quo were justified with disclaimers of humour. A male-only environment, the rugby club provided members of Ballycross RFC with multiple discourses of masculinity. Problematic performances were frequent, but there was also evidence of more positive masculine identities. As an all-white club in a country with little ethnic diversity, I explore how discourses of whiteness function to highlight and ‘other’ those from different ethnic groups, and simultaneously strengthen in-group bonds. 
Playing, training and socialising as a full member of the club, I utilised participant observation, focus groups and semi-structured interviews to understand the experiences of Ballycross RFC members. Through the use of a novella, I attempt to represent my experiences at Ballycross RFC and the complex, fluid, and at times contradictory issues of politics and identity in a Northern Irish rugby club.

text: Ballycross RFC: Sectarianism, masculinity and racism in a Northern Irish rugby club This thesis is a study of Ballycross RFC, a rugby club in Northern Ireland. With a history of violent conflict and a society that remains largely segregated by religion, politics, education and housing, Northern Ireland provided a dynamic and complex context to this season-long ethnography. 
As a British sport, rugby has traditionally been a Protestant domain and the Catholic minority population at the club were made very aware of this. Through the use of banter, sectarian statements that sought to maintain the status quo were justified with disclaimers of humour. A male-only environment, the rugby club provided members of Ballycross RFC with multiple discourses of masculinity. Problematic performances were frequent, but there was also evidence of more positive masculine identities. As an all-white club in a country with little ethnic diversity, I explore how discourses of whiteness function to highlight and ‘other’ those from different ethnic groups, and simultaneously strengthen in-group bonds. 
Playing, training and socialising as a full member of the club, I utilised participant observation, focus groups and semi-structured interviews to understand the experiences of Ballycross RFC members. Through the use of a novella, I attempt to represent my experiences at Ballycross RFC and the complex, fluid, and at times contradictory issues of politics and identity in a Northern Irish rugby club.

year: 2019

title: Nobody knows me even though I’m always there: Why Māori men do exist - in all the wrong places

authors: Stanley, Paul

subjects: Maori

abstract: In the study of psychology, Māori men are often only seen as the perpetrators of the problems. There is very little focus on finding solutions for Māori men, with Māori men. In the top eight causes of death for Māori males aged 15 to 24 are car crashes, homicide, and suicide. With respect to car crashes, there is a close link between alcohol-related car crashes and suicide. As a nation, we should be concerned with all of the above issues, as each of them is preventable. Invariably, we fail see the deaths of these young men as warning signs of much wider issues about why they wanted to die, or why they felt the need to kill someone close to themselves. The argument tendered in this paper is that the same way in which Māori as a group have been researched, as being “the problem”, equally applies to the way in which Māori men have continued to be have been researched: Māori men are only ever portrayed as “the problem” and are never portrayed as part of a solution subjected to this process as well. The lyrics of a well known song by UB40, One in Ten, exemplify this notion of being unknown, even though Māori men do exist in Aotearoa.

text: Nobody knows me even though I’m always there: Why Māori men do exist - in all the wrong places In the study of psychology, Māori men are often only seen as the perpetrators of the problems. There is very little focus on finding solutions for Māori men, with Māori men. In the top eight causes of death for Māori males aged 15 to 24 are car crashes, homicide, and suicide. With respect to car crashes, there is a close link between alcohol-related car crashes and suicide. As a nation, we should be concerned with all of the above issues, as each of them is preventable. Invariably, we fail see the deaths of these young men as warning signs of much wider issues about why they wanted to die, or why they felt the need to kill someone close to themselves. The argument tendered in this paper is that the same way in which Māori as a group have been researched, as being “the problem”, equally applies to the way in which Māori men have continued to be have been researched: Māori men are only ever portrayed as “the problem” and are never portrayed as part of a solution subjected to this process as well. The lyrics of a well known song by UB40, One in Ten, exemplify this notion of being unknown, even though Māori men do exist in Aotearoa.

year: 2003