Metaphor analysis: President Clinton's 'call to action'.

摘要

This study examined language used to provide direction to school reform efforts in light of two broad themes, ecological sustainability and social justice. The U.S. Department of Education (1997a) text analyzed was President Clinton's Call to Action for American Education in the 21 st Century. Metaphoric criticism was used to understand underlying conceptualizations inherent in the discourse, employ an interpretive perspective to examine the way the symbols operate to create particular worldviews, and use a critical perspective to discuss the implications of those worldviews.; The analysis resulted in the identification of a coherent system of metaphors that corresponds to the "Strict Father" conceptual model of family relationships described by metaphor theorist George Lakoff (1996). Lakoff posited that the mental categories people use to understand the world are based on coherent systems of metaphors. The conservative worldview is based on this model and Lakoff asserted that the many positions within conservative politics make sense using the Strict Father mental model of understanding the world.; The worldview identified in this study has implications for education. The Strict Father model is not supportive of multiculturalism and implies a formal and compensatory model of equity rather than a participatory model. The Strict Father model is patriarchal in its orientation and includes gender-biased orientations and language. The approach to the environment supported by the Strict Father model is the environmentalist approach, rather than the deep ecologist or ecofeminist views and does not support values and orientations associated with ecologically sustainability.; The worldview embedded within the document did not match my understanding of the values I believe Clinton held based on his previous actions and his rhetorical focus on educational equity. One possible explanation for this dissonance arises from Lakoff's (1996) supposition that liberals do not understand their metaphor system and, because they lack an understanding of the underlying concepts that tie the various liberal positions together, are unable to purposefully draw on their metaphors to construct powerful unified rhetorical messages.