ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the notion of linguistic space, gender, and the teacher’s authoritative voice in three classrooms. The study examines one grade 2 classroom and two college classrooms as case studies. In all cases, the teachers seem to collude unwittingly in the silencing of girls and women. The amount of talk seems to align with significance and greater participation in classroom discourse and with gendered expectations. The exploration of language use alongside gender is well explored by linguists and other researchers searching for gendered language use and gendered speech strategies. The case studies considered here add evidence to the field concerning the roles of gender in the educational experience and of the authoritative voice of teachers in prompting language use. The impact of silencing female students in classrooms may affect self-esteem and the sense of significance among girls and women across age groups and classroom settings and may lead to a gendered set of acceptable ways of being.
