ABSTRACT
Rabelaian carnivalesque provided philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin with a means of exploring
the significance of humour through an examination of Middle Age peasant culture and the
influence of the Renaissance on its legitimacy. This article argues that a similar phenomenon
exists in modern educational settings and provides evidence to suggest that very young
children are highly capable of working within this genre as a strategic orientation. It is
proposed that the role of the early childhood teacher within this ‘underground culture’ is to be
a dialogic partner who recognizes their dual horizontal and vertical roles as both insider and
outsider: appreciating humour with children but expecting (and celebrating) the child’s posi-
tion within a distinct culture that necessarily resides outside officialdom. In doing so, the arti-
cle concludes that teachers will gain deeper appreciation of the important role of humour as a
means of positioning the self within institutions characterized by power dynamics that are
typically beyond the young child’s control. Moreover, the teacher has greater opportunities to
recognize the potential of humour as a form of social mobility and agency on the part of the
child.
