Reconciling Teaching and Teacher Education Metaphors: Realizing an Instructional Centering

Abstract

In the following chapter, the teaching and teacher education metaphors of one teacher educator embraced across a career are shared and examined for their perceived effectiveness in supporting their respective roles. In this self-case study, five teaching and three teacher education metaphors are identified. The teaching metaphors detailed here were found to be somewhat limiting when applied to teacher education. Additionally, the initial teacher education metaphors which emerged were not felt to be completely contributing to effective teaching. The resulting tension between teaching and teacher education metaphors found release for the author through the creation of a composite metaphor which could efficiently function in both arenas as well as in some areas of life outside of academia. Based on this study’s findings, it is suggested that teacher educators regularly reflect on their own metaphors to determine whether their teaching, teacher education, and potentially the metaphors they embrace from other aspects of their lives, can be combined in some way to function more effectively.