Conceptual, Extraneous or Other?: A Configurative Review Concerning Mathematical Metaphors in Empirical Education Research

In this review, metaphor is seen as an essential phenomenon for conceptualisation in mathematical teaching and learning. The aim of this review is to discern some patterns in concept use concerning metaphor, within 25 empirical mathematics education research papers, guided by two perspectives on metaphor; conceptual metaphor and extraneous metaphor. The analysis found explicit, vague or absent theoretical definitions of the metaphor concept as well as several metaphor examples, generating three categories of concept use; conceptual metaphor, extraneous metaphor, and potentially conceptual/extraneous. The review stresses the need for a theoretical and empirical distinction between different types of metaphors, in order to sharpen the analytical tools available to researchers and, by extension, to more clearly highlight the specific function of metaphor in teachers’ classroom work