Instructions, commands, and coercive control: a critical discourse analysis of the textbook representation of the living cell.

A number of scholars have shown the prevalence of multiple metaphors in biological conceptions of the living cell. However, there is little research into unpacking these metaphors to understand their ideological implications for scientific knowledge and science education. In this paper, I perform a critical discourse analysis of the representation of the cell in introductory biology textbooks, with a focus on metaphors. This analysis reveals that the societal hierarchy between mental and manual labor is reflected in the portrayal of the cell. The cell is presented as a centralized and hierarchical system, with the nucleus as the "control center" that provides "instructions" to be executed by the cytoplasmic "machinery." Following this analysis, I synthesize insights from experiments conducted in diverse fields of biology to show that control and "information" are distributed across the cell rather than localized in the nucleus. Despite these strands of empirical research, textbooks have continued to portray the cell as a centralized system. To understand the allure of centralized metaphors, I attempt to trace their historical and cultural roots and argue that their appeal lies in their congruence with human social and political structures. I further discuss how scientific discourse, otherwise perceived as objective and value-neutral, can serve as a "Trojan horse" for the ideology of centralization and dominance hierarchy. I conclude by highlighting the need to explore newer ways of understanding and describing the cell, a dynamic and self-organizing structure that functions without explicit instructions and coercive control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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