Humor as a critical affective practice with multilingual learners

In this article, we draw from studies across 2 US classrooms to show how teachers construct humor with multilingual learners as a critical affective practice that repositions students’ linguistic and cultural resources as assets. In particular, we highlight 3 ways in which humor was created through: (1) the intentional use of playful text that centers multilingual students’ funds of knowledge; (2) teachers’ playful appropriation of students’ classroom talk; and (3) dramatized, embodied performance attuned to multilingual learners’ language proficiencies. We argue that humor, as a critical affective practice, allows teachers to disrupt restrictive norms and power relations that often alienates multilingual learners in schools, and instead, fosters joyful, reciprocal relationships that affirm students’ identities and work to interrupt subtractive schooling.