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Articles

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2021): Technology enhanced learning in the MENA region

‘Silence’, the invisible tool of a dialogically extended mind: An email experience of a Kuwaiti tutor in higher education

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.514b8258
Submitted
8 August 2026
Published
15-08-2026

Abstract

Silence, within mainstream feminist scholarship, is based on a binary understanding in relation to voice. Silence is demeaned and seen as the unwanted other. As a result, silent women are depicted as powerless and oppressed. In this paper I examine the dynamics of an email episode I experienced with a female student within a Kuwaiti higher education context. Combining Carter’s (2006) views on archival silence and approaching the email event from a dialogically extended mind perspective (Fusaroli, Gangopadhyay & Tylen, 2013) I offer a different understanding of silence. Following an autoethnographic approach to research, I argue that silence needs to be freed from the dichotomous entrapment in order for other meanings to emerge. Focusing on the process of the dialogical interaction within the email context I was able to see how silence plays a role as a tool that dialogically extends the mind. Silence emerges as intersubjective, dialogic and requires collaboration.

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