Introduction

The chapter describes the twofold agenda of the book: To contribute to the theorizing of the construct of “languaging relations” and to contribute to the theorizing of essential education constructs, with specific attention to the teaching of literacy, literature, and the language arts in secondary schools. The chapter defines the construct of “languaging relations” and discusses its implications for defining units of analysis; attention to the “in-between”; how the domains of “emotion” and “affect” might be conceptualized; and how “languaging relations” is situated at multiple levels of social events, social interaction, and social institutions. The chapters of the book are overviewed. Questions that might be raised from a languaging relations perspective about literacy, literature, and the language arts in secondary schools are discussed.