Interdisciplinarity and the Epistemic Conditions of Pedagogical Joy

Abstract

Joy-centred pedagogy has gained recent traction as educators seek alternatives to cynicism, disengagement, and burnout. Yet much of the existing discourse considers joy as an affective or motivational outcome rather than a condition grounded in epistemology. This paper offers a theoretical analysis of joy-centred pedagogy through a lens of interdisciplinarity in education (Babich, 2020), positioning interdisciplinarity not as a curricular arrangement but as an epistemological orientation that resists the fragmentation and proceduralization of knowledge common in modern educational systems. Drawing on the Systematic Oppression of Knowledge and Epistemology (SOKE), this paper argues that epistemic fragmentation produces forms of alienation that foreclose the emergence of pedagogical joy. In contrast, interdisciplinary ways of knowing reintegrate meaning, agency, and relational understanding, creating conditions under which joy can emerge as an epistemic consequence rather than a pedagogical technique. By synthesizing interdisciplinarity and joy-centred pedagogy, this paper reframes joy as an outcome of epistemic coherence and agentic engagement. Furthermore, this analysis provides a grounding of joy-centred pedagogy as a theory of knowledge that supports educational vigour, care, and resilience by positioning interdisciplinarity as a foundational condition for cultivating joyful learning communities in hard times.