Teachers Are: Analyzing the Metaphors of Pre-Service Educators

Metaphors are often used by in-service educators to describe themselves and their work in the classroom. These metaphors can articulate in-service teachers’ fundamental dispositions and provide the vehicle for conceptualizing teaching practices. Pre-service educators (those engaged in preparation to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Matt Ridenour
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Portland State University 2020-01-01
Series:Northwest Journal of Teacher Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/32816
Description
Summary:Metaphors are often used by in-service educators to describe themselves and their work in the classroom. These metaphors can articulate in-service teachers’ fundamental dispositions and provide the vehicle for conceptualizing teaching practices. Pre-service educators (those engaged in preparation to enter the teaching vocation), however, are a different population for whom metaphors represent relatively untested assumptions about the classroom and the practices that pervade it. These metaphors should be considered an asset which, if effectively utilized, can aid in the work of teacher preparation. To that end, this study employed the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of Lakoff & Johnson (1980) within the propositional analysis framework of Steen (1999) to provide a generalizable approach to metaphor analysis that could be used in educator preparation programs.
ISSN:2638-4035