Academic Scientific JournalsOn the border between silence and meaning. Existential questions about truth and appearance in academic work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/head.2025.3.11Keywords:
boundaries in academic teaching, pedagogical silence, intergenerational differences, pace and well–being in the University, ethos of studyingAbstract
This interview with Dr Adrianna Sarnat–Ciastko explores the multifaceted experience of boundaries in academic teaching. These boundaries emerge on personal (competence, emotions, professional identity), relational (student–teacher relationships, status distance, the role of silence), organizational (teaching workload, institutional pace, university culture), and intergenerational levels (encounters between different academic and student generations). Silence becomes a key analytical category, understood both as a barrier to dialogue and as a pedagogical tool, an indicator of maturity, trust, and reflective space. The interview also offers a critical reflection on the contemporary university, highlighting the tension between the “regime of speed,” performative quality assurance, and productivity logic, versus the need for slowness, relationality, and authenticity in higher education. The conversation presents academic teaching as an ethical and existential practice, rooted in human relationships and continuous negotiation of boundaries.
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