Metaphors Used by Malaysian Teachers-in-Training: Implications for Language Teacher Education

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, there has been increasing interest in exploring what language teachers believe (Borg, 2006). Often these beliefs are expressed in terms of metaphors (Richards, 1998; Woodward, 1991), but there has been little recent research connecting the two strands. The present study is based on the personal reflections of a group of 72 trainee teachers in a Malaysian University after a three-month practicum in local high schools. In these reflections, as well as currently fashionable constructs such as facilitator and motivator, these students often described their perceptions of the role of the language teacher using various metaphors. The wide range of metaphors volunteered by these trainee teachers were coded into various categories, such as terms relating to facilitating, mentorship, entertaining and kinship. This presentation will discuss a number of these, and also quote some of the trainees' comments in support of their chosen metaphor, which thereby reveals their underlying beliefs about teaching and learning. Relating their professional activity to other roles illuminates not only what teachers themselves believe, but also reinvigorates notions of (language) teaching itself. One of the implications of this study is that teacher educators, both in the specific setting and in relatable contexts elsewhere, can incorporate such metaphors into their programmes and in this way reimagine, refine and redefine the role of the language teacher for the benefit of their students, and themselves.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Metaphorical Perceptions Regarding the Concept of Curriculum

“…Some of these studies focus on teacher (Hasim et al, 2013;Karadağ & Gültekin, 2012;Koç, 2014), student (Saban, 2010), learning and teaching (Leavya et al, 2007;Saban et al, 2007;Tannehill & MacPhail, 2014), knowledge, learning and learner (Kalraa & Baveja, 2012), teacher, teaching, learning, teaching material and assessment (Eren & Tekinarslan, 2013), teaching and literacy (Shaw & Mahlios, 2008), educational planning (Boyacı, 2009), classroom (Levine, 2005Uzun & Paliç, 2013), classroom and classroom management (Örücü, 2012), school and ideal school (Özdemir & Akkaya, 2013), university (Dalgıç et al, 2012), professional identity (Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011), scientist (Akınoğlu et al, 2015, scientific thinking (Akınoğlu & Eren-Dilek, 2015). Hence, metaphors combining theory and practice in education allow conscious analysis of the results revealed by theory and practice (Jensen, 2006;Levine, 2005).…”

From Students' Perspectives: EFL Learners' Metaphors about English Instructors in Turkey

“…Hasim et al (2013) found that students regarded teachers as someone from their family, namely as a family member. The finding of 'teacher as a nurturer' was also supported by the findings of the study conducted by Hasim et al (2013). On the other hand, in terms of negative metaphors, the students as the participants of this study viewed teachers as someone unpredictable and as someone negative to students and similar findings were also found in the study conducted by Demirtaş and Çoban (2014).The results of another study conducted in Turkish context were also in line with the findings of the present study both in positive and negative metaphors (Sayar, 2014).…”

Preservice preschool teachers self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes toward teaching profession

“…As Haggis (2004) indicates, metaphors can be used to shape thoughts, but also to shape the nature and scope of action, in both creative and restrictive ways. Preservice teachers may examine their current views and consider carefully the type of teachers they wish to be and become through developing metaphors (Wright et al, 2013) which represent beliefs regarding the various teacher roles (Hasim et al, 2013) and therefore, the use of metaphors can enable preschool teachers to represent their personal understanding of the teaching profession, themselves as learners and as teachers in a way that can be beneficial in exploring the complexity of teaching (Earle, 1995). In this context, 75 valid metaphors were created by 278 participants.…”

“…Therefore, qualitative part of this study supports the findings obtained from the Teaching Profession Attitude Scale and revealing the pre-service preschool teachers" positive attitudes toward teaching profession. Similarly, a large number of studies have examined the metaphors based on preservice teachers" metaphorical representations regarding the concept of teacher, teaching profession, teaching and learning process (Black and Halliwell, 2000;Chen, 2003;Hasim et al, 2013;Küçükoğlu et al, 2014;Mouraz et al, 2013;Saban et al, 2007;Yung, 2001) and revealed much more positive attitudes and beliefs rather than negative ones. In this context, positive attitudes towards teaching profession are among the most essential properties that prospective teachers have in order to attain teacher training process (Güven and Kaya, 2013).…”