Humor in Social Education

Humor is an invaluable tool for social education. In this very interesting article, discover why!

Currently, the value of humor to our personal and even work lives is no secret. Social sciences, and more specifically social education, have laughter and humor in high esteem. The thing is that humor in social education is a very important tool to enrich the teaching-learning process.

Humor as a strategy

Social educators can act in many diverse contexts. One of the areas that belong to social education is sociocultural animation. Social education has always manifested the importance of leisure, laughter, and humor to deal with conflicts.

Anna Forés and Ana María Novella are committed to applying humor as an educational tool. For them, humor represents another way to deal with life and everyday events.

Social education professionals pose the challenge of applying humor in the social educator’s work, as an educational strategy and a source of well-being. The goal is to help control and resolve conflicts.

According to Jesús Damián Fernández, PhD in Pedagogy, the place humor occupies in social education should express an intention, goals, and content that aim to achieve the previously designed educational purposes.

In other words, we should consider humor to be a didactic element that can promote and establish the ideal environment for effective learning.

The benefits of humor in social education

Humor facilitates the work of social educators. It’s an ideal tool to relieve tensions and observe conflicts from different perspectives. In addition, it’s the most effective tool to reach people and empathize with the most vulnerable groups.

On the other hand, doctor Ramon Mora described the benefits of humor and laughter at a cognitive level:

• Firstly, it boosts self-esteem and well-being in general.
• Reduces stress and the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
• Also, it improves mood.
• Enhances memory and the ability to solve problems.
• Improves the quality of interpersonal relationships.
• Finally, it increases collaboration and facilitates group identity.

From another point of view, one could say that humor leads to maturity. Thanks to the sense of humor, you can analyze everyday problems from a different perspective. This means that it helps you better understand your environment and the world around you.

According to Fernández, humor allows you to interpret reality from new perspectives. In other words, it allows you to analyze and question your reality from different viewpoints.

In addition to helping you face and solve conflicts in a more effective way, humor builds resilience. Humor makes you stronger and allows you to face failures and evaluate them constructively. Thus, it helps you adapt to adversity.

Ultimately, the value of humor in social education lies in its potential to improve people’s well-being and their adaptive response to conflict. And, finally, it can be used as a tool to stimulate the teaching-learning process and, thus, facilitate the achievement of the basic goal of social education: the inclusion of people in their social environments.