It has been possible, throughout history, to see education as "a
communication process between society and the individual" ( Hills,
1979, p. 10). Society has used teachers to communicate its standards,
and the current store of human knowledge, by using the community's
language. Thus, educational discourse provides discourse analysts
with a source of a variety of texts very much tied to a context, the
school. In the Western and Western-educated world of the late 20th
century, this context is virtually inescapable for children age 5 to 18.
An analysis of educational discourse begins to show how text interacts
with context and language in textbooks and classrooms, schools and
education offices. Although not denying the importance of the analy-
sis of educational decision-making discourse -- such as in the case of
educational referrals ( Mehan, 1986), placement ( Hertweck, 1986),
and policy-making ( McHoul, 1986) -- the focus here is on the text-
context-language interface in textbooks and classrooms.

Notice the power relation that exists between teacher and students,
which is different from that between doctor and patient, or lawyer
and client. People are already aware of this relation from their student
days, from earliest memories of elementary school. As children, most
individuals probably played "teacher," with all the right words and
tone of voice! As Simon and Boyer ( 1970, p. 2) noted: "Any school-
child playing teacher will produce most of the behaviour used by
most teachers. Typical behaviours are: standing in front of a group
of relatively passive onlookers . . . doing most of the talking . . .

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