Elevating Joy in Education Through an Investigation of How Teachers and School Leaders Make Learning Joyful

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Centering the Perspectives of School Counselors and Instructional Leaders (Table 2)

Abstract

With the current context facilitating an invitation to reimagine education, the underexplored construct of joy has the potential to serve as the factor to cultivate positive learning environments and lifelong learners. The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers and school leaders foster joy in their students. Using a survey research design among a population of elementary teachers in a school district with an initiative on joy, this study will explore the degree to which connections among the teacher's level of joy, the classroom's level of joy, the school's level of joy, teacher efforts, instructional decisions, and administrative supports exist in this context. The results of this study will offer a new blueprint for the facilitation of joy in the classroom and reveal the relationship between teacher and school leader efforts and joy.

Author

• Stephanie L. McGuire, Loudoun County Public Schools
  Presenting Author