Breaking silence: A critical duoethnography on examining epistemic violence in negotiating the journey as international graduate students in U.S. higher education

Abstract

This critical duoethnography takes silence in classroom discussions as a sociocultural artifact that reveals the norms of the society that upholds it. In this research, we made visible and explored the content of silence we experienced as international graduate students. We found that repeated patterns of silence in classroom discussions acted to silence us as knowers. Moreover, this silencing power of classroom silences was entangled with various factors like immigration status and financial constraints. Finally, by elaborating on ways that we navigated these challenges, we offer implications for research, practice, and policy for improving the experiences of international graduate students in the United States.