Presentation from Language, Cognition, Mind 2008. (Reupload after accidental delete)

1. Markets, Local knowledge and
Centralized Justice: Frame
Negotiation in Educational Policy
Discourse
Dominik Lukeš
University of East Anglia
http://dominiklukes.net
LCM 2008

2. Overview
• Role of frames as constructions in discourse
• Role of negotiation in the frame inventory
• Two examples of negotiation frame
negotiation in educational discourse
• Towards a new linguistics for a new approach
to (policy) discourse (the top-down
articulation and negotiated inventory
convergence approach)
• Open questions

3. Assumptions about language
• Language is a structured (but not layered) inventory of
linguistic units (constructions)
• Linguistic units are pairings of meaning and form
• The form of a linguistic unit can be a single feature or an
extended series of texts
• The meaning of a linguistic unit is structured in frames
(cognitive models)
• Both form and meaning can be very schematic or very rich
• The online processing of language (production and
perception) is governed by the principles of conceptual
integration
• Any unit in the inventory can be brought up to conscious
scrutiny and its integrative parameters can be negotiated
• No two speakers have access to inventories with absolutely
identical content and the structuring of the content

4. Frames as constructions in discourse
• Frames need to be viewed as semantic poles of
constructions and therefore we always need to ask
what is their formal pole
• Conversely, building blocks of discourse need to be
treated as formal poles of constructions and their
semantic poles need to be sought
• Ignoring the constructional nature of framing in
discourse can lead to unwarranted claims about the
conceptual content of texts

5. Examples of constructional blending
You know, when you look at it, this one sort of looks like it might be X and
that one sort of looks like it might be Y. You know, just like what Langacker
was talking about in that paper, you know, that paper he wrote with those
funny drawings.
At first glance the former appears to belong to X whereas the latter has the
markings of Y reminiscent of Langacker’s (1999) distinctive visual
representations of constructional form.
Formal blends: lexical choice, cohesion, elegant
variation, intertextuality, ostension and deixis substitution
Semantic blends: profiling of date, profiling of topic, backgrounding of
attentional negotiation (‘you know’, ‘funny’)

6. Frames as constructions (Marketplace Example):
Metaphor negotiation construction(s)
Metaphor negotiation
• Meaning
– folk theory of analogy
– folk theory of categorization
– folk theory of truth
– folk theory of logical inference
• Form
– exegesis
– postulations of domain and
investigation of mapping
– attribution of truth or adequacy
– limits of aptness
Education as a marketplace
• Meaning
– “education is like a market-place”
– this is either true or not true
– things follow from the above
– elements of the domain of
education have correspondences
in the domain of business
– any one disanalogy invalidates
any correspondence
• Form
– X claims Y is like Z
– y in Y is (not) z in Z ergo X is
right/wrong
– partial correspondence is enough
to go on

7. Example 1
Most examples are too long to present (e.g. Henig 1994 – an
entire volume)
"A college is a complex mechanism that is responsible for transforming a
variety of inputs of examples, students' time, teachers' time, consumable
materials, equipment, buildings, into knowledge products usually in the
forms of qualified people and intellectual property. The latter is the
research component of knowledge. These products, in their turn, generate
goods and services for society. The transformation is highly value
added, although the means of which the mechanism carries out the
transformation process is often obscure. The way in which people learn and
develop ideas is closely individualistic and not easily understood. It is based
largely on human interactions and relationships. The means used for
measuring and manipulating aspects of the transformation have proved
historically taxing and interference in the teaching traditions has caused
resentment. In particular, the measurement of quality is an emotive issue."
(Ashworth, Allan, and Roger C. Harvey. 1993. Assessing Quality in Further and
Higher Education. London; Bristol, Penn.: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 4)

8. Example 2
"Veblen (1918) was right when he said that the chief function of
grading systems was not educational, but rather to help the
Tycoons of Erudition who ran the universities provide the kind of
quantified production controls the Captains of Solvency who sat
on their governing boards were accustomed to." (Becker, Geer, and
Hughes. 1968. Making the Grade: The Academic Side of College Life. New
York,: Wiley.)
"*R. M. Miller’s view is that+ metaphors have all the advantage
over explicit language as does theft over honest toil." (Petrie, H. G.
1979. Metaphor and Learning In Metaphor and Thought, ed. Ortony, Andrew.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. about R. M. Miller 1976, The dubious
case for metaphors in educational writing, Educational Theory, 26, 174-181)

9. Central vs. local control folk theories
‘Central is better’
• Parents need to be trained
in how to deal with their
children
• Teachers need to be taught
how to recognize and
respond to their students’
needs
• Only centrality can insure
equality
• Only centrality can protect
against the backwardness of
unenlightened locals
Local is better
• Parents know their children
best
• Teachers know what’s best
for their individual students
• Only locality can insure
democracy and fairness
• Only local control can
protect the needs of
communities over high-
handed, theory-laden
central intervention

10. Underlying image schemas and
scenarios
• Proximity schema: closer makes it possible to
understand something better; closer makes it more
difficult to see context
• Information schema: having information makes it
possible to make correct decisions (local or central)
• Outsider scenario: stranger (or estranged) comes to
present people with local knowledge (wisdom) with
(book-learned) inappropriate knowledge
• Educator scenario: educated stranger saves local
people with his/her knowledge

11. Negotiating schemas and scenarios
• Reconciliation scenario: outsider comes in and
proves central knowledge useful while
learning about the reality of local life
• Change of perspective schema: moving away
and closer again to an object makes it possible
to see more sides

12. Frames as constructions (Governance Example):
Two frames
Frame negotiation
construction (schematic)
• Meaning
– central governance scenario
– local governance scenario
• Form
– giving of examples
– statement of obviousness
– myth busting
Who’s right? [construction]
(rich)
• Meaning
– central control is necessary for
the protection of individuals’
rights
• Form
– dramatic narrative
– justificatory statement
– morale through metaphor

13. Storytelling as blending
• The above schemas are frequently
instantiated through stories:
– 24
– Advancement of Learning
– Robinson Crusoe

14. Additional schemas and scenarios
• Central government exerts control through
control of resources;
• Resources should be controlled by those who
use them and produce them

15. Conclusion
• In a policy debate (private or public), only a
limited inventory of discursive units is
available
• This inventory is limited both in its form and
content by the constructional integrative
constraints of its units
• The limits of the inventory and the blending
parameters in operation can and are always
negotiated (both explicitly and implicitly)

16. Questions
• What does textual evidence mean?
• What use is understanding policy discourse to
policy makers?
• Are there any elements of discourse that
cannot be negotiated?
• Are there limiting factors on frame
negotiation?

17. Dangers
• This kind of analysis brings only little new
methodologically when compared with
traditional modes of discourse description –
other than a justificatory framework
• Totality of blending/constructional approach
makes it possible that other important factors
are being overlooked
• Naming of frames may diminish the
independent agency and inherent validity of
texts

18. http://dominiklukes.net
I keep a blog at
http://hermeneuticheretic.net