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http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = Stud Philos Educ (2016) 35:399413
DOI 10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0
Ana Cristina Zimmermann1
W. John Morgan2,3
Published online: 25 July 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract From the beginning of history sounds have played a fundamentally important role in humanitys development as ways of expression and of communication. However in contemporary western society, and indeed globally, we are experiencing an excess of speech and a relentless encouragement to expression. Such excess indicates a misunderstanding about what expression and dialogue should be. This condition encourages us to think about silence, solitude and contemplation and the role they might play in restoring the realm of personal understanding of the Self and of ones authentic experience of the Other. The purpose of this article is to explore the potency of a silence that arises from our participation in the world. We present rst some ideas about silence as a human phenomenon. This is followed by an examination of silence and language, an investigation of silence in dialogue, and of its educational implications. The article concludes by emphasising the value of silence as potency in itself, assisting in recovering the expressive powers of language. We argue that it is important to understand the positive status of silence in order to recognise and avoid repressive speech and to introduce its potential for reective learning.
Keywords Silence Dialogue Expression Learning
& Ana Cristina Zimmermann [email protected]
W. John Morgan
[email protected]; http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/education/people/unesco-chair/index.aspx
1 School of Physical Education and Sport, University of So Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes
65 - Cidade Universitaria, So Paulo 05508-030, Brazil
2 School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
3 Honorary Professor, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s11217-015-9485-0&domain=pdf
Web End = A Time for Silence? Its Possibilities for Dialogue and for Reective Learning
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To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. a time to keep silence and a time to speak. Ecclesiastes: Chapter III, Verses 1 and 7.
Introduction
We live in a world full of sounds and of daily, almost...





