Abstract:

Metaphors have been diversely used in teacher education research : to understand teacher representation of their professional selves ( Saban, 2004, Clarken,1997); to explore teacher’s conceptions and beliefs about teaching and learning ( Katsoutas and Malamitsa, 2009);to examine the role of social and cultural contexts in shaping our cognition of the world( Rosaen and Florio-Ruane, 2008). As an object of research, metaphors are powerful instruments, which- when studied for the conceptual and linguistic insights- reveal the intuitive and folk knowledge which teachers bring to bear on their experience and practice. As a pedagogy, metaphors function as a metacognitive tool in teacher education programmes to help teachers break the frames existing in their discourses and analyse how their language about teaching shapes their practice( Rosaen and Florio-Ruane, 2008). This paper documents the use of metaphors as a both an object of research and a pedagogy for 35 teachers following the Teacher’s Diploma Programme of the Mauritius Institute of Education. First, we examine the metaphors used by teachers to describe themselves, considering their sociolinguistic repertoire to draw out the implicit cultural frames. Second, we document their learning journey analyzing how metaphors can support teachers to wean from their long standing beliefs about teaching and learning.

Keywords:

Metaphors, teacher's beliefs.