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Attuned to Silence: A Pedagogy of Presence
Abstract
What has directed my work (teaching, research, and writing) for as long as I can remember is a pedagogy of presence.’ Such a pedagogy is rooted in an ontological way of being, not an epistemological doing. As such, it values silence. It is sustained, in part, by an on-going contemplation about what silence, experienced as active, generative, creative, and meditative, might mean to one’s daily practices in life, to one’s teaching and writing.
... We stellen vast dat het tweedekansonderwijs een goed voorbeeld is van het benaderen van studenten vanuit het idee van een 'pedagogie van aanwezigheid' (vgl. 'pedagogy of presence)' (Fidyk, 2013;Stone & Springer, 2019). ...
... Silence is therefore a form of expression and can be part of a dialogical relationship with others. It could function not only as a pedagogical act (see Fidyk, 2013), but even more as a reinforcement of inclusivity and a re-conceptualization of childhood; toward a new way of teaching and learning, finding creative ways to sit with silence is a step further to understanding children and their abilities better. Even when they say nothing, children are there and instead of misinterpreting their silence or ignoring it, we can rather offer it and its full potential a space. ...
This piece is a collective exploration by seven doctoral researchers in Child Studies, who discuss notions of listening to children and young people in a Swedish context. We approach different aspects of listening in research and in practices such as education, psychiatry, and social work. The discussions in this collective writing are an invitation for continuous reflections about the contexts where listening to children is done, its challenges and possibilities.
... Examples are school staff who engage with drop-in students through phone calls or during lessons, empathetically addressing reasons for absenteeism, and attempting to understand their unique stories and struggles. This also aligns with the principles of a 'pedagogy of presence' (Fidyk, 2013;Stone & Springer, 2019), where personalities, efforts and struggles of students are seen and tailored, and person-centred support is developed to maximize opportunities for students to engage in school (García-Moya et al., 2019;Stone & Springer, 2019). These needs could be linked to a desire for more emotional engagement towards learning, which is considered a necessary foundation in education and support to foster personal growth (Archambault et al., 2022;Martins, Carneiro, Campos, Ribeiro, Negrao, et al., 2020;. ...
In many Western societies, earning a degree is considered an ultimate educational achievement. Second chance education (SCE) serves as a distinct pathway for those who have dropped out of school, allowing them to re-enter the educational system. Understanding the specific obstacles and needs of students in SCE is crucial for providing better-tailored support. However, limited knowledge exists about the challenges faced by students seeking to enrol in SCE. This qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews with 28 drop-in students (Mage = 30) to explore these barriers and needs. Identified barriers span institutional, situational, environmental, and life-course levels. Primary needs centre around warm and accessible teachers, as well as flexible, student-focused learning options. The results underscore the value and significance of second chance education as a unique pedagogical context for drop-in students. It also emphasizes that the insights gained from SCE can inform improvements in regular, first-chance education, serving diverse student populations. Lastly, SCE serves as a societal mirror, urging a re-evaluation of the broader discourse in education. Overall, this study calls for more appreciation of SCE, acknowledging and recognizing its unique pedagogical context, dedicated teachers, and determined students.
... Feminist work on silence has demonstrated the plurality of silences replete with reflection, rest, and resistance (Carrillo Rowe and Malhotra 2013; Ranjbar 2017). In the classroom, silences can be part of an active form of engagement (Fidyk 2013), including purposeful expressions of resistance to course content (Alderman et al. 2021;Vaccaro 2017). Furthermore, the dominant presence of speech in the classroom can marginalize particular bodies. ...
p>In this paper, we propose embodied listening as pedagogical praxis in which we are receptive to how our whole bodies are involved in communicating with each other. Embodied listening disrupts what we call “speech-as-presence”—normative expectations of student participation emphasizing verbal contributions and privileging particular bodies. These expectations contribute to the reproduction of oppressive logics at work in classrooms—racism, hetero-patriarchy, white feminism, masculinism, ableism, colonialism. We argue that embodied listening can serve as a source of knowledge about these logics, supporting transformation of classroom expectations beyond imposed norms. We reflect on our experiences developing embodied listening practices in our undergraduate courses through our observations and students’ own reflections. Our findings demonstrate both the transformative potential of listening in classrooms and the tensions produced as these strategies discomfited students and disrupted classroom norms. Finally, we engage with critical perspectives on listening positionality from Indigenous studies, disability studies, and sound studies towards deepening our understanding of differences and multiplicities in how we listen. We illustrate how we continue to develop ways to incorporate this work in our classrooms and support students in the exhaustive and uncomfortable work of embodied listening and imaginative ways of being in the classroom.</p
... Relating this to pedagogic practice in schools, expected silence could be a type of silence often required by students when gathered in a formal school assembly, or in the classroom when the teacher is talking. Used as a pedagogic tool, planned opportunities for silence and stillness may open up fertile time and 'nourishing space' (Fidyk, 2013) for reflection and creativity. However, arguably this would require a shift in classroom culture, a reassessment of the priority usually afforded to the spoken word in classroom pedagogy and the perception of silence as 'awkward' and 'embarrassing', and as a passive, non-participatory state. ...
In Western societies, school pedagogies tend to be biased in favour of talk and emphasise the links between talking, thinking and learning. Thus talk is often privileged over silence as the basis for learning activities in classrooms, sustained by theories of learning which afford priority to talk. Such cultural bias towards talk means that by contrast, silence can be perceived negatively and construed as a form of 'non-participation'. Through a systematic literature review of journal articles relating to silence as a pedagogical approach published between 2000 and 2021, this article reappraises the role and value of silence in school education. Some of the apparent paradoxes of silence as a pedagogical approach, different types and uses of silence in the classroom, cultural dimensions of silence and the relationships between silence, power and critical pedagogy are examined. The pedagogical importance of silence as a participatory approach to learning emerges as a significant point for educators and the paper offers some suggestions for potential applications in classroom practice.
Silence and listening have been researched from multiple perspectives and generally from a bifurcated position that divides each term/practice from the other and each term/practice according to its literal or figurative construction. Focusing on literal and figurative approaches separately have divided scholars into distinct theoretical camps. This chapter provides an overview of silence and listening research, clarifies the relationship between silence and listening, explains the distinctions between literal and figurative silence and literal and figurative listening (emphasizing micro‐macro as in interpersonal‐institutionalized, as well positive and negative connotations), and proposes a dialogic‐dialectic model for understanding silence and listening taken together and separately. This approach allows for both unique and mutual views to exist together. That is, both opposing and shared perspectives can exist simultaneously. A three‐dimensional (shifting) continua model with a dialogic and dialectic base is encouraged for future studies of silence and listening.
Insights revealed through post-Jungian psychology, like those from wisdom traditions, subordinate the visible and manifest to the invisible and unmanifest, and open learning to unimagined practices and potentialities. Of particular importance to education are the advances made during the last two decades by post-Jungian analysts, scholars, and activists who have explored the cultural level of the unconscious, including implications of cultural complexes, scapegoating, and the influence of conscious development of group psychic life upon the individual.
Continuing the argument from Part 1, regarding the cultural unconscious and cultural complexes, a case is made for the significance of attending to the unconscious in the classroom. Understanding of cultural and familial complexes and the way parental psychology gets replayed within schools aims to bring greater awareness to the psychology of group life. Here specific attention is given to the family unconscious, family complexes, family soul, and the ancestors – both personal and archetypal. A method borrowed from family constellation work and rooted in African traditions of healing is outlined. This method is offered in an effort to unlock unconscious familial patterns whereby the emergence of new images may not only contribute to healing but also might have long-term effects on learning. Transgenerational patterns shaped by traumatic experiences, life events, cultural and environmental factors affect students, and so their learning. Parallel findings in epigenetics are also considered to be able to better contribute in long-lasting ways to resolving conflict, as well as to understanding deeper issues affecting our relations within education.
Reprinted with permission from: Aoki, T. T. (1986). Teaching as indwelling between two curriculum worlds. The B.C. Teacher, 65(3), 8–10. https://www.bctf.ca/docs/default-source/publications/publications-teacher-magazine/v65n3aprmay1986.pdf?sfvrsn=f6f5397a_1
First published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
This book mounts a strong argument for silence, arguing that we need more rather than less of it in our lives.
In our talkative Western culture, speech is synonymous with authority and influence while silence is frequently misheard as passive agreement when it often signifies much more. In her groundbreaking exploration of silence as a significant rhetorical art, Cheryl Glenn articulates the ways in which tactical silence can be as expressive and strategic an instrument of human communication as speech itself. Drawing from linguistics, phenomenology, feminist studies, anthropology, ethnic studies, and literary analysis, Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence theorizes both a cartography and grammar of silence. By mapping the range of spaces silence inhabits, Glenn offers a new interpretation of its complex variations and uses. Glenn contextualizes the rhetoric of silence by focusing on selected contemporary examples. Listening to silence and voice as gendered positions, she analyzes the highly politicized silences and words of a procession of figures she refers to as âall the Presidentâs women,â including Anita Hill, Lani Guiner, Gennifer Flowers, and Chelsea Clinton. She also turns an investigative ear to the cultural taciturnity attributed to various Native American groupsâNavajo, Apache, Hopi, and Puebloâand its true meaning. Through these examples, Glenn reinforces the rhetorical contributions of the unspoken, codifying silence as a rhetorical device with the potential to deploy, defer, and defeat power. Unspoken concludes by suggesting opportunities for further research into silence and silencing, including music, religion, deaf communities, cross-cultural communication, and the circulation of silence as a creative resource within the college classroom and for college writers.
Inhabited Silence in Qualitative Research demonstrates, or 'puts to work' poststructural theory in the doing of qualitative research. Using this theoretical approach, the book proposes a data set lacking in the methodological literature, namely silence. It highlights the need for qualitative researchers not to dismiss silence as an omission or an absence of empirical materials, but rather to engage silence as meaningful and purposeful.
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