ABSTRACT
T he purpose of this chapter is to look at how knowledge, and what sort of knowledge, is talked into being in one small prim ary school in Brunei, in an upriver in terior community where three minority groups exist side by side. Following a period of ethnographic fieldwork in the community, subsequent visits focused on the school, and on one classroom, in particu lar. This study provides a microanalysis of the language practices in one lesson. Interaction around text in this classroom plays a key role in shap ing what is considered as knowledge and com petence for the pupils. Em erging from the discussion, I focus on how such knowledge is talked into being in educational encounters around text. The discussion is fram ed within the context of the ideologies and tensions of the bilingual education system in Brunei. Following this brief introduction, I provide some background for the study, both the general context of Brunei, and the specific local context in which the study took place. T he m ajor part of the chapter is a discussion of one lesson and the way the participants in the lesson attem pt to coconstruct the m eaning of the text that is the focus of the lesson. In the final part of the chapter, I discuss the ways the partici-
pants use local knowledge and a range of linguistic resources to contest the knowledge in the textbook and the curriculum.
