Listening to the Sounds of Healing

An assemblage of audible and inaudible "objects, utterances, institutions, bodies, and fragments" (MacLure, 2013, p. 165) populates the recordings of our time together as a writing group, capturing the sounds of care that blossom in the background (Ahmed, 2021): an offer of tea from the kettle brought from home, an inquiry about the health of someone struck with Covid, excitement about hairstyles for a sister's upcoming wedding. Through listening across spaces that actively wound (J. E. K. Parker, 2019) and spaces that actively heal, youth co-constructed, facilitated, and earwitnessed (Schafer, 1977/1994) wounded healing through a linguistic justice practice: listening to others in our entangled, co-constructed community to heal internalized oppression from external false communities. In classrooms, listening is often associated with youth compliance, to improve classroom management, and to control student attentiveness to teacher instruction or communicate expected behaviors attuned to school-sanctioned sounds (bells, chimes, announcements, intercom instructions) (Dixon, 2011; Gershon, 2011; Jacknick, 2021; Jackson, 1968; Mehan, 1979; J. E. K. Parker, 2019; Stoever, 2016). Made popular through active listening strategies like those adopted in Lemov's (2010) original bestseller, Teach Like a Champion, now updated to a similar STAR process (Lemov, 2021), SLANT reduces listening practices to automatic reactions to sounds (how to sit, where your eyes are, how your body and head move) and uniform cognitive responses (nodding your head "yes" or "no," asking and answering questions) irrelevant of cultural and social differences.