They, Too, Deserve Justice and Joy: Learning Through Affective Economies in Justice-Centered Classrooms

• In Event: Grounded in Justice and Joy: Critical Empirical and Conceptual Explorations of Affect

Abstract

Long-standing inequities continue to challenge the field of education (Cookson, 2013; Darling-Hammond & Darling-Hammond, 2022; Milner, 2010) as scholars investigate the promises of justice-oriented education (Bell & Sealey-Ruiz, 2023). Yet little scholarship addresses the affective experiences of youth in justice-oriented learning environments (Davis & Schaeffer, 2019). This paper analyzes data from three distinct studies of justice-oriented learning sites, revealing the tensions borne by complex pedagogical aims; specifically, those that courageously bring joy and justice together. Our inquiry highlights how constraints may be integrated into justice-orientations, resulting in educators unintentionally foreclosing opportunities for joy. By attending to experiences that constitute an interplay between joy and justice, we seek to excavate the nature of decisions educators make to nurture joy as part of the work towards justice.

We first draw on Rogoff’s (1995) use of Vygotsky’s concept of levels of learning activity alongside a sociocultural lens (Nasir & Hand, 2006). We attune to elements within learning spaces–from a concern with cultural practices as a unit of analysis, tools and artifacts as mediating action, and social relations. Second, Ahmed’s (2004) affective economies provides consideration of both social interactions and negotiations of power on the affective plane together. Finally, eudaimonia (flourishing or living well) (Michalos, 2017) places the person experiencing eudaimonia in a social context with healthy relationality as a necessary component. Bridging these concepts enables attunement to situated interactions, their affective material consequences of justice and inequity, and their expansive learning possibilities.

We aggregate various ethnographic field observation data from three distinct studies; examining the affective experiences of young people as they participate in justice-oriented learning programs. We first performed a narrative inquiry analysis (Clandinin, 2006) on interviews and field notes to understand the justice orientations of each, followed by interactional analysis (Erickson, 1985) which revealed the prioritization of opportunities for joy. In this manner we were able to analyze for the emergence of patterns and come to a more nuanced interpretation of how justice discourses were related to the emergence of joyful learning experiences.

Preliminary findings indicate that when the justice orientations of practitioners are limited to supporting youths’ success within existing structures of power, they may inadvertently constrain opportunities for joyful, expressive learning and development. Conversely we found that when justice orientations are conceived as a process of actualization jointly enacted by youth and educators, full affective engagement is also palpably present. All three studies highlight instances of joy that were substantively connected to the process of seeking more just futures. These findings offer insight into what can be learned about the role of joy in guiding the field’s ongoing efforts to honor the potential of all students.

This research contributes to the ongoing examination of conditions and practices that undergird and mediate more substantial forms of sustainable justice in educational spaces. We highlight joy as a proleptic, world-building aspect of social justice oriented educational projects. Employing theoretically grounded qualitative methods, we seek pathways for practical designs that value joy as a necessary component in ameliorating long-standing educational debt.

Authors

• Aukeem A. Ballard, University of California - Berkeley

• Jorge Eduardo Garcia, Stanford University

• Meg Elena Escudé, University of California - Berkeley