Trust and Humourliation: How Can a Teacher's Use of Humour Cause Humiliation and Impact the Learner's Experience of Trust Within Higher Dance Education in China?

Trust plays a vital role in maintaining the operation of the education system, promoting educational reform, and improving learners' learning experience. However, in dance classrooms in China, learners' trust is being undermined by teachers' intentional or unintentional words and deeds. Teachers use humourliation (humourliation is my suggested idea of humour being used for humiliation) to convey the norms and standards of Chinese dance education but they ignore the impact of this expression on learners' trust experience. When this kind of humour interacts with China's education system and culture, its impact on learners' trust becomes more ambiguous and complex. Due to the private nature of humiliation, learners' similar experiences are not easy to detect and are difficult to value and respond to in the teaching process. This study explores the experience of humiliating humour among Chinese dance learners, analyses the complexity of this phenomenon, and further emphasises its impact on learners' trust experience. Therefore, the research question guiding this thesis is: How can a teacher's use of humour cause humiliation and impact the learner's experience of trust within higher dance education in China? This study used a qualitative approach to conduct semi-structured interviews with 12 learners who had Chinese dance learning experiences. Their narratives revealed the diversity of teachers' humourliation in terms of expression and its impact on learners' trust relationships and self-trust. These findings emphasise the importance of trust in the educational process, and humourliation may be a powerful factor in promoting learners' transformation from moralistic trust to strategic trust. It stimulates more isolation, exclusion, and self-doubt in the group and maintains authoritative pedagogy and hierarchical order, negatively impacting learners' relationships and self-cognition. At the same time, undermining learners' trust by teachers' humourliation may also become a potential obstacle to China's quality-oriented education reform. Therefore, this study provides insights for improving learners' learning experience and important references for China's current and similar education reforms worldwide.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Dance Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Nan, Tianzhi

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rowe, Nicholas

• Trust
• Humour
• Humiliation
• Higher Dance Education
• Teacher-Student Relationship
• China
• Learner Experience
• Pedagogy

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/73575

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/73575