ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an identification of unresolved questions in discourse analysis regarding the material consequences of textual practice. It aims to exemplify a discourse analysis of a public, parliamentary speech that in itself was a form of public pedagogy – a political and parliamentary leader's putative attempt to address historical injustices and, indeed, explain what his government would do about it. The alliances between discourse analytic work, feminisms and multiculturalist theory have led to the reconceptualisation of educational institutions as sites for marginalised, silenced or excluded voices, specifically those of women and cultural minorities. Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are alternately drawn together in pronouns of solidarity and, at other instances, divided as rhetorical and political adversaries that can only be brought together by the government. The chapter describes discourse analysis as a form of public reading, made visible, material and criticisable in the public forums of journals, conferences and books.
