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CHARLES W. BINGHAM
Simon Fraser University
A Dangerous Benefit
In sum, I have argued along with Michel Foucault that educational
dialogue is most usefully considered as discourse. For Foucault,
considering dialogue as discourse means acknowledging that language
is a complex social experience that performs multiple functions, only one
of which is representation. And while representation currently prevails
as the assumed task of language, while representational dialogue is a
necessary strategy for many projects of social justice, still,
representational applications of language cloak the workings of power
and privilege. To enter a conversation assuming that people will be able
to speak their minds freely already makes it more difficult to
acknowledge that there are institutional, social, and power-laden
prohibitions from speaking freely, and it already makes it more difficult
MICHEL FOUCAULT'S CRITIQUE OF REPRESENTATION 367
NOTES
1. While discursive perspectives are widespread in educational
ethnographies and text analyses, I will make the link in this essay between
discourse and the spoken word, using Michel Foucault’s conception of
discourse as a framework. For a related framework of discourse, see the
work of Norman Fairclough (1992; 1996).
2. The discursive perspective to which I am referring is most explicit in
Foucault’s early works, especially in The Order of Things (1970) and The
368 CHARLES W. BINGHAM
Author’s Address:
REFERENCES
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MICHEL FOUCAULT'S CRITIQUE OF REPRESENTATION 369