Perceptions of the Crisis in American Public Education: The Relationship of Metaphors to Ideology

Abstract

This article analyzes the types of metaphors found in the influential report, A Nation at Risk. The large number of metaphorical statements in a document used to develop long-range social policy for educational reform raises the question of the relationship of these types of statements to the formulation and implementation of policy. It is argued that metaphors are coded messages that are used to justify an implicit ideological stance. In this case, it is suggested that a traditional structuralist-functionalist ideology is being justified in the report. The "story" concerning the supposed dismal state of American public education is based on several sets of metaphors that, when examined more closely, reveal a view of society that is politically and economically conservative. In arriving at this view of the role of metaphors in policymaking, some methodological issues are also examined, concluding that an interpretational framework is best suited for this type of analysis.