DISCOURSESA term now widely used in various ways, discourses can be a confusing term. TheFrench social theorist Michel Foucault (1926-1984) is credited with the understanding of discourse that we are using here. In ordinary language, discourse refers to uttered speech. But Foucault was interested in more than simply language as words—he was interested inhow meaning gets constructed through language and social practices. Discourses, for Foucault, construct how ideas are put into practice, talked about, and how these ideas accordingly regulate behavior and social norms. To understand language is to understand the historical, political and cultural ‘fixing’ of certain meanings, and their constant reproduction and circulation via established kinds of speech, forms of representation, and in particular institutional settings. Discourse is thus a tradition of ideas embedded in language and practices (terms), it is a tradition of ways of speaking/acting (habits), and it is a continuous dialogue among groups/networks of people (and thus has a history, though it may be a brief one). A discourse may be a series of texts (written, visual, or symbolic messages) as well as people and practices that relate to those texts. A text, therefore, can be said to fit into, or be a part of, a particular discourse or discourses. Meaning is constructed and reproduced within a discourse, and meanings are contested between different discourses. For example, the meaning of the phrase “family values” has been prominently constructed (or “fixed”) by conservative politicians and leaders. More recently, some activists, such as some gay and lesbian groups, are challenging that discourse with an alternative discourse about the meaning of “family values.” A republican senator would never define a “family” as being made up of two gaymen and an adopted son, for example, but would focus on the meaning of family in termsof the traditional nuclear family of father, mother, and children. In medicine, the dominant discourse is based on Westernized approaches to illness, whereas alternative (natural, spiritual, etc.) discourses of health and healing are now challenging these institutionalized Western discourses about medicine. Practices such as massage, acupuncture, and using medicinal herbs to treat illness are a few popular practices that arechallenging traditional Western approaches to medicine. In education, we find there are many institutionalized discourses that are more prestigious and more legitimated than others. The discourse of “gifted education” is a good example of a prominent discourse inschooling. Gifted education, as a discursive practice, has fixed certain meanings of terms (brain-based teaching, assessment, acceleration, compacting, etc.) As a field, gifted education has a tradition of ways of making meaning through language and action (testing to assess, developing special curricula, cluster or ability grouping), and it has a long and interesting history in the field of education. Gifted education is one example of apowerful discourse in education; it so informs our “common sense” away of making meaning that it would be hard for many of us to imagine school without “gifted education” of some variety. Foucault went so far as to say that nothing that is meaningful exists outside of discourse, but certainly, discourse helps us assign meaning to the world around us every day.from Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Ed.) (2006). Readings in sociocultural studies in education. Boston: McGraw-Hill, p.
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