Literacy metaphors of pre‐service teachers: do they change after instruction? Which metaphors are stable? How do they connect to theories?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service elementary teachers' metaphors of "literacy" and "teaching literacy" at the commencement and conclusion of a year-long literacy methods course at a Midwestern American university. Over a 3-year period, a total of 47 participants enrolled in the twosemester literacy methods course with embedded practicum. Data were entered in NVivio 7 and analyzed for qualitative themes. Results identified six themes of teaching literacy, five of which connect to literacy theories. The majority of the pre-service teachers maintained their metaphorical belief after a year-long methods/practicum course. Four metaphors appeared to be stable across time and population. The article provides implications for linking the research reported with contemporary ideas for teaching in teacher preparation programs.

Adult literacy students’ metaphors of reading and writing

“…Some of the elements include writing strategies, summarizing, collaborating, goals, prewriting, sentence combining, and the process writing approach. Since the idea of parts or elements is fairly dominant in the research, it is no surprise that previous research (Massengill & Mahlios, 2008;Massengill Shaw & Mahlios, 2011) identified this as a prevailing metaphor. However, it is a surprise that adult students in need of literacy instruction identified this as a dominant metaphor.…”

“…Differences in metaphor selection have been found between pre-service and in-service teacher beliefs (Martinez, Sauleda, & Huber, 2001), male and female teachers (Saban, Kocbeker, & Saban, 2007), and content area teachers (Saban, Kocbeker, & Saban, 2007). Research on literacy metaphors of pre-service elementary teachers have identified six themes of teaching literacy, five of which connect to literacy theories (Massengill Shaw & Mahlios, 2011). Themes of teaching that arose in previous research, specifically nurturing and guiding (Mahlios & Maxson, 1998), were evident in the literacy metaphor responses of the population in the more recent study as well, illustrating their commonality and perhaps widespread nature.…”

Determining the Perceptions of Female Mathematics Teachers Concerning the Concept of “Female Mathematician” Through Metaphors

“…Features attributed from the source of metaphor to the subject of metaphor (The word "precious" in the statement, "FMs are like boron mine because they are precious.") This question which was prepared examining the studies by Erickson and Pinnegar (2017), Ma and Gao (2017), Shaw and Mahlios (2011), Vickery (2018), was presented to two field experts for their opinions. The question was arranged according to the opinions of the field experts.…”

¿Qué creencias sostienen estudiantes de pedagogía, profesorado en servicio y personal académico formador de docentes, en Chile, sobre la pobreza?

“…Respecto a la metodología, creen que la lectura debe enseñarse en forma lineal, yendo de lo simple a lo complejo (fonemas, decodificación y vocabulario); y la escritura consistiría en deletrear, poner mayúsculas, signos de puntuación y usar frases completas; además, esto ocurriría naturalmente después de aprender a leer (Añorve, 2011;Shaw y Mahlios, 2011;Stevens y Palincsar, 1992).…”