Patches of Joy: Reimagining Teacher Agency Through Art-Informed Inquiry

Abstract

Joy-centred pedagogy is often dismissed as an “add-on” to serious teaching; however, in deficit-driven policy climates, educators increasingly describe schooling as scripted, dehumanizing, and joyless. This qualitative study examines how joy can be intentionally cultivated in teacher education as an embodied resource for agency, justice, and sustainability. Situated within narrative a/r/tography, this research draws on arts-informed inquiry in a graduate-level teacher education course in which participants created collage-based “patches and quilts” to render their teaching identities through visual metaphor and written reflection. Analysis of this multimodal corpus revealed four interrelated dimensions of joy as both affect and action: (a) inward renewal through reflective identity work; (b) refusal and navigation amid systemic constraints, including high-stakes testing and prescriptive curricula; (c) justice-oriented commitments, including Black joy and culturally sustaining approaches to language and culture; and (d) enacted pedagogy through practices that centre student voice, belonging, and creative, critical literacies. Findings suggest that arts-based inquiry creates a third-space sanctuary where educators can name harm, collectively carry tension, and reimagine rigour as academic vigour. In dialogue with Gay (2022) and Lorde, this study positions joy-centred pedagogy as a disciplined, justice-bound practice that transforms affect into agentic, humanizing teaching.