ABSTRACT
In the first part of this book, three main strands were set out which would guide us through it; namely, Ethnography, New Literacy Studies and Bourdieu's theory of practice. The principal tenet of our argument has been that research practice seen from the perspectives of NLS and Bourdieu's work brings fresh insights into classroom language ethnography. The second part of the book then offered a series of practical case examples of classroom practice with a focus on the way language featured in different ways in pedagogic discourse. The aim has been to offer a range of theoretical viewpoints and practical exemplifications. However, such viewpoints and examples should not be seen as relative, as simply another way of looking at pupils, teaching and learning, but as providing a basis for a possible synthesis of the three approaches. At its inception, the book was conceived as an integrated text, rather than as an edited volume and, in this respect, the theoretical and practical chapters converge on a common position. In the two chapters of the present part, that common position is explored.
