Different Buildings and Roads: Metaphors about the Chilean Education Policies in Opinion Pieces

This qualitative research aims to analyze linguistic and conceptual metaphors about Chilean educational policy, as read in op-ed pieces from different online newspapers in the country. Both a procedure for identifying metaphorical uses and an analysis of metaphorical content were applied. By doing so, there was evidence on the repeated appearance of two groups of linguistic metaphors about Chilean educational policy: one which conceptualizes it as a building and the other as a road. These sets of linguistic metaphors can acquire specific conceptual and discursive features in the same opinion piece. Thus, the conclusion is that, while each group of linguistic metaphors is based on common and conventionalized conceptual metaphors, their development in the columns is specially oriented by the common topic of discourse and particular persuasive purposes. Most notably, criticism against different political-educational actors and processes, such as the Chilean educational system, the governments, or grassroots movements.