<![CDATA[Student silence in classroom learning is commonly viewed as an indicator of low participation and engagement. Such a perspective tends to position silence as the opposite of participation, leading students’ experiences of choosing silence to be interpreted negatively. This study seeks to examine how junior high school students interpret their experiences of silence in classroom learning and how such experiences are connected to student voice when viewed through the lenses of educational psychology and Freirean educational philosophy. A phenomenological qualitative design was adopted to investigate participants’ lived experiences through the framework of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Participants consisted of 15 junior high school students and 9 teachers selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed following the IPA procedures developed by Smith, Flowers, and Larkin. The findings reveal that student silence cannot be understood merely as a form of disengagement. Silence was experienced as a strategy of self-protection, a form of silent engagement, a rational choice, a social evaluation process, and a negotiation of relationships with teachers. The findings further indicate that before using their voice, students engage in psychological, social, and pedagogical evaluations of the learning situations they encounter. From a Freirean perspective, silence is not solely related to the willingness to speak but also to the quality of dialogue embedded within educational relationships. Building on the experiences reported by participants, this study advances the concept of Student Voice Responsiveness, understood as the ability of educational environments to recognize and engage with students’ perspectives in ways that foster genuine participation. The study enriches discussions on student voice by showing that silence can be understood as a reflective process that often occurs before students choose to articulate their thoughts and experiences.]]>
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