A Tale of Two Metaphors: Storylines About Mathematics Education in Canadian National Media

Public perception about mathematics education is developed and sustained by the Canadian news media. Our goal is to understand better the nature of this public discourse by identifying what is being communicated and how it is presented. We examine a data corpus of 71 online national newspaper articles (published between 2013 and 2015, a period that included the release of the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] results) and use text-analytic tools to analyze how meaning is conveyed in them. Drawing on the social psychological theory of positioning, which focuses on a general study of the manufacturing and management of meanings, we identify storylines, positions, and communication acts that are at play in how Canadian mathematics education is depicted. The data reveal that there are two connected core metaphors in relation to mathematics education. One posits mathematics education as being at war, whereas the second suggests that the war is over territory marked by two ways of teaching school mathematics. Along with the strategic positioning of certain individuals, we identify storylines that are problematic, conveying fictitious meanings about mathematics teaching and learning.