Shared by mary reda on Mar 29, 2008. Last Updated on Mar 29, 2008.

Principal Investigator(s): Mary Reda

For More Information: reda@mail.csi.cuny.edu

Keywords: silence, classroom research, composition classroom, dialogue

Permission to Cite: Please contact the Principal Investigator(s)

Abstract/Summary: Using written reflections and in-depth interviews, this qualitative study examines students’ perceptions of speaking and being silent in a first-year composition classroom, and the effects of these on learning and writing; the stories students tell construct a far more complex negotiation in the classroom than our theorizing and our stories suggest. The study focuses on students' negotiations of identity and community and their responses to teachers' demands and various pedagogies. Finally the study explores alternate constructions of silence: that is, the students in this study challenge us to re-examine our beliefs about classroom silence as inherently problemmatic. The results of this study challenge the commonly-held assumptions about what silence means in the classroom and ask us to re-examine our pedagogies as well.