ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of theories and definitions of text and discourse. It brings together critical theory, poststructuralist models of discourse, sociolinguistics and systemic-functional linguistics, and elements of literary studies to bear on educational research and theory. The emergence of postcolonial perspectives on cultural and linguistic difference is hardly a figment of political liberalism or so-called political correctness. In this milieu, texts and images have become both media and objects of people's work in information and service-sector occupations. The chapter explores the potential and value of discourse analysis explicitly tied to a sociological analysis of how educational knowledge, competence and curriculum contribute to the differential production of power and subjectivity. Critical discourse analysis shares with sociolinguistics and ethnomethodology the assumption that language use should be studied in social context. A critical sociological approach to discourse is not a designer option for researchers, but an absolute necessity for the study of education in postmodern conditions.
