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Critical Discourse Analysis in Education

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Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Introduction: The Emergence of Critical Discourse Analysis in Educational Research

Education researchers from around the globe have turned to critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a way to describe, interpret, and explain important educational problems. CDA is an interdisciplinary set of theoretical and analytic tools applied to the study of the relationships between texts (spoken, written, multimodal, and digital), discourse practices (communicative events), and social practices (society‐wide processes) (Blommaert and Bulcaen, 2000; Collins, 2004; Fairclough, 1993; Luke, 1995/1996). Luke ( 2002) defines CDA as a “a principled and transparent shunting back and forth between the microanalysis of texts using various tools of linguistic, semiotic, and literary analysis of social formations, institutions, and power relations that these texts index and construct” (p. 100). CDA focuses on how language as a cultural tool mediates relationships of power and privilege in social interactions,...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Critical Language Awareness is the social action dimension of CDA. CLA is the ultimate aim of socially committed CDA.

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  1. Division of Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Missouri St. Louis, 369 Marillac Hall, St Louis, USA

    Rebecca Rogers

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  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, 19104-6216, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Nancy H. Hornberger

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Rogers, R. (2008). Critical Discourse Analysis in Education. In: Hornberger, N.H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_61

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