This paper describes how 13 Swedish preschool student teachers and one preservice leisure educator discussed their thoughts regarding their professional work, their life histories, and their ongoing studies in special education. What unified them was their professional education, which was based on their own participation. This project examined the processes that participants were going through in order to acquire knowledge during their studies in special education. The paper reviews the different expressions of silence that emerged from participants' discussions, looking at questions that emerged (e.g., when they became silent and why they became silent). Results indicated that, among other things, men and women had strong role models. Participants discussed what their voices meant in regard to others' voices, how social and cultural factors influenced them as they developed, what dialogue was (and on whose conditions it occurred), interpretations and definitions of the surroundings, where knowledge came from and whose voices were heard, and whose voices were suppressed. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)