Within educational theory, considerable attention has been paid to the discourse of learning – that is, the way of writing and speaking about education in terms of learning – and how traditional institutions of education, like the school, are affected by this current discourse (Biesta, 2006; Masschelein & Simons, 2002; Simons, 2002; Young, 2010).Young (2010), for example, states that the importance of “a language and set of concepts that are specific to education and its purposes” (p.6) has been decreasing in favour of a new language of learning, leaving educators to talk about supporting or facilitating learning instead of teaching, about providing learning opportunities or learning experiences instead of education, about learners instead of pupils and students, about learning environments instead of schools, universities and/or families (Biesta, 2006). When regarding these transformations predominantly from this discourse of learning, education seems mainly talked about while the talking within educational practices, like the classroom, seems largely unspoken. Hence, practices of classroom interaction and the manner in which they affect the contemporary and everyday configuration of the school seems less investigated.

To take the daily sayings (Schatzki, 2002) within the classroom serious, the studies collected in this symposium start from the ‘language’ used in everyday classroom practices to inform a discussion about the contemporary school as a traditional institutions of education.

The research gathered is then not only concerned with what is said or the manner in which it is said but also with how language is done, how language proceeds verbally, bodily and/or materially within (specific practices of) the classroom. Then, it becomes possible to investigate how language is not only done but is also doing something, is both performed within the educational setting of the classroom and performative (Latour, 2003, 2010, 2013). Hence, more then describing classroom practices, the main interest of this symposium lies in the coming into being of subjects, like teachers and pupils, materials or the configuration of the classroom as a whole throughout the language used. By adopting a micro perspective  and starting from an empirical interest in the sayings uttered within the classroom, the studies gathered address the following questions:

-       Which particular language is used within the classroom?

-       What is at stake when a particular language is used within educational settings?

-       How can the empirical answers to the former questions inform a discussion about educational institutions today?

While addressing these questions, the research gathered in this symposium includes different theoretical perspectives (e.g. a Foucauldian conception of power and politics, practice theory, Actor-Network Theory) as well as various methodological perspectives (e.g. critical discourse analysis, conversation analysis, Deleuzian/Guattarian analysis of communication). Although every case is concerned with the classroom, various geographical and cultural contexts are brought in (e.g. an English elementary classroom in Istanbul, a German high school, a Flemish secondary school, American classrooms) since the diversity of these different perspectives and contexts can lead towards a more detailed understanding of the topic involved and can, at the same time, enable a discussion which is both focussed and differentiated.

Biesta, G. (2006). Beyond learning: Democratic education for a human future. Colorado: Paradigm Publishers. Latour, B. (2003). What if we Talked Politics a Little? Contemporary Political Theory, 2(2), 143–164. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300092 Latour, B. (2010). The making of law: An ethnography of the conseil d’état. Cambridge: Polity Press. Latour, B. (2013). An inquiry into modes of existence: An anthropology of the Moderns. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Masschelein, J., & Simons, M. (2002). An adequate education in a globalised world? A note on immunisation against being–together. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 36(4), 589–608. Schatzki, T. (2002). The site of the social: A philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. Simons, M. (2002). Governmentality, education and quality management: Toward a critique of the permanent quality tribunal. Zeitschrift Für Erziehungswissenschaft, 5(4), 617–633. doi:10.1007/s11618-002-0035-5 Young, M. (2010). Alternative Educational Futures for a Knowledge Society. European Educational Research Journal, 9(1), 1–12.