No Funny Business: Instructor Humour as Pedagogical Leadership in Transformational Teaching

Humour can shape classroom dynamics, yet its pedagogical significance depends on how students interpret its instructional and relational meaning. This study examines how instructors’ use of course-related and self-disparaging humour relates to students’ perceptions of transformational teaching, and whether these relationships vary as a function of students’ educational orientations. Drawing on Instructional Humour Processing Theory (IHPT) and transformational teaching frameworks, we conceptualize instructional humour as a social-cognitive cue that students may use to infer instructional relevance and relational approachability. Using hierarchical regression analyses of survey data from 362 Canadian undergraduate business students, both humour types were positively associated with perceptions of transformational teaching (course-related B = 1.67, p < .001; self-disparaging B = 0.77, p = .001). A small interaction indicated that the positive association between self-disparaging humour and transformational teaching was weaker among students high in learning orientation ( B = −0.06, p = .044). Grade orientation did not moderate either relationship. These findings suggest that instructional humour is associated with transformational teaching perceptions in ways consistent with both instructional relevance and relational interpretation, while the association involving self-disparaging humour appears more contingent on student motivation. The study integrates IHPT with leadership-based teaching models and suggests that instructors’ use of humour as a pedagogical leadership behaviour may require calibration to students’ motivational orientations.