Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education
Committee Chair
Kathleen Wallace, Ed.D.
2nd Reader
Maureen Ruby, DMD, Ph.D.
3rd Reader
Demetria Walters, Ed.D.
Abstract
Educators’ emotional well-being plays a crucial role in shaping classroom environments, student-teacher relationships, and disciplinary responses; yet it remains an often-overlooked factor in addressing school inequities. This study emphasizes the importance of joyous pedagogy as a key element of educator well-being by examining whether cultivating joy could positively impact teachers’ responses to student behavior, enhance classroom relationships, and decrease their reliance on exclusionary discipline practices that disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic students. Guided by the principles of improvement science and grounded in the PERMA model of well-being, this mixed-methods correlational study was conducted as a six-week professional learning intervention aimed at evaluating the impact of educator joy on student behavioral practices at a diverse middle school. Quantitative data included daily ecological momentary assessments of joy, discipline referral records, and a PERMA Profiler, while qualitative data were collected through focus groups, participants’ journal entries, and exit interviews. Quantitative findings revealed a statistically significant negative correlation between educator joy and exclusionary discipline incidents (r = –0.786, p < 0.001), indicating that increases in educator joy were associated with decreases in exclusionary discipline incidents. The PERMA Profiler results showed significant growth in the areas of positive emotion, meaning, and accomplishment, with smaller or inconsistent changes in engagement and relationships. Qualitative findings highlighted factors that impacted educator joy, including student behavior, student-teacher relationships, collegial support, personal factors, and workload. The results revealed that joy, often classified as a positive emotion within the PERMA framework, is a uniquely powerful and transformative force in advancing educational equity and should be integrated across all dimensions of PERMA. This study contributes to the growing body of research on joy in education by demonstrating its ability to enhance educator well-being while offering a pathway from exclusionary discipline practices toward more equitable learning environments.
Recommended Citation
Collins, T. N. (2025). The power of joy in education: Exploring the impact of joyous pedagogy on exclusionary discipline at a diverse middle school [Doctoral dissertation, Sacred Heart University]. https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/edd/71/
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Comments
Presented to the Faculty of Sacred Heart University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education