accommodate and assimilate new knowledge and educational responsibility. In this manner, a metaphor may be a
concrete and potent means to describe one’s beliefs. Personal metaphors “highlight and make coherent our own
pasts, our present activities, and our dreams, hopes and goals as well” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, pp. 232-233).
Building from this conceptual base, the two studies reported herein examine preservice elementary teachers’
metaphors of teaching and literacy at the beginning and end of a semester-long literacy course at three Midwestern
universities. Several questions arose:
1.
2.
3.
What metaphorical themes emerged as the respondents described teaching and literacy?
To what extent did the proportion of particular metaphorical themes vary among the universities?
Based on the initial findings, what implications are there for literacy teacher educators?
Literature Review
The theoretical framework of the present study is Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) cognitive linguistic theory of
metaphor. Metaphors are more than a literary device; they structure our perception, thoughts, and actions. For the
purposes of this study, metaphor refers to those analogic devices that lie beneath the surface of a person’s
awareness and serve as a cognitive device for learning new information, concepts, and skills, and as a means for
framing and defining experience in order to achieve meaning about one’s life (Hardcastle, Yamamoto, Parkay & Chan,
1985; Yamamoto, Hardcastle, Muehl, & Muehl, 1990).
Since Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) seminal study, metaphor research grew steadily throughout the decade
(Marshall, 1990; Munby, 1986; Munby & Russell, 1990; Provenzo, McCloskey, Kottkamp & Cohn, 1989; Tobin, 1990).
More recently, Mahlios and Maxson (1998) categorized preservice teachers’ metaphors of teaching into four themes: