Images of Mathematics in Popular Culture/Adults' Lives: A Study of Advertisements in the UK Press

Autor/inn/en	Evans, Jeff; Tsatsaroni, Anna; Staub, Natalie
Titel	Images of Mathematics in Popular Culture/Adults' Lives: A Study of Advertisements in the UK Press
Quelle	In: Adults Learning Mathematics, 2 (2007) 2, S.33-53 (21 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1744-1803
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Adult Learning; Popular Culture; Learning Motivation; Advertising; Films; Affective Behavior; Mathematics; Public Opinion; Newspapers; Content Analysis; Classification; Discourse Analysis; Emotional Response; Knowledge Level; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Adulte education; Adult training; Erwachsenenbildung; Popkultur; Motivation for studies; Lernmotivation; Werbung; Film; Affective disturbance; Active behaviour; Affektive Störung; Mathematik; Öffentliche Meinung; Newspaper; Zeitung; Inhaltsanalyse; Classification system; Klassifikation; Klassifikationssystem; Diskursanalyse; Emotionales Verhalten; Wissensbasis; Großbritannien
Abstract	The success of policies to attract adults back to the learning of mathematics, at various levels, is often linked to questions of motivation. However, motivations depend on relevant beliefs, attitudes and emotions about mathematics--which themselves reflect, together with experiences with maths in school and in the home, wider cultural discourses on mathematics. The work presented here is part of a larger study examining the complex relations between popular cultural products such as advertisements and films, the way that knowledge is portrayed by them, and possible consequences for people's affective responses. The initial phase of the project (Evans, 2003, 2004) analysed small "opportunistic" samples of advertisements and films. The advertisements portrayed mathematics as generally negative, whereas the films were more ambivalent. In the next phase, we produced larger samples of both advertisements and films. In this paper, we report on our search through a systematic sample of issues of UK daily newspapers for "mathematical" advertisements. A notable finding was the very small number of advertisements containing images of mathematics. Those few advertisements we found were most frequently for cars, or for services to businesses. Using a discourse theoretical perspective and a hybrid methodology, we categorise advertisements according to features such as their "appeal" to potential consumers--and we also produce semiotic readings of a sub-sample of advertisements, as to their "message", in particular their images of mathematics, and of people doing, using, or teaching mathematics. Here we find these images to be much more varied and subtle than in the initial phase. We end by discussing some of the consequences of our analysis for perceptions, teaching and use of mathematics in today's market economy societies. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Adults Learning Mathematics. 26 Tennyson Road, Kilburn, London NW6 7SA UK. e-mail: editor-i@alm-online.net; Web site: http://www.alm-online.net
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01