Knowing When to Be Visible: Tacit Participation Norms in Higher Education

Professional learning in engineering is often framed in terms of formal competence, confidence, and visible contribution. Yet many of the judgements that shape effective participation in professional work are tacit, relational, and learned informally. This paper examines how engineers develop judgement about when to speak, when to listen, and when to remain deliberately unobtrusive, conceptualising these practices as strategic invisibility. Rather than treating silence or restraint as indicators of disengagement or lack of confidence, the paper reframes them as adaptive responses to uneven professional risk and organisational expectations. Drawing on research in professional identity formation, workplace learning, and tacit knowledge, the analysis shows how visibility functions as a proxy for competence in both higher education and engineering practice. When participation norms remain implicit, capable individuals may experience reduced recognition or constrained access to learning opportunities, leading over time to what this paper terms quiet professional attrition: gradual withdrawal or marginalisation without overt conflict. These dynamics are rarely named explicitly, yet they shape career trajectories and the sustainability of professional communities. The paper positions higher education as a critical formative site where participation norms are learned, and visibility comes to function as a proxy for competence. By recognising listening, interpretive judgement, and calibrated participation as legitimate forms of professional competence, educational settings can better prepare students for the relational realities of engineering work. This conceptual reframing expands understandings of contribution without prescribing uniform communicative behaviour, offering a foundation for more inclusive and sustainable participation in both learning and professional environments.