Language, power and education

The field of enquiry for this chapter is language and power and attempts to provide undergraduates with a clear distillation of complex theory regarding the links betweens these terms. It provides an original perspective insofar as one of its aims is to get students to 'see through' language and persuade them that many of those choices in education contexts are, intentionally or unintentionally, not arbitrary but constructed. It is a significant chapter designed to impact on the way students and practitioners will take everyday discourses, e.g. taboo language in school, the rise of 'synthetic personalisation' in educational adverts, the construction and nature of the 'Welcome' page in university brochures, and so on, and subject them to critical scrutiny. Its rigour is underpinned with theoretical references to Norman Fairclough, Deborah Cameron, Gunter Kress, et al. It was read by the editor who requested the correction of merely surface features.