REFLECTING ON THE USE OF METAPHOR: TWO PROFESSORS' PROCESSES OF DISCOVERY

This article summarizes the literature concerning the use of visual and textual metaphors and describes outcomes of a project designed to help teacher education candidates begin integrating their personal beliefs about teaching with their growing professional knowledge and emergent practice. By using metaphors, teacher educators have the opportunity to help candidates solidify convictions and meanings and uncover “tacit or unarticulated” beliefs (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995 Clandinin, D. J. and Connelly, F. M. 1995. Teachers' professional knowledge landscapes, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.  [Google Scholar], p. 6) that can lead to frame conflict (Reddy, 1993 Reddy, M. 1993. “The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language.”. In Metaphor and thought , 2nd ed., Edited by: Ortony, A. 164–201. Cambridge, , England: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), that is, dueling metaphors. For example, there is a frame conflict in the conception of student value in the metaphors of teacher-as-police-officer and teacher-as-gardener. In one metaphor, students are perceived as deficit “others” who must be carefully watched by authorities; in the gardening metaphor, student potential is recognized as “more than” what can be seen on the surface. This article demonstrates how one university faculty explores textual and visual metaphor to encourage discourse among the candidates, other peers, and professors in a school of education. This extended dialogue gives candidates the opportunity to “compare their own characterizations to those of their peers, and depending on the responses of others, either maintain their own construals or bring theirs in line with those of the others” (Petrie & Oshlag, 1993 Petrie, H. and Oshlag, R. 1993. “Metaphor and learning.”. In Metaphor and thought , 2nd ed., Edited by: Ortony, A. 579–609. Cambridge, , England: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 602). This is the educative process of frame restructuring. As an added benefit of this project, the authors have found that using an artistic format combined with a written explanation of their work requires candidates to become more thoughtful, reflective practitioners.