ABSTRACT
Why does language matter to education? If we were to think of language only as a description of reality, there wouldn’t be too much to say in response to this question. In that case education simply “is” and language simply describes “what is.” Description is, however, only one function of language-and itself a problematic one. Language is not simply a mirror of reality. At least since Dewey and Wittgenstein we know that language is a practice, that it is something we do. And at least since Foucault we know that linguistic and discursive practices delineate-and perhaps we can even say constitute-what can be seen, what can be said, what can be known, what can be thought, and, ultimately, what can be done. Just as language makes some ways of saying and doing possible, it makes other ways of saying and doing diffi cult and sometimes even impossible. This is an important reason why language matters to education, because the
language-or languages-available to education infl uence to a large extent what can be said and done and also what cannot be said and done.
