Listening to silent voices: Reframing assumptions about

participation

Kathy SchultzNational Writing Project Spring Meeting

March 2010

What counts as participation?

What counts as participation?

Definitions of participation

Can a student participate without making a verbal contribution?

What does participation through silence look like?

How do we recognize and respond to it?

PORTRAIT OF A STUDENTBRIEFLY DESCRIBE SOMEONE WHO WAS SILENT IN YOUR CLASSROOM

Theorizing silenceTheorizing silence

Every utterance has its biography and cuts its own figure, and, if we are careful enough to describe its points of contact with ongoing events, we can learn a great deal about the powers of talk that constructs, maintains, and resists the order of those events. (McDermott)

Teaching as fundamentally based on listening

Listening: A framework for teaching across difference (Schultz, 2003)

Sociocultural understandings of Sociocultural understandings of silencesilence

Silence as located in social interactions

Silence as situationally and contextually specific

Silence as produced by others and oneself

Functions and uses of silence in the classroom

Functions and uses of silence in the classroom

Communication

Rules and norms

Choice

Locating silence

Meanings of silenceMeanings of silence

Silence as resistance

Silence as power

Silence as protection

Silence as a response to trauma

Silence as a space for creativity and learning

Silence as resistanceSilence as resistance

Silence as an act of refusal not to be dominated

Resistance as socially organized

Resistance as nuanced

“We need to hear both the voices and silences through which women engage the social world. We need to understand not only what women say but also what they refuse to say and understand why they might refuse to speak” (Lorde)

Enacting a powerful stance through a careful choice of words

Use silence as a starting point for inquiry

“There is a silence that cannot speak. There is a silence that will not speak.” (Kogawa)

Silence as powerSilence as power

“There is a silence that cannot speak. There is a silence that will not speak.” (Kogawa)

Silence as protectionSilence as protection

Understanding the danger of talk and silence

Silence as a way to hide

Protection of intelligence, family stories from teachers & peers

There was no “calling” for talking girls, no

legitimized rewarded speech. The punishments I

received for “talking back” were intended to

suppress all possibility that I would create my

own speech. That speech was to be suppressed

so that the “right speech of womanhood” would

emerge. (hooks)

Silence as a response to traumaSilence as a response to trauma

Youth bring a range of traumatic experiences to schools

Youth often find themselves without words

Importance of learning to read silence

“For me each and every word holds the unsayable—and all language requires translation.” (Rogers)

Silence as a time and space for Silence as a time and space for learninglearning

Time necessary for acquisition of new knowledge

✴ e.g., learning new languages

Waiting for authentic reasons for speaking

Silence can give students control over pacing of learning

The stupendous reality is that language cannot be understood unless we begin by observing that speech consists, above all, in silences. (Ortega y Gassett)

Mattie Davis: Classroom talk, classroom silences

The Room 110 Pledge

The Room 110 Pledge

I am a beautiful child.I come to school to learn.

I come to school to help myself.I come to school to help my family.

I come to school to help my community.I must respect myself.

I must respect my classmates.I must respect my teachers.

I believe that I am a brilliant child.I come from great people.

I come from great ancestors. Imhotep, Nefertiti, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, Harriet

Tubman, Marcus GarveyDr. King, Malcolm X, Fanny Lou Hammer, my parents

I come from great people.

Classroom structures that support silence as Classroom structures that support silence as integral to teaching and learningintegral to teaching and learning

Check-in

Authors’ chair

Chit-Chat groups

Reflections

Jerome: Authors’ chairJerome: Authors’ chair

How silence can work in the How silence can work in the classroomclassroom

Silence and talk structured the event

The student was allowed to retain authority over his text

Respect was communicated through the teacher’s and students’ silence and actions

Actions were guided by implicit and explicit rules

Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation participation

Buildings speak project

Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

Buildings speak project

Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

Buildings speak project

Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

Amelia Coleman: Student silences, curricular participation

Multimodal stories

I am from chicken, fish, and rice. From fighting, jogging, and running. I am from French fries, fried chicken, and chicken nuggets. From talking, laughing, and joking. I am from trees, bushes, and flowers.

I am from country music, and country movies. From tag, hide and seek and freeze tag. I am from car, bus, and trucks. From winter, summer, and fall.

Where I’m From poemWhere I’m From poem

Hi, my name is [Saima]. I took a picture of my friend’s house because first when I came to America, I didn’t know nobody and I didn’t know how to speak English. Then I saw them, I thought they were my country’s people and I talked to them and finally became best friends. And that’s why I took the picture.

Building speaks projectBuilding speaks project

“If there is hope there is life”“If there is hope there is life”No one can take away from

me My name, For it is mine. Bengali am I. I am the river that flowsThrough my land. I am the mountainRoyal and wonderfulRising up out of the

confusion and endI greet the morning sunThat shines down on my rich

valleysAnd dries my empty waste.

I am the red poppy and yellow saying That grow upon my bleeding hills. I am the battle cry of freedom That repeats through my hallwaysAnd every grain of my being. Therefore, I am. No one can take my nameAway from me, Not tanks or guns or bombsMeant to abuse me and kill me.My country lives in me. I am the cry of libertyNo matter what they take from me, They can’t take away my nameOr my dignity. Bengali am I

Claiming a participatory presenceClaiming a participatory presence

Through the modes of image and sound, Saima’s texts became more complex and powerful.

She translated her quiet compliance into a louder, participatory presence through multimodal storytelling.

Saima attained a stronger presence, becoming a more visible member of the classroom community without the need to speak loudly and stand alone in front of the class.

Exploring meanings of silence in classrooms

Exploring meanings of silence in classrooms

Silence has a presence.

Students enact silence for a range of reasons. Their silence is shaped by the available models of how to be a student (Wortham, 2006)

Teachers add silence to classrooms and sometimes teach through silence.

No precise definition

Judged according to timing and content

What would it mean to count silence and talk as forms of participation in classroom settings?

Rethinking participationRethinking participation

Ubiquitous idea in education

No precise definition

Often judged according to timing and content

What would it mean to count silence and talk as forms of participation in classroom settings?

Taking an inquiry stance toward silence

Taking an inquiry stance toward silence

How does silence work in the classroom?

• What is the relationship between talk and silence in this classroom? What are the varying amounts of talk and silence? How

do they interact with one another? What is the relative quality of silence and of talk in the classroom?

What are the functions and understandings of silence in the classroom?

• How is silence used in the classroom by teachers and by students? In the classroom, who talks and who remains silent?

When does silence occur? Are there times when it is acceptable (or even preferable) to be silent, and are there times when silence

is not allowed?

What are some possible responses to student silences?

• When should teachers interrogate an individual student’s silence, and when is it important to simply support that student to

participate through silence? How can teachers tell the difference between an engaged and a disengaged silence?

What does it mean to be a “silent” StudentHow can you take an inquiry stance to understand silence in your classroom?How

Final thoughtsFinal thoughts

Importance of using silence and talk and understanding them as connected

Connecting understandings and uses for silence & talk in classrooms to equity & access

Redefining participation

Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird

Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

Wallace Stevens

Further ReadingFurther Reading