Compering and comparing: stand‐up comedy and pedagogy

Abstract

The central argument of this paper is that adopting some of the techniques practised by stand‐up comedians can help teachers in higher education challenge students in ways that will ultimately improve the student learning experience overall. It will suggest that developing co‐dependent relationships and over‐engaging with students is disabling rather than enabling. Instead it will suggest that it is helpful to use ‘strategies of omission’ that result in challenge to students and promote disjunction in their lives which in turn promotes the development of criticality. However, we need to stress from the outset that the paper has nothing at all to do with comedy. This paper is offered as practitioner investigation, making use of the practitioners’ stories of their experience as data.