Engaging and mediating the unspoken and the unspeakable: tensioning and de-tensioning around first year project work group chats

In this paper, I reflect on the pragmatics of “unspeakables” in first-year university group work, focusing on a preliminary exploration of tensions in digital and face-to-face collaboration. Drawing on experiences from the Global Humanities programme at Roskilde University, I lay the foundation for an exploration of how culturally diverse students navigate problem-oriented, inquiry-based learning amid unspoken presuppositions about language, trust, and solidarity. Instant messaging emerges as a key site of cooperation and incipient conflict: while IM enables students to work flexibly and accommodate the many pressures of student life, it can also enable misinterpretation and conflict and sometimes triggers crises that require intervention. These dynamics expose unspeakabilities—fragility, cultural assumptions, and trust—that shape students’ learning trajectories. The paper sketches the beginnnings of a research agenda on the materiality of group chats and asks how educators can alongside this work practice prioritize deep learning over surface performance under external pressures. I also present the case for renewed emphasis in universities on relational work, presence, and reflective practices to sustain collaborative learning in contemporary higher education.