Abstract
The main aim of the contribution is to present findings gained from qualitative research study in secondary education, which was focused on manifestations of humour in art education. Firstly, the research findings will be described.
Secondly, they will be interpreted in the context of cultural education and the political aspects of the theme will be accentuated. With humour, we can fight against mechanical communication between teachers and pupils who are at risk of becoming passive performers of institutionally-defined roles (Mareš, Křivohlavý 1995).
Humour may have a positive impact on learning and teaching. It causes divergent mental associations, maintains pupil's attention, helps to store information in long-term memory, deepens motivation to participate in the process of education (Šeďová, 2013; Bell, Pomerantz, 2016).
Some benefits of humour are described also for art education (Sheri Klein, 2013, Evans-Palmer, 2010). The main objective of the research realized in 2017 was to map the character of humour utilized in art education on the sample of 36 lessons at 3 schools of secondary education (Czech Republic).
The main research question was chosen: "What manifestations of humour can be observed in art lessons?" The data were collected with the aid of participant observation, interviews and photo documentation. Thanks to Mayringˊs Qualitative Content Analysis (Mayring, 2000; Uhl Skřivanová, 2011) three categories of humorous manifestations were defined: 1) humour connected to subject matter and process of education; 2) humour connected to picture, its interpretation and its creation; 3) humour in classroom as in a social group.
On the basis of qualitative research study and the examples of observed humorous manifestations two themes can be opened for discussion: 1) reflection of visual and verbal forms of humour can be considered as a part of cultural education; 2) humour shared during lessons of art education can provoke political discussion.