ABSTRACT
Textuality is often thought of in linguistic terms; for instance, the talk and writing that circulate in the classroom. In this chapter, I take a multimodal perspective on textuality and context. I draw on illustrative examples from school Science and English in England to examine how image, colour, gesture, gaze, posture and movement, as well as writing and speech, are mobilized and orchestrated by teachers and students and how this shapes learning contexts. Throughout the chapter I discuss the issues amultimodal perspective raises for the conceptualization of text and learning context and how this approach can contribute to learning and pedagogy more generally. I suggest that attending to the full ensemble of communicative modes involved in learning contexts enables a richer view of the complex ways in which curriculum knowledge and policy is mediated and articulated through classroom practices.
