Establishing a method for analysing metaphors in higher education teaching: a case from business management teaching

ABSTRACT

It has been suggested that metaphors have a crucial influence on the way we perceive and construct the world. As a result, metaphor analysis has been used as a way to reveal, analyse and understand conceptions of teaching in higher education. This paper introduces a different way to analyse metaphors for teaching than the ones previously used in higher education. By focusing on temporarily stable, spontaneously uttered metaphors in conversation data, the unfiltered metaphors for teaching are analysed. Through a thorough analysis of eight interviews with lecturers from business management, it is established how teaching in this context is conceptualised as a vehicle on tracks and as having levels as well as depth and width. It is discussed how the identified metaphors open up a space of possibilities for the lecturers and to what extent these results can be generalised beyond this context.