ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the implications of the framework for the role of shaping agents, such as teachers. It demonstrates the application of the framework which has been developed for addressing questions that were raised by those involved in and affected by the practices studied. The chapter also suggests an agenda for future work. Resourcefulness refers to a disposition on the part of members of the community in their use of these resources. A social semiotic framework draws attention to shifts in agency over shorter and longer periods of time. Social semiotics insists that signs are constantly made anew, and are motivated in the apt combination of form and meaning by the sign-maker's interest. Conceptions of pedagogy need to be developed which accommodate the conflicting interests of generations, of culture, of power, of politics and of an ever more globalizing market-dominated economy. Communication is a social practice and a semiotic one: it achieves social purposes and aims through semiotic work.
