Silence as absence, silence as presence: A discourse analysis of English language arts teachers’ descriptions of classroom silences

Abstract

This article reports on a discourse analysis of five English language arts teachers' descriptions of classroom silences. Drawing on sociolinguistic and poststructuralist influences on discourse analysis, silence was theorized as a resource for building significance about aspects of classroom life and as an interface that connects local circumstances to social, cultural, and historical processes. Data analysis focused on teacher descriptions of silence in post-observation interviews and an excerpt from a 10th grade class discussion. Findings demonstrate how the teachers drew on two discourses of silence: silence as an absence of verbal participation and silence as a presence of dynamic interpretation. Teachers in the study used both of these discourses of silence to call forth particular aspects of their classrooms that would otherwise remain hidden to an outside observer, which is further analyzed through one teacher’s use of discourses of silence to add layers of meaning to a one-minute excerpt from a class discussion about Edgar Allan Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death.” These findings are complemented by a critical analysis of silencing in the class discussion, arguing close reading interpretive practices as applied to a canonized text contributed to the silencing of students’ backgrounds and knowledges. Implications of the study include using silence as a site of critical reflection in teacher education and theorizing silence, paradoxically, as (a) nonexistent and (b) a constant accompaniment to what is “sounded” in the classroom.