UNLOCKING LITERACY LEARNING

Yolanda Majors & Evan Ortlieb  |  Editors

Silence as Indicator of Engagement

Yolanda Majors

A Question of What Gets Read

Student engagement is a significant predictor of student meanings. In addition to course readings and discussions,
learning and achievement (Shernoff, 2013). If classroom I presented my mostly white, female students with oppor-
engagement is the golden eagle, then its counterpart, tunities to observe high school classroom instruction. I
silence, is the miner’s canary and lifts its voice in re- wanted to enhance their learning experiences by expos-
sistance to the seen and unseen lurking ahead. Like ing them to classroom discourses to draw on their obser-
the miner’s canary, the silences that once pervaded my vations with the theories that we were encountering.
classroom warned of impending danger. Schein (1990) Through my experiences as a woman teacher of color,
argued that a useful inquiry into an organization’s cul- I have encountered students who, for whatever reason,
ture is possible when viewing it across “three funda- were unwilling to talk about their beliefs and values as
mental levels at which it manifests itself: (a) observable emerging from a complex cultural landscape. I have of-
artifacts, (b) values, and (c) basic underlying assump- ten wondered as to the motivations for their silences in
tions” (p. 111). When viewing the classroom from an or- this regard, at times attributing such silences to a kind of
ganizational perspective, silence is transformed from passive attempt at othering the teacher. As one student
a verb (causing to become silent) to a noun (the state of anonymously stated in a course evaluation, “The only
being silent). As such, classroom culture becomes that thing that she can do for me is sweep my floors.” At other
visible and observable target. To unlock students’ lit- times, I have thought that perhaps they are just not sure
eracy learning, we must be open to reading artifacts of what they are supposed to say, or are afraid of the teacher
classroom culture and recognizing silences as engage- or one another. Regardless of their motivations, the chal-
ment. Efforts to understand engagement have led to a lenge for the educator is to read and unpack their assump-
consideration of its antithesis: “If a student is not en- tions, because no matter how painful, creating a space
gaged, then what are they?” (Trowler, 2010, p. 3). When that allows for shifts in their thinking to occur is the job.
students are not engaged, or in fact are disengaged, can Such was the challenge in my classroom when my
their silence be an instrument of instruction? university students were given the opportunity to visit
Some time ago, I was teaching a literacy course de- and observe literacy practices at the nearby high school,
signed to introduce students to the concept of literacy where I was also a language arts instructor conducting
events. The underpinnings of the course were opportu- research. The goals for this visit/activity were to have
nities to tune their awareness to the situatedness of lit- university students use their observations to make sense
eracies and literacy tools. My goal was to engage them in of class readings. My vision was for a kind of engaged dis-
learning through a process of questioning what gets read, course, through which both groups of students practice
who the reader is, and how members of classroom com- literacies that help them understand what it means to be
munities grapple with text, particularly texts which they human (Majors & Lewis, 2017). What occurred instead
deem disempowering (Majors, 2015). My perspective was was silence among my university students, who recoiled
such that learning, both in and out of school, is “as much against my demand for consideration of how many of our
about shifts in participation in social and cultural practic- social and institutional structures keep them from see-
es and activities as about shifts in ways of thinking (Lave ing the humanity within themselves (Baker-­Bell, Butler,
and Wenger, 1991; Rogoff, 1993, 2003)” (Nasir, 2012, p. 21). & Johnson, 2017), followed by masked excuses of many
Students were presented with a range of activities that to not visit the school. Implicit in their stance was what I
drew on a critical literacy perspective. My hope was that perceived to be a collective, unconscious sensibility that
such perspectives would inform their understanding of normalizes their familiar cultural experiences, against
texts: what we identify as those meanings within texts, the backdrop and maintenance of a lesser known and/or
as well as what we, the readers, eventually make of those opposing other (Tolle, 2005).

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy    Vol. 61   No. 1   pp. 91–93 91 doi: 10.1002/jaal.673   © 2017 International Literacy Association
 UNLOCKING LITERACY LEARNING

build on a moral identity inherent in the institutional

Taking Stock of Silence as
view of equity-­m inded instruction and in conscious-
Classroom Cultural Artifact ness raising, displays of empathy or care in the class-
Many years later, I am taking stock of the silence in room. Empathy “implies that the problem belongs to
my classroom to ponder how it gave way to inertia women of color and requires only the sympathetic feel-
rather than what is popularly considered engagement. ings of White women” (p. 44). Thus, rather than view-
Classroom discourse events are a kind of community ing instruction as an intellectual enterprise, for many
of practice in which participants represent culture by of my university students, an important requirement
evoking shared meanings and understandings through for teaching was to care about the kids. The high school
their performance and behaviors. Culture—what a students’ receptivity of care, therefore, becomes the
group accumulates, learns, and shares over time—com- measure of learning and engagement.
prises all sorts of assumptions, ways of being and know- In response to what I perceived to be students’ dis-
ing, “that ha[ve] worked well enough to be considered interest in visiting this particular high school, I decided
valid and, therefore ... is to be taught to new members to host a group of the high school students as visitors of
as the ... correct way to perceive, think, and feel in rela- my university class. I had hoped that the students might
tion to those problems” (Schein, 1990, p. 111). If culture gain a sense of pride and agency through their engage-
is the accumulated byproduct of teaching and learning, ment with college students on campus. One aspect of
and discourse the medium by which agreement of what the activity was that each group would present the oth-
counts as culture is conveyed, then it must stand that er with questions related to their respective identities
talk is the coveted artifact of culture, and its counter- as high school student or college student. Although I
part, silence, the Holy Grail. thought this a good idea at the time, the miner’s canary
Rather than reflecting its intent to be a space where saw things differently as it watched from its perch on
students could “think critically and develop the skills to top of the lectern. Oblivious to its existence, I divided
formulate, document and justify their conclusions and the entirety of my university class into five groups of
generalizations” (Banks, 1998, p. 32), my classroom be- three, and the visiting high school students made up
came a site of conflict, resistance, and silence. The arti- a single group of five. I was excited, thrilled even, to
fact of such engagement, understanding, was displayed see my envisionment of a town hall meeting coming to
in some of the students’ written responses. For example, fruition. I believed strongly that “the usefulness of the
a handful of students who were able to move beyond knowledge we acquire and the effectiveness of the ac-
their assumptions embraced the opportunity to visit my tions we take depend on the quality of the questions
high school colleagues’ classrooms. Inherent in much of we ask” (Vogt, Brown, & Isaacs, 2003, p. 1). Therefore,
my students’ pre and post written work, however, was a each group was encouraged to collaboratively develop
lack of connection between what the teacher whom they interview questions to guide, draw out, and enhance
observed did in terms of structuring the course design our understandings of one another’s experiences and
and student learning outcomes. In other words, engage- perspectives. Several members of the undergraduate
ment was conceptualized by the university students in class volunteered to go first: “Have you ever seen a fight
terms of how the teacher they observed was emotionally in class?” “What’s it like to live in a dangerous neigh-
involved with his or her students. borhood?” “Do you think it makes a difference to come
As one student described, the “White female high from a single-­family home?” “Do you like music?” “Do
school teacher’s attitude” toward the high school stu- you think you’ll graduate, and if so, what will you do af-
dents was “stern, but motherly.” Such an analysis illu- ter that?”
minates what Thompson (2003) suggested is the moral With a stern side-­eye, the miner’s canary declared,
convention of the white “innocent” woman—held as “I told you so,” before f lying out the open classroom
keeper and symbol of virtue, honesty, benevolence, and window, taking with it any hopes that I had had of an
white middle class femininity. Innocent white femi- instructional win. What is more important here is the
ninity is often constructed in opposition to dangerous university students’ engagement. For example, one by
black masculinity. Whiteness symbolizes “good,” and one, the young adult college students eagerly offered
such goodness codes within it superiority. Maternal up questions, which as one high school student stated,
feminism places white female teachers as keepers and mirrored the persistent stereotyping that they had un-
spreaders of morality: missionaries, teachers, and fortunately come to expect of all people outside of their
reformers (of brown people), rescuing and studying community. The fact that such questions were coming
brown people. Such “rituals of emotional expression” directly from future teachers, however, left them with

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 UNLOCKING LITERACY LEARNING

more questions than answers, such as “Do you think it To identify those cultural meanings that insiders at-
would have made a difference if they [pre-­service teach- tach to artifacts, Schein (1990) recommended a kind of
ers] had come here [the high school] to talk to us on our collective probing, one that digs deeper into the mean-
turf?” and “[Our school] is an urban school, and all their ings attributed to relevant artifacts in a way that en-
stereotypes and what they believe is that urban schools ables their underlying values, philosophies, objectives,
is for the black kids or minority kids that just disrupt the epistemologies, and ideologies to come to light. Ideally,
classroom and fight all day and don’t learn anything.” if I had organized follow-­up writing and discussion to
While my high school students openly reflected on allow the underlying values, philosophies, objectives,
their experience, my university students were far less and epistemologies of students to be released rather
candid, if not completely silent. When asked to share than repressed, student engagement would have had a
their thoughts, only three students of the five groups greater opportunity for success in my classroom, un-
who participated spoke openly and only to express their packing, disrupting, and shifting silences along the way.
belief that “things had gone well.” The rest of the class,
choosing not to engage, remained silent. One’s applied
REFERENCES
definition of student engagement “contains assumptions
Baker-Bell, A., Butler, T., & Johnson, L. (2017). The pain and
about who carries the responsibility for student engage- the wounds: A call for critical race English education in the
ment, and thus who can—or should—be tasked with the wake of racial violence. English Education, 49(2), 116–129.
accountability” (Trowler, 2010, p. 7). As Thompson (2003) Banks, J.A. (1998). Curriculum transformation. In J.A. Banks
contended, representatives of the other that match (Ed.), An introduction to multicultural education (2nd ed.,
pp. 21–34). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
white understandings of the other gain prominence, and Majors, Y. (2015). Shoptalk: Lessons in teaching from an African
alternative stories do not. Thus, in attempting to bridge American hair salon. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
the gap between their two worlds, I had perhaps engaged Majors, Y., & Lewis, C. (2017). Critical, nimble, and human: The
the students in the opportunity to discover what they historical urgency of ‘alternative facts.’ Journal of Literacy
Research, 49(2), 302–313.
already knew. Directly or indirectly, I was complicit in
Nasir, N. (2012). Racialized identities: Race and achievement
classroom silence that resulted in disengagement, the among African American youth. Stanford, CA: Stanford
implications of which I continue to grapple with. University Press.
Schein, E.H. (1990). Organizational culture. The American
Psychologist, 45(2), 109–119. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-
From Silence to Probing 066X.45.2.109
Shernoff, D.J. (2013). Optimal learning environments to promote
What can be learned from students’ silences to under- student engagement. New York, NY: Springer.
stand engagement? I would argue that an inquiry into a Thompson, A. (2003). Tiffany, friend of people of color: White
classroom’s culture may be useful for assessing, analyz- investments in antiracism. International Journal of
ing, and perhaps breaking such silences. Schein’s (1990) Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(1), 7–29.
Tolle, E. (2005). A new earth: Awakening to your life’s purpose.
theory of organizational culture is helpful in this regard New York, NY: Penguin.
when viewing classroom engagement across “three Trowler, V. (2010). Student engagement literature review. York,
fundamental levels at which it manifests itself: (a) ob- UK: The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved from https://
servable artifacts, (b) values, and (c) basic underlying as- www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/studentengagementlit-
eraturereview_1.pdf
sumptions” (p. 111). When viewing the engagement from
Vogt, E.E., Brown, J., & Isaacs, D. (2003). The art of powerful
this perspective, silence is transformed from a verb questions: Catalyzing, insight, innovation, and action. Mill
(causing to become silent) to a noun (the state of being Valley, CA: Whole Systems Associates.
silent) and, as such, becomes that visible and observable
target of my focus and analysis. In acknowledging the The department editors welcome reader comments.
silence that permeated my classroom and labeling it an
artifact of its culture, I move closer to understanding its YOLANDA MAJORS is the associate director
of adolescent literacy and learning at the
meanings, its utility, and better yet, a pedagogical strat-
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA;
egy that would enable me to disrupt and transform it. e-mail ymajors@umn.edu.
According to Schein (1990), however,
the problem with artifacts is that they are palpable but hard EVAN ORTLIEB is a professor and the
to decipher accurately….Taken in isolation, cultural arti- coordinator of the Literacy Programs at St.
facts are especially problematic in this regard because the John’s University, New York, NY, USA;
lesson [meaning of the artifact] is not clear if one does not e-mail ortliebe@stjohns.edu.
understand the underlying assumptions behind it. (p. 112)

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy   Vol. 61   No. 1 93 July/August 2017    literacyworldwide.org