Abstract
Attending to both the political and pedagogical dimensions of silence in schools, this article engages in a close analysis of the silences constructed within an interaction between one first-grade student and his teacher in order to build theory regarding how silence is constructed in the classroom. Drawing on theories of neoliberalism as well as humanizing pedagogy, it presents multiple readings of this interaction to illustrate how interpretation of silence is shaped by ideology. Further, it emphasizes the mediating role of mandated standardized curriculum in the production of silence in this interaction. Through this analysis, it argues that neoliberalism creates both ideological and material barriers to the practice of silence in contemporary classrooms, while also suggesting how silence might be strategically used by teachers as a humanizing pedagogical resource.
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