D) Studies Conducted On Metaphor

STUDIES CONDUCTED ON METAPHOR
What? I am a golden finger? Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language
Fion Ho Yan Lau
The University of Hong Kong

fionhyl@graduate.hku.hk
Metaphors have long fascinated many scholars for their capability of embodying abstract ideas. They are considered as heavily culturally loaded linguistic units which closely connect language, culture and thoughts. In respect of the belief that metaphors are culture- and language-specific, people outside a speech community are expected to encounter difficulties in understanding culture-specific metaphors of a foreign language. This paper explores the processes through which people interpret metaphors of foreign languages. Interviews were conducted with 40 native speakers of Danish and Cantonese, in which subjects were asked to interpret English, Cantonese and Korean metaphors. Subjects from both cultures employed similar strategies to interpret the metaphors. The reasons for successful or unsuccessful interpretations are also discussed.
LCOM Papers 2 (2009), 77 99
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1. Introduction1
Since the twentieth century, the connection between language and culture has become a prevalent research topic. It has fascinated not only linguists, but also people from a wide variety of backgrounds. The inseparability between language and culture is later confirmed and reaffirmed by many pieces of research (see, for example, Sapir, 1929; Carroll, 1956; Wardhaugh, 1986). Some scholars such as H. Douglas Brown even depict the relationship between language and culture as flesh and blood. They believe that language would be dead without culture and culture would have no shape without language (Jiang, 2000). To be specific, culture, in this paper, is defined as a set of shared assumptions, meanings and understandings that are developed in a given speech community. Among the linguistic devices, metaphor is one of the salient ones reflecting culture. With their capability of embodying conceptual ideas in different cultures, metaphors permeate almost every sphere of our lives and serve as a vehicle of thoughts across languages. The conventionalization of metaphors, i.e. the process by which some figurative expressions become integral parts of our language resources, also contributes to the unconscious use of metaphors in our work and speech, be they formal or informal. In respect of Leechs (1974) understanding of metaphors as being culture- and language- specific, some research has suggested that foreign language learning closely ties with cultural learning. In the eyes of most Chinese speakers for instance, English is regarded as a foreign language. Some academics such as Scollon (1995), Chun (2003) and Chen (2007) have conducted research on the topic of contrasting Chinese and English metaphors, aiming to study the different cultural assumptions behind the construction of metaphors. Notwithstanding the authors vastly diverse backgrounds, their studies validate culture as one crucial variable of establishing metaphors. They further reiterate that the ways people construct and make sense of metaphors vary across languages and cultures. Nevertheless, in addition to language proficiency, the comprehension of metaphors of a foreign language can be facilitated by the similarities between ones culture and that of the foreign language, as well as the transparency of the metaphor itself. Although the interconnectedness between language and culture is well established, an important question remains: What are some of the processes through which people
This study is developed based on an earlier group research conducted in Denmark in 2008. The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of Anne LEE, Ernest NG and Ruby CHAN in the previous study.
Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 79
interpret metaphors of a foreign language? This paper aims to address this question by exploring and explaining the ways in which people from two different cultures (Hong Kong and Demark) interpret metaphors of other languages. With English being widely spoken by most people in Hong Kong and Denmark as a second language, Hong Kong and Denmark serve an excellent ground for this study. Being a cosmopolitan city in Asia and an old kingdom in Europe respectively, the diverse cultures and backgrounds of both places promise to shed light on the question of how speakers interpret metaphors of a foreign language.
2. Metaphor, language and culture

In the 1980s, cognitive linguists like George Lakoff and Mark Johnson proposed that irrespective of the varieties of language, metaphors are one of the basic essential elements of human communication. They exist in almost every language and are helpful for the expression of abstract ideas. However, owing to distinct language systems and cultural characteristics, metaphors used within a particular community can hardly be transferred to another social group or be fully understood by people outside the community.
2.1 Meaning and metaphors

Since Aristotle, whose philosophy mainly focuses on the universal, the fascination with metaphors has sparked in many philosophers, cognitive linguists and literary theorists, etc. The use of metaphors is not only constrained to the ornamental literatures, but it can also be applied to other contemporary spoken and written discourses such as advertisements, legal speeches and scientific explanations. With regard to Lakoff and Johnson (1980, as cited in Tompkins and Lawley, 2000), metaphor is defined as a process: it is principally a way of conceiving of one thing in terms of another, and its primary function is understanding. With the ability to embody conceptual ideas, metaphor is hailed as an important part of the interconnected systems of language, thinking, affect, physicality and culture (Cameron, 2008). Metaphors can be categorized into different collections, one special feature of metaphors is their degree of transparency. The transparency and opacity of metaphors
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largely determine the comprehension of metaphors of both native speakers and language learners. According to Guttenplan (2005: 23), transparency is interpreted as when we hear a metaphor utterance framed in familiar words, we have an unmediated sense of having understood it a sense not unlike that when we hear an utterance with familiar words used in a straightforwardly literal way. In other words, the familiar words that appear in the figurative language sometimes enhance its level of transparency, and hence facilitate our understanding of metaphors. With respect to transparency, Wieser (2008) also expresses that different levels of transparency of metaphors do affect the ease of processing, i.e. whether the meaning of the metaphors will be actively constructed or directly retrieved from memory. Three levels of metaphor transparency, including novel transparent metaphor, conventionalized transparent metaphor and fossilized opaque metaphor, are thus put forth. Novel transparent metaphors are any new and unfamiliar metaphors which normally take significantly longer to process than other literal sentences (Camp, 2006). For example, a Japanese writer, Yamazaki Takumi (1998), depicts life as a picnic. He intends to encourage his readers to live enthusiastically as if they were going on a picnic. Conventionalized transparent metaphors, by contrast, are expressions that have become part of peoples language resources Conventionalization of metaphor occurs through the use in a discourse community in which co-adaptive processes of accommodation lead to shared ways of talking among members (Cameron, 2003:110). For instance, the expression time flies is considered as conventionalized because it is now commonly incorporated into our speech even though everyone knows time does not literally fly. Because of conventionalization, this type of metaphors normally takes people a shorter processing time to decode. Fossilized opaque metaphors, i.e. idioms, which are made up of a string of words are the most opaque type of metaphor. Nevertheless, a clear context and a transparent relation between the literal and idiomatic meanings of an idiom may ease the opaqueness of the metaphor. For some idioms, one of the words in the idiom makes a more transparent contribution to overall idiom meaning than the rest (Vega Moreno, 2007: 182). In the English idiom wash hands of it for instance, the word wash carries a meaning of making something clean, while the idiom itself has a definite meaning of withdrawing from something. In this case, the word wash could be a hint of understanding the idiom. Needless to dispute, the understanding and interpretation of metaphors also heavily relies on ones first language and culture, in addition to the transparency of metaphors.
2.2 Language, culture and thinking

In the previous decades, many academics like Sapir (1929) and Brown (1994) have confirmed the inseparability of language and culture. Brown (1994) expresses that the two are simply interwoven with one another and are part of each other. While language serves mainly as an embodiment or reflection of a culture, every language form we use carries meanings that are not in the same sense because it is associated with culture and culture is more extensive than language (Nida, 1998: 29). Although language and culture are inseparable, they are, however, seen as two semiotic systems. With regards to Halliday (1975), culture in particular is seen as a semiotic system in which meanings or information is encoded in the meaning potentials of its members. The linguistic system is yet another semiotic system that constitutes culture. Therefore, owing to the reciprocal effects of language and culture that they shape and constitute one another, a learner of a new language, Korean for instance, has to learn the Korean culture at the same time in order to master the language comprehensively. To master a new language successfully depends on how much the learners immerse themselves into the native speakers world of conception, in addition to the thorough understanding of the language system. By this, conception means the thoughts and/or mental impressions about the world, which are formed through biological and social processes. As suggested by some cognitive and cross-cultural psychologists like Nisbett (2003), human conception which can be shaped through formal education depends on cultural contexts. It is never universal but is profoundly influenced by culture instead. Hence, people from the same speech community who share constructed experiences are expected to have some cultural patterns of thinking and responses (Fiaola and MacDorman, 2008). In connection with the completeness of language learning, conceptual fluency, i.e. the knowledge of how the target language reflects or encodes its concepts on the basis of metaphorical structuring is considered comparably significant to verbal fluency which can be acquired through gradual education (Kecskes, 1999: 148; Danesi and Mollica, 1998). Cultural understanding serving as a conceptual base is thus unquestionably one of the important elements of second language learning while second to knowing the language system. On account of their arbitrariness, metaphors, being one of the higher levels of language learning, are mostly culture-specific while a limited number of them is cross-cultural on occasion. But L and L (2004: 1) comment that most metaphors are
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ready-made, these ready-made metaphors strongly reflect cultural perceptions and attitudes which have been in existence in a culture for many years. For instance, in the case of a man being rejected by a lady for a date, a Danish figurative expression goes like biting into a sour apple whereas the Cantonese one goes like eating a lemon. Although the expressions share the same meaning, they are culturally loaded and their surface meanings are barely equivalent when translated into a common language like English. The conventional use of these expressions allows them to become more localized and culture specific. In addition to Broughtons (1978: 198) belief that foreign language learning involves cultural learning, the connection between culture-specific languages and conception development also sheds light on the inseparability of language, thoughts and culture. In relation to culture-specific expressions, idioms which are regarded as fossilized opaque metaphors are a typical culture-bound linguistic device. They are one of the best vehicles illustrating how metaphoric language serves as a manifestation of a culture. Alexander (1978) adds that idioms are deliberately fuzzy and have a high degree of tolerance of ambiguity. Without prior knowledge and exposure to a language and its culture, the English idiom bread and butter (meaning basic living), for example, can hardly be rightly interpreted. Leech (1974) therefore concludes that people from different cultures with vastly diverse conceptual thinking may not be able to understand the figurative speeches of another culture. Hence, understanding metaphors requires knowledge of not only the linguistic meaning, but also the conceptual meaning which is overt, and the associative meaning which is implicit. Traugott (1984) also adds that the importance of differentiating sentence meaning, which is the literal meaning of an utterance, and utterance meaning, which is the underlying or intended meaning of the utterance, should be taken into account in order to fully understand the figurative meaning of an expression.
3. Objectives of study
Since a lot of studies proposed that language and culture are interwoven, metaphors, as one salient linguistic device reflecting culture, have sparked researchers interests in how culture influences the construction and understanding of figurative language. However, instead of solely focusing on the cultural aspect of metaphor interpretation, this study aims to investigate how people usually make sense of metaphors of languages other than their first language. Based on this primary objective, this study
also attempts to identify some variables that facilitate and/or hinder the right interpretation of metaphors.
4. Methodology
The study was conducted in two intervals: the first was completed in Denmark from 26 May to 6 June 2008 and the second was done in Hong Kong from 20 to 31 December 2008. A field study which included face-to-face assessments of English metaphors interpretation involving 40 randomly selected young people was carried out. All subjects spoke English as their second language and were locally educated in either Denmark or Hong Kong. They were selected on the belief that young people aged from 20 to 29 have a wider exposure to the English cultures, like American and British cultures, than the younger or older generations, and that they are the main group living under the influence of English popular culture. An equal number of subjects, i.e. 20, was selected correspondingly from Aalborg (Denmark) and Hong Kong for a face-to-face assessment on English metaphors. All assessments were conducted in English and were done on an individual basis, in avoidance of groupthink. The rationales of this study were clearly explained to the subjects before the assessment and they were asked to rate their English proficiency in the first place. During the process, a total of thirteen metaphors were shown to the subjects, in which five were put into sentences. In addition to English metaphors, three Cantonese metaphors translated into English were included in the assessment for the Danish subjects and three Korean metaphors translated into English were integrated in the assessment for the Hong Kong subjects. The original English metaphors were the same for all subjects. A short interview concerning participants recognition of non-English metaphors, the reasons why they could or could not interpret some of the metaphors, and suggested ways for enhancing their awareness and understanding of English metaphors was conducted at the end of each assessment.
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5. Results2
A thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the data and information collected from the field study. The data collected from the short interview after each assessment are presented under four big themes: Recognition of English Metaphors, Accounts for Correct Interpretation, Accounts for Incorrect Interpretation, as well as Enhancements of English Metaphoric Awareness and Understanding. Subjects responses are summarized as follows.
5.1 Recognition of English Metaphors

Almost none of the interviewed subjects, except one, could recognize the non-English metaphors and distinguish them from the English ones. The only Danish subject who could interpret the Cantonese metaphors revealed that because of her Danish-Chinese family background, she could understand Cantonese jargons and spoke some Cantonese as her second language. The rest of the interviewed subjects, however, expressed that since all the metaphors were presented in English, they had a feeling that all of them should be English metaphors. Some added that since they had limited exposure to Cantonese or the Korean language and culture, they could not identify them as non-English metaphors straight away.
5.2 Accounts for Correct Interpretation

In addition to their daily exposure to some of the English metaphors, many subjects expressed that because there are similar or exact equivalents in their own languages and cultures, most of the English metaphors could be decoded easily. The subjects further revealed that they made sense of the metaphors based on the literal meanings of the metaphors and the given contexts where the metaphors appeared. They also relied on the direct translations from English to their own native language to understand the metaphors. Some subjects even attempted to visualize the metaphors or associate them with their own cultures in order to comprehend the underlying meanings of them.
See appendices for accessed metaphors, interview questions and comprehensive assessment results.
5.3 Accounts for Incorrect Interpretation

The interviewed subjects said that the principal difficulty in interpreting the given metaphors was their limited exposure to English metaphors. Other relevant reasons mentioned by the subjects included their levels of English proficiency, the lack of cultural understanding, the literal meaning being totally unrelated to the underlying meaning of the metaphor, incorrect association or conceptual understanding under the influence of the subjects own culture and knowledge, as well as the infrequent use of English metaphors in everyday life.
5.4 Enhancements of English Metaphoric Awareness and Understanding

Being not able to correctly interpret all English metaphors, interviewees suggested some effective ways of enhancing their English metaphoric awareness, such as reading more English articles and books, looking up the English metaphors in a dictionary, watching English movies and live shows, making contact with English people, and immersions in an English-speaking country.
6. Discussion
The subjects, both Danish and Hong Kong people, overall displayed a fairly good understanding of English metaphors while they showed a relatively weak awareness towards these metaphors generally. During the survey, although many subjects revealed that they did not understand some English metaphors because they had never used or heard of them before, they gave some sensible interpretations on them. They made guesses at the meanings of these metaphors by referring to the metaphors literal meanings and the associate meanings according to their own cultures. Due to the fact that English is not their native language, the interviewees were, however, not aware of the non-English metaphors as they had only a very limited exposure to English metaphors. Their non-nativeness of English has hindered them from recognizing the English metaphors successfully. They also pointed out that whether one metaphor exists in their language or culture greatly affects their understanding of the metaphor, especially when it is presented in a second language.
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Among the seven English metaphors, some were particularly common to either the Danish or the Hong Kong subjects, or even both. One significant finding of this study supports Kovecsess (2002) proposition that cultural variations which are peculiar to specific languages do exist among metaphors, for example, the different source domains. According to the assessment results, 95% of the Hong Kong subjects correctly interpreted the metaphor small potato which infers an unimportant person, especially at the workplace. With reference to the fact that small potato is indeed a Hong Kong English metaphor originated in Hong Kong and is widely used throughout the city, the Hong Kong subjects could automatically assign the correct meaning to it. This result seems to suggest that personal exposure to the use of metaphors is one important aspect of fully understanding them. However, being unfamiliar with the Hong Kong English metaphors, the Danish subjects tended to understand the metaphor small potato based on the clumsy appearance of a potato; the word small that appears in the metaphor was interpreted as meaning inessential. Some guesses such as an unimportant issue and a stupid person were therefore made. In fact, small fish is a more common expression for describing unimportant people in the Danish culture while these people can be termed as a small cog in the machine in English. In relation to this, the dissimilar source domains can possibly account for the observation that only 30% of the Danish subjects could accurately interpret this metaphor. Apart from the conventional use of metaphors within a specific territory, historical and cultural backgrounds of a country also have an impact on peoples understanding of metaphors. According to the data, 95% of the Danish subjects showed a clear understanding of the English metaphors wash hands of it, in the same boat and break
the ice because they have exact equivalents in their language. The meanings of these
metaphors in their first language are exactly the same as those of English. One plausible reason why there are exact Danish equivalents can be traced back to the history of English and Danish which are genetically related and belong to the same language family of proto-Germanic (Lyovin, 1997). The common language ancestor of Danish and English probably sheds light on the correct interpretations of metaphors by the Danish subjects due to shared or similar cultural assumptions. This observation is supported by Lyovin (1997: 4) who points out that it is likely that there are some common linguistic traits in two languages because these traits have diffused from one language into another through language contact.
On the contrary, without any direct relations between English and Cantonese, the Hong Kong subjects encountered more difficulties than the Danish subjects in assigning accurate meanings to the metaphors, like in the same boat. Although Cantonese has an exact equivalent of in the same boat, it does not share exactly the same meaning as that of English. In English, in the same boat refers to being in the same difficult situation. However, it can refer to either a positive or a negative situation in Cantonese. Through the Chinese understanding of this figurative expression, some Hong Kong subjects were unable to specify the negative situation that this English metaphor connotes. Owing to this difference of connotation between English and Cantonese, the Danish subjects could therefore make a more accurate interpretation for this metaphor than the Hong Kong people. Nonetheless, knowing that the metaphor in the same boat exists in two unrelated languages, i.e. English and Chinese, an interesting question arises: If a metaphor shares similar meaning between two unrelated languages, from which language does this metaphor actually originate? In accordance with history, religious beliefs also play a role in the interpretation of long-established metaphors. As a Christian country, in Denmark, over 80% of its citizens are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (see the official website of Denmark 2009). In light of this, most of the Danish people (95% of the Danish subjects) should probably have no difficulties understanding the metaphor wash hands
of it which originated from an allusion of the Bible (Matthew, 27: 24). Hence, in
addition to the equivalents among different languages, the influence of a religion is highly likely to enhance the understanding of metaphors in other languages. Some metaphors that have long been used in the scriptures of the holy books for many thousands of years are expected to be understood across languages. Throughout the field study, the most peculiar phenomenon noted is that many subjects, both Danish and Hong Kong, tried to translate the given metaphors and/or the contexts that come along with the metaphors into their own languages in order to understand them. Over half of the overall subjects were able to understand the metaphor an old hand (meaning an experienced or skilled person) after they completely translated it into their first language and took the literal meaning of it. They succeeded in associating the word old with someone who is experienced or aged and hand with the action of working. This observation, in accordance with Wieser (2008), implies that the higher transparency of metaphors can ease the interpretation of figurative language when contextual clues are absent.
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On top of direct translations, the interviewed subjects also stated the significance of contextual clues for metaphors interpretation. The subjects pointed out that such clues provided them with hints that facilitated their understanding of unfamiliar metaphors. The metaphor dark horse served as a very good example in this study. By presenting this metaphor in the sentence like He is not outstanding but is a dark horse in this
game, over 60% of the overall subjects correctly inferred dark horse as someone who
is not attended to at first, but performs unexpectedly well on an event. Although several Hong Kong subjects attempted to associate this metaphor with the Cantonese equivalent, some subjects of both Danish and Hong Kong expressed that the words
not outstanding and but were major hints for accurate interpretation. Their responses
thus support the assumption that contextual clues are essentially vital, especially for understanding metaphors of a foreign language. An additional interesting observation of this study is subjects dependence on visualization and imagination. When they were given the unfamiliar metaphors, some subjects tended to visualize or imagine the appearance and nature of the object. Other than spreading ones octopus legs, tip of the iceberg is a typical example where the subjects deduced meaning by visualization. Having understood that tip is just a small part of an iceberg appearing above the sea level, 85% of the total subjects gave the correct definition that it means one small part of a larger issue. In relation to image schema, Kimmel (2002: 11) explains that the human capacity to build complex models rests on basic physical experiences in space, which motivate conceptual representations. In other words, people in general assign meaning to something unfamiliar according to experiences. Closely tied with image schema, a remarkable result concerning the association of unfamiliar metaphors with everyday life experience is also noted. As suggested by Brown and Yule (1983: 133), the general knowledge about the world underpins our interpretation in discourse. Because of different experiences and cultural backgrounds, varied associations of metaphors are expected. The metaphors bread
and butter, kicking the bucket, cucumber-like face, golden finger and eating a lemon
are instances which cause distinct associations. Without the habit of having bread and butter as the basic food for breakfast every day, only around 20% of the overall subjects could spell out the exact meaning of bread and butter as a metaphor by guess. Two other noteworthy examples include cucumber-like face and golden figure. None of the Hong Kong subjects could associate a cucumber-like face with an acne face (as in the Korean culture) because cucumber, in Hong Kong, is normally linked with
bitter taste which implies unhappy or sad feelings. Some Hong Kong subjects also associated green colour (like that of cucumber) as cowardness or the feeling of scare. On the contrary, when they were presented with the Cantonese metaphor golden
finger (meaning a traitor who is keen on backstabbing others), some Danish subjects
instantly associated it with the James Bond movie or the story in Greek mythology about Midas golden touch. As a result of different associations, a lot of the subjects were astonished at these connotations and the cultural discrepancies. With reference to the above instances, this study attempted to reveal some common strategies for deconstructing metaphors of a foreign language. From the analysis, it is interesting to have noted that people from both Asian and Western places (i.e. Hong Kong and Denmark) actually used similar processes of decoding metaphors of another language, such as translating directly the English metaphors into the subjects native languages or visualizing the metaphors. The empirical data collected for this study have described some of the ways in which people make sense of figurative expressions of other language or cultural groups.
7. Conclusion
Regarding the claim that most metaphors are culture- as well as language-specific, this study was set up to explore the processes in which people attempt to understand metaphors of a foreign language. Throughout the study, the empirical data and observations further support Broughtons (1978) belief that foreign language learning should go in line with cultural learning, and at the same time, confirm the general relationship among language, culture and thinking. While the findings of this study suggest that cultural and personal experiences, together with mental impressions of the world tend to provide the largest portion of significant contribution to the understanding of unfamiliar figurative language, some other common strategies and processes involved in the interpretation of metaphors are observed as well. By exploring the ways in which people make sense of unfamiliar metaphors, it is hoped to provide some ideas for future researchers who should further examine the complex strategies and processes involved in understanding metaphorical ideas and expressions. The findings also reveal some variables which may have an impact on metaphor understanding, such as religious beliefs, contextual clues, and similarities between the speakers first language and the foreign language.
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Nevertheless, this study has explored only some of the most apparent strategies and processes involved in the interpretation of unfamiliar metaphors with a limited scope. If the wider research goal is to examine metaphor construction and interpretation in a specific speech community or to look at the most effective or important processes and approaches to analyzing unfamiliar metaphors or use of language, it is important to investigate further in the cultural and cognitive aspects involved in the processes. In this respect, it is hoped that this research has made some contributions to future studies, in which more precise definitions like culture, speech community and cognition could be further developed.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Assessment results
Table 1. English proficiency of surveyed subjects Subject/Proficiency Danes TOTAL
3
Proficient
Good
Fair
Poor
Number of people (%)

5 (25) 1(5) 6(15)

8(40) 7(35) 15(37.5)

7(35) 12(60) 19(47.5)

0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
Table 2. Correct interpretation of metaphors Metaphor 1. Small potato (Hong Kong English) 2. An old hand Correct interpretation
Number of Danes (%)

6(30) 11(55) 19(95) 12(60)
Total (%) 25(62.5) 23(57.5)
3. Wash hands of it
4. Bread and butter 5. In the same boat 6. Break the ice 7. Golden finger (Cantonese) 8. Eat lemon (Cantonese) 9. Cucumber-like face (Korean) 10. A pumpkin (Korean/U.S.) 11. Its just the tip of the
19(95)
7(35) 19(95) 19(95) 1(5) 1(5) --18(90) 1(5) 8(40) 0(0)
13(65)
2(10) 14(70) 12(60) --0(0) 1(5) 16(80) -17(85) 3(15)
32(80)
9(22.5) 33(82.5) 31(77.5) 1(5) 1(5) 0(0) 1(5) 34(85) 1(5) 25(62.5) 3(7.5)
iceberg.
12. He is my beggar son. (Cantonese) 13. He is not outstanding but is a dark horse in this game. 14. There are lots of white elephants in Asia which
3
English proficiency is self-rated by the subjects.
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waste a lot of money to preserve. 15. Peter, the old man, just kicked the bucket. 16. He is busy every night because he spreads his octopus legs. (Korean) -2(10) 2(10) 8(40) 8(40) 16(40)
Appendix 2: Assessment form (Danish subjects)

Age range: 11-19 40-49 Proficient 20-29 50-59 Good 30-39 60 or above Fair Poor
English Proficiency:
Part I
1. Small potato Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: 2. An old hand Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: 3. I wash my hands of it Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No No No
4.
Bread and butter Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No
5.
In the same boat Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No
6.
Golden finger Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No
7.
Break the ice Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No
8.
Eating lemon Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No
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Part II
1. Its just the tip of the iceberg. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: 2. He is not outstanding but is a dark horse in this game. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: 3. He is my beggar son. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: 4. There are lots of white elephants in Asia which waste a lot of money to preserve. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: 5. He just kicked the bucket. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: No No No No No
Part III
1. Did you recognize some are not English metaphors? Why? 2. What ways would you recommend if you are to raise your metaphoric awareness and understanding?
Appendix 3: Assessment form (Hong Kong subjects)

Age range: 11-19 40-49 Proficient 20-29 50-59 Good 30-39 60 or above Fair Poor
English Proficiency:
Part I
1. Small potato Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: 2. An old hand Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: 3. Wash hands of it Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: 4. Bread and butter Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: No No No No
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5.
In the same boat Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: No
6.
Cucumber-like face Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: No
7.
Break the ice Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: No
8.
A pumpkin Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: No
Part II
1. Its just the tip of the iceberg. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: No
2.
He is not outstanding but is a dark horse in this game Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: No
3.
He is busy every night because he spreads his octopus legs. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: No
4.
There are lots of white elephants in Asia which waste a lot of money to preserve. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: No
5.
Teddy, the old man, just kicked the bucket. Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Factors affecting interpretation: No
Part III
1. Did you recognize some are not English metaphors? Why? 2. Why do you think you can or cannot rightly interpret some of the metaphors? 3. What ways would you recommend if you are to raise your metaphoric awareness and understanding?
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Making sense of teaching through metaphors: a review across three studies

by M. Mahlios D. Massengill Shaw and A. Barry
2010
This is the authors accepted manuscript, post peer-review. The original published version can be found at the link below. Mahlios, M., Shaw, D., & Barry, A. (2010). Synthesis of metaphors: A review across three studies. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49-71. Published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060090347564 Terms of Use: http://www2.ku.edu/~scholar/docs/license.shtml
This work has been made available by the University of Kansas Libraries Office of Scholarly Communication and Copyright.
Mahlios, M., Shaw, D., & Barry, A. (2010). Synthesis of metaphors: A review across three studies. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49-71. Publishers official version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060090347564 . Open Access version: http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/. [This document contains the authors accepted manuscript. For the publishers version, see the link in the header of this document.]
Making sense of teaching through metaphors: a review across three studies

By M. Mahlios, D. Massengill Shaw, and A. Barry
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from three studies that have addressed the conceptualization and application of the metaphor construct to the study of teachers and teaching. We specifically examined the perspectives of elementary and secondary preservice teachers, how the particular metaphors indicated conceptualizations of and orientations to classroom life, and how metaphors influenced teachers approaches to teaching, curriculum and their work with pupils. We frame the discussion in light of the larger literature on the relationship of beliefs and practices as it relates to learning to teach and teacher education. The paper provides implications for linking the research reported with contemporary ideas for teaching and teacher preparation.
Mahlios, M., Shaw, D., & Barry, A. (2010). Synthesis of metaphors: A review across three studies. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49-71. Publishers official version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060090347564 . Open Access version: http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2 Over the past two decades researchers and teacher educators have shown increasing interest in metaphor research as a means to better understand how teachers conceptualize their most basic views about schooling, life, children, curriculum and teaching. There is a growing body of international literature that supports the study and use of teachers metaphorical images in understanding how they conceptualize their work and themselves in that work (Inbar, 1996; Martinez, Sauleda, & Huber, 2001; Oxford, Tomlinson, Barcelos, Harrington, Lavine, Saleh, & Longhini, 1998; Saban, Kocbeker, & Saban, 2007). More recently researchers have followed teachers into their classrooms to see where and how metaphorical images held by teachers influence their interactions with children and their actual teaching practices. This paper will synthesize findings from three studies that have addressed the conceptualization and application of the metaphor construct to the study of teachers and teaching. Further, the paper will provide some implications for linking the research reported with contemporary ideas for teaching and teacher preparation. Metaphors One way of examining preservice teachers' beliefs is to identify the conceptual devices they use to make sense of their work and lives. Perhaps the most potent of these devices is the metaphor. For the purposes of this line of research, metaphor refers to those analogic devices that lie beneath the surface of a person's awareness, and serve as a means for framing and defining experiences (Hardcastle, Yamamoto, Parkay, & Chan, 1985; Neisser, 2003; Yamamoto, Hardcastle, Muehl, & Muehl, 1990). Teacher beliefs are derived from held metaphors (and relationships between them) and are what teachers believe to be true about their work. Much of the earlier research has focused on preservice teachers who have already been enrolled in several education courses, or on in-service teachers (e.g., Bullough, 1991). Less research has focused on
Mahlios, M., Shaw, D., & Barry, A. (2010). Synthesis of metaphors: A review across three studies. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49-71. Publishers official version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060090347564 . Open Access version: http://kuscholarworks.ku. edu/dspace/. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3 change in metaphors over a period of time, or how they relate to the theoretical orientation of a teacher education program. Humans use words and images to interpret life, their experiences, and even their sense of self. Metaphor, according to Yob (2003), is employed when one wants to explore and understand something esoteric, abstract, novel or highly speculativeKnowing and how human beings come to know (education) are also highly speculative notions with succeeding generations of thinkers promoting novel theories about how it should be conducted (p. 134). These ideas about knowing and coming to know, as well as the beliefs that preservice teachers bring with them to their teacher preparation programs have been systematically studied only within the last two decades (Bullough, 1991; Bullough, Knowles & Crow, 1992; Carter, 1990; Connelly & Clandinin, 1988; Kagan, 1992; Parsons, Brown & Worley, 2004). According to this literature, preservice teacher candidates have definite beliefs about pupils and classrooms as well as distinct images of themselves as teachers. Researchers like Bullough, Knowles and Crow (1992), Butt and Raymond (1987) and Pajares (1992) have argued convincingly that such beliefs influence not only how individuals think and practice during teaching, but also how they interpret the experience of teaching as well. A group of English teachers in Gillis & Johnsons (2002) study, for example, interpreted teaching literature as time in a hot tubsocial, bubbly, inviting, relaxing, intimate, intimidating, steamy, private, too hot for comfort, baptismal, restorative (p. 10). Using a short story, The Monkeys Paw, as a novel metaphor, a different group of educators summed up their beliefs on a vexing aspect of their teaching livesfederally funded curriculum reform. It appears as if it is a gift but it is not a gift, these reading teachers lamented (Craig, 2005, p. 197).
4 Earlier, the publication of Lakoff and Johnsons Metaphors We Live By (1980) sparked a growing interest in the study of metaphor as a means of identifying how teachers understand themselves and their profession (e.g., Martinez, Sauleda, Huber, 2001; Munby, 1986; Provenzo, McCloskey, Kottkamp & Cohn, 1989; Tobin, 1990). This interest has been based largely on the idea that metaphors offer a potent, if not primary, means by which people conceptualize and eventually come to understand their life experiences. The particular interest of the researchers here has been to identify the dominant metaphorical views of preservice teachers, to understand how these images are reflected in their respective views of schooling, life, childhood and teaching and how these images come to influence their work in the classroom. We agree with Hardcastle, Yamamoto, Parkay & Chan (1985), and Cook-Sather (2003) that metaphors are the larger constructs under which people organize their thinking and from which they plan their actions on the multiple environments in which they participate including, to some extent, how they teach and work with students. Investigating Metaphor Over the past decade we have conducted three studies in which we sought to understand the perspectives that preservice teachers bring to their work; how the particular metaphors selected by students served as indicators of their conceptualizations of and orientations to classroom life; and finally how those metaphors influenced students' beliefs and approaches to teaching, curriculum and their work with pupils. This paper is a synthesis of the findings of these research efforts. In the three studies we utilized an instrument titled What Was School Like. The instrument has a long research history with cross-cultural populations, established validity, and extensive research use (Hardcastle, et al., 1985; Yamamoto, Hardcastle, Muehl, & Muehl, 1990).
5 Yamamoto and his colleagues (1990) developed the instrument through a comprehensive review of the education literature selecting constructs commonly found in the literature to describe life, schooling and children. The six-part questionnaire is found in the appendix of this manuscript. Part 1 solicited demographic data. Part 2 directed students to recall their elementary and school experiences and to check the listed metaphors that best described each. Possible metaphors included family, team, garden, circus, prison, zoo, stage, crowd, factory and other. Part 3 asked students to check their ideal school environment with the aforementioned metaphors. Part 4 asked students to respond to a series of items that described themselves using a four-choice Likert scale (i.e. strong agree to strongly disagree). Part 5 asked students to think about life, childhood and teaching. Their choice of life metaphors included following a trail, going down a river, climbing a mountain, tree growing, rippling water, chasing a rainbow, bird flying, ocean waves, or their own creation. Childhood metaphors included bubbling spring, trapped animal, flower blossoming, wind, cloud, dark night or their own creation. In Part 6, students self-selected eight adjectives to describe their ideal student, teacher, parent, and school administrator. Respondents to the survey have the option of self reporting their own metaphors or choosing from the lists provided a metaphor that accurately reflects their views of schooling, childhood and life. In our experience with the instrument, we have found that most respondents work with the metaphors provided; some secondary teachers (notably English and social studies) did self report their metaphors but no elementary teacher in our studies has ever done so. There have been other methodologies used to enable students to express beliefs such as life-history interviews and narrative accounts (Kelchtermans, 2005); matching images of themselves with drawings of other occupations, e.g., animal keeper or entertainer (Ben-Peretz, Mendelson & Kron, 2003); portfolio essays (Parsons, Brown & Worley, 2004); questionnaires
6 and surveys (Minor, Onwuegbuzie, Witcher & James, 2002) and open-ended responses (Bozlk, 2002). Goldstein (2005) has noted the difficulties some preservice teachers may have in constructing their own metaphors and therefore suggests a procedure for providing students with a pre-selected metaphor with which to connect their nascent teaching lives. The latter was the method chosen for the studies reported here. Three Studies For study one (Mahlios & Maxson, 1995) and study two (Mahlios & Maxson, 1998) the six-part questionnaire designed by Yamomoto et al. (1990) was administered to all elementary (N=134) and secondary (N=119) education majors at a large southeastern university in the United States. Statistical procedures used to analyze the quantitative data consisted of frequency counts, Chi-square and analysis of variance. Content analysis procedures as described by Ball and Smith (1992), and the SAS cross-tabs program were applied to open response items. For study three (Massengill, Mahlios & Barry, 2005), the 6-part questionnaire was given to 50 secondary education majors at a Midwestern United States university. One participant from each of the five content areas represented in the questionnaire (English, science, social studies, mathematics, and foreign language) was chosen randomly. We selected five participants largely due to time and resource constraints. Face-to-face interviews lasting 60-90 minutes were conducted by one of the authors with the five preservice teachers. Our intent was to provide a forum for them to elaborate on their beliefs about teaching in general and their specific beliefs about teaching in their content area to students with a range of abilities. The interviews were audio taped and the interviewer took notes. Based on willingness and opportunity to participate, the selected individuals from each of the five content areas were observed. Three observations were conducted for each: two during
7 their internship and one during the first year of teaching. Observations ranged from 45 to 90 minutes to coincide with class periods. A continuous recording procedure was used to record observational information. Additionally all observed lessons of the selected five students were audio taped and transcribed. The five preservice participants shared written lesson plans to verify content information. Follow-up interviews were conducted after the second year of observations to see if there were changes in beliefs about teaching in general and content instruction in particular. Member checking (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) was used when researcher and participant interacted to ensure accuracy. Against the brief review of the metaphor construct and some of our earlier research in this area, we now turn to an examination of three studies that illustrate what we have learned about the influence of metaphors on the perspectives that preservice teachers bring to their work, how particular metaphors indicate conceptualizations of and orientations to classroom life, and finally how metaphors seem to have influenced teachers' approaches to teaching, curriculum, and interactions with pupils. Studies I and II Perspectives In our first two studies (Mahlios & Maxson, 1995; Mahlios & Maxson, 1998) focused on identifying dominant metaphorical views of preservice elementary and secondary teachers and their respective views of schooling, life and childhood, we described perspectives on teaching taken by elementary and secondary preservice teachers. We argued in these research reports that metaphors are representative of the larger constructs under which teachers organize their thinking and from which they plan their actions in the multiple environments in which they participate including how they work with students and select teaching practices. Following from
8 the work of researchers like Ausubel (1963), we operated from the notion that individuals tended to have consistent ways of perceiving and conceptualizing their environment namely, that metaphors and relations among them, constitute cognitive structures and are the basis for generating beliefs that guide practice. From the selected metaphors, we hoped to develop a more detailed and comprehensive understanding of our students' perspectives on teaching, curriculum and their work with pupils. From this prior work, we learned that our elementary and secondary teacher education students remember their elementary school experience as being a focused, cohesive, positive, social activity, as being in a family or on a team. While they also view their secondary school experience like this, some hold views of high school as being less positive and cohesive (i.e., prison/crowd). For both levels of schooling, students' preferred images were positive, social phenomenon (i.e., family and team). These results were consistent with those of an earlier study involving students in the United States and in other countries (Hardcastle, et al., 1985). The participants were asked to choose metaphorical images of life and childhood. Elementary majors chose four metaphors of life (tree, ocean, mountain, and trail) for 80% of their responses; secondary majors selected the same metaphors, which accounted for 55% of their responses. Eighty percent of elementary preservice students chose the metaphors of a flower blossoming (64%) or a bubbling spring (14%) to describe their childhoods. In contrast, secondary preservice teachers chose flower, spring and wind for 60% of their responses and other for 29%. The differences between elementary and secondary teachers have been a constant over the course of our studies in this area. The possible explanation for the differences probably reflects differing views of children and schooling at these levels.
9 When contrasting the selected metaphors by elementary and secondary participants, it appears that in most cases their choices are more similar than dissimilar, with two major exceptions. First, the secondary participants supplied "other" metaphor choices (5 to 15% of the time) in all four categories (elementary and secondary school, life and childhood) reported, while elementary participants declined from choosing other. Second, elementary participants were more than twice as likely to describe their high school experience as like being in a family (43%) compared to their secondary peers (17%). Contrary to our findings, other studies have noted rather marked differences between subgroups. For example, in their large scale (N=1,142) study of Turkish preservice students, Saban, Kocbeker, & Saban (2007) found differences by elementary and secondary program type. Their elementary or Classroom Teaching group generated more shaping-oriented, growthoriented, and counseling-oriented metaphors than their secondary or English Education counterparts. Their secondary group produced more facilitation-oriented images. Interpretations for our findings of similarities might be understood on two levels. First, most studies in this area use open-ended instruments to solicit metaphors and related constructs. As noted in the methods section of this paper we have used a closed form approach in which we supplied the metaphor list and from which participants made choices. The provided metaphors are tied to dominant constructs in the professional education literature and are not necessarily ones that individual teachers-to-be might have developed as a function of their own life experience. In short, we framed the choice of metaphor based on widely accepted themes in the professional education literature. We recognize that the narrative psychology tradition offers yet another perspective from which to interpret the findings, namely every individual is the ultimate author of his/her life story. By seeking coherence in life across experiences we construct a
10 narrative-our life story (Bruner, 1987) of which metaphors and the self emerges (Blackmore, 1999). Second, our subjects are a highly selective group of students. We admit a small number of undergraduates via a very competitive admission system; thus, we may have sampled a more homogeneous group than may be found in the larger teacher education population of students nationally, thereby reducing sub-group differences. In sum, it appears that the two groups of teachers-to-be share some considerably similar metaphorical views. The favored life metaphor for both is that life is like a tree growing and the majority felt that being a child is like a flower blossoming - metaphors have been identified in other studies with similar populations and in roughly comparable proportions to that found in this study (Yamamoto, et al., 1990). These metaphors suggest the notion of organic development, either of the 'organic' kind, suggested by Ashton-Warner (1973), i.e., that is deep-seated and fully contained within the individual, created and affected by one's life. Both interpretations pose potential conflict for candidates in some teacher preparation programs where the dominant theme is that knowledge and the development of knowledge and self are socially constructed. Conceptualization One of the objectives of study two (Mahlios & Maxson, 1998) was to look within metaphorical categories to examine the adjectives respondents supplied in order to gain a better understanding of their formation of various adult roles (parent, teacher, principal). To do this, we drew on the concept of metaphorical entailments as defined by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Entailments describe how two metaphors link, and thus forecast possible cognitive structures guiding thinking and practice possibilities. We wondered if persons within the same metaphor groups would select similar adjectives to describe these adult roles. In order to address this particular research objective, we cross-referenced the most frequently selected adjectives by the
11 most frequently selected metaphors of life and childhood. We found some interesting entailment patterns within each group, as well as some interesting contrasts between the groups. Our findings suggested that for at least some of the metaphor groups there may be core traits, or entailment relationships, that are central to the notions of teaching and that these traits may cross grade level concerns. Further, our data analysis suggests that preservice teachers as a whole enter the profession with some common preconceptions about roles (for students, parents and teachers) that may influence how they approach their professional preparation. We started with the idea that preservice teachers would separate themselves into distinct groups by root metaphors that would provide complex descriptions uniquely consistent with these particular analogical views. What we found instead was considerable overlap in the descriptions (adjectives) across the metaphor groups. This finding suggested that students may be operating from simplistic and naive views of children that ignore actual differences in the root images that some teachers-to-be hold within themselves. These findings are consistent with some of the developmental and life span/contextual models of teacher development noted by Pintrich (1990). They also support Comeaux's (1992) finding that preservice teachers differentiated between the way they preferred to learn as students and the methods they selected for use with their future pupils. Namely, as students they enjoyed learning in-groups and dialoguing with their teacher, yet they designed lessons for pupils utilizing didactic methods. In these earlier studies, we were also interested in identifying whether students sense of teaching could be used as an indicator of their unique conceptualization of and orientation to classroom life. One hundred twenty elementary and 118 secondary participants responded with metaphors or words to express their sense of teaching. The dominant theme that cuts across both elementary and secondary teacher candidates is the tendency to idealize teaching and children.
Mahlios, M., Shaw, D., & Barry, A. (2010). Synthesis of metaphors: A review across three studies. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49-71. Publishers official version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060090347564 . Open Access version: http://kuscho larworks.ku.edu/dspace/. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12 For example, teacher candidates view childhood as innocent and a time of freedom and choice. They believe students are eager to learn and ready for the information they will present. In many ways the teacher candidates see their future role as teacher as easy. Four additional themes emerged from their collective sense of teaching: teaching as guiding (leading students to new knowledge), teaching as nurturing (teachers provide environment that supports growth and development), teaching as stimulating (teachers prod and encourage learners), and teaching as telling (teachers pass on information and knowledge). Interestingly enough, these were the same top four categories of conceptual metaphors generated by Puerto Rican teachers at a TESOL convention (Guerrero & Villamil, 2002). Study III Entering Classrooms Drawing on our findings about preservice students conceptualizations of children and teaching and how these influenced their practice, we conducted our third study. Having previously concluded that there was little difference between elementary and secondary preservice teachers perspectives and conceptualizations, we focused this third study on 50 secondary education majors at a Midwestern university. We selected one preservice teacher whose metaphor profiles conformed to those identified in Studies I & II from each secondary content area (English, science, social studies, mathematics, and foreign language) for further analysis. The selection criteria included metaphors (life, childhood, etc), adjectives of idea roles (student, teacher, parent, etc), and overall sense of teaching described in detail in Study 2 (Mahlios & Maxson, 1998). For the purpose of synthesis and length of this manuscript we will report on two of the five preservice teachers. (See published study 3, Massengill, Mahlios & Barry, 2005 for all five profiles). We have chosen to present these two profiles as individual case
13 studies. Each begins with the preservice teachers beliefs and metaphors about schooling and teaching, life and childhood. Further, teaching scenarios are described to illustrate relationships between the participants beliefs and practices. Changes that may have occurred between the internship year and the first full year of classroom teaching are discussed. Case Study I: Svetlana Svetlana, who teaches science, emphasized the idea of growth throughout her responses. For example, Svetlana said life is like a tree growing because one continually learns and grows. Reflecting on her own childhood when her parents helped and encouraged her to think and explore, she described being a child as like a flower blossoming,. Svetlana said secondary school should be like a garden where everyone knows a wide variety of people and they are supportive of each other. She concluded by describing her sense of teaching as, At first a young tree, then growing to be a strong tree. A young tree because I am still learning what I need to know about being an effective teacher, but eventually becoming more sure of myself and my abilities. Svetlana rarely spoke directly about what constituted support, but emphasized how various experiences and situations in life helped her grow as a person. During Svetlanas student internship, we observed one classroom biology lesson. Svetlanas instructional practice represents her metaphor of gardening: for her, a garden is a safe place where students can be nurtured through teacher-student interactions; there are a variety of people in a garden and each will have different needs; students respect others differences and support each other; and, as students are free to think and explore, they grow in their knowledge. During this biology class, students studied anatomy (respiratory/circulatory systems). They were dissecting a fetal pig, which they had begun in the previous class period. Students came into class, and Svetlana told them to continue working with a partner on their pig
14 dissection. She encouraged the students to work together and to support each other. They started their assignment while Svetlana walked around the classroom meeting with small groups based on their needs. As Svetlana circulated, she created many opportunities to discuss content and interact with students. She regularly provided positive affirmation to show her support for learning. By providing feedback and leading students to new knowledge through her interactions, Svetlana saw herself helping students think and grow. A second example of Svetlanas teaching occurred during her first year as a full-time teacher. This time her biology class was studying protozoa. Again, we saw that her acts of teaching seem consistent with her perceptions and conceptualizations of support and growth. She began class by giving students a quiz. They were allowed to use the concept maps they had made while reading the text chapter. After the quiz, Svetlana discussed the answers with the students to provide immediate feedback. Next, she provided more background information and used websites to show illustrations of various protists. Students were then told to join with a partner of their choice. They were asked to look through a microscope at six slides of protists and draw what they saw. The practice of directing students to work collaboratively and to support each other in their learning exemplifies Svetlanas metaphors of schooling and life. Svetlana walked around and talked to students, constantly offering information and advice. Just put algae on that. You might find some euglena. No, just look around. You got some new pond samples. (Student commented). Sue, do you want some protozoan? See if its flowing down because you might not spot amoebae too quickly. No, no mixed diatoms. Were going to save those. As Svetlana asked questions and assisted students, she believed she was matching her conceptualization to practice by helping them think and learn. When students finished the
15 microscope task, they were asked to put their things away and use a work sheet. After 15 minutes, Svetlana asked the students to pull out their concept maps again. These served as summary tools. She directed them to add relevant information while she discussed real world connections via diseases caused by protists and the effects the diseases had on humans (e.g., African sleeping sickness). At the conclusion of her lesson, Svetlana assigned students to read the next section in their biology textbook, make a concept map and be prepared for a quiz on Monday. The context of these sample-teaching scenarios provides more information about Svetlana and her conceptualizations of teaching. As a new teacher, the reality of teaching required dealing with numerous management issues. Although the students did not always react to her discipline, they responded to her content information and her questioning when she interacted with small groups. Based on our observations of Svetlana, we concluded that she played the role of gardener by scaffolding her students learning. Further, she provided occasion for the students to know a wide variety of people (by working together) and to support each other in their learning of concepts. In Svetlanas mind, these were opportunities for her to operationalize her secondary school gardening concept of students supporting each other. In the post-interview at the completion of her first-year of teaching, Svetlana said she maintained her original beliefs, although she admitted to some modification with the metaphor of, a child is like a flower blossoming. She said that some students were like the wind and others acted like they were in a prison. At that point, Svetlana seemed to begin to realize that childhood is not entirely ideal although a safe, nurturing learning environment is ideal. Svetlana indicated that inquiry teaching was much harder done than said, but she felt inquiry was essential to her view of good teaching. She reverted to more lecturing than she originally
16 intended because she felt students did not understand the curriculum if she didnt lecture. Svetlana affirmed her sense of teaching as consistent with the growth metaphor that her roots were growing and she was feeling a bit stronger and a lot sturdier in her teaching because of one year of experience. In sum, Svetlana consistently spoke about and reflected the growth theme as a major focus in her thinking and practices about schooling, life, children and teaching. Case Study II: Juan Juan, a social studies teacher, believed that life is like following a trail. As we go through life, we are confronted by choices (forks in the road) and obstacles, which we must overcome to continue going down the path we select. Juans view of childhood is like a flower blossoming. Children grow and blossom as a flower, but need good ground and care to fully develop into what and who they are. Further, Juan felt secondary school should be like being on a team. He believed the teacher and students should work together to achieve common educational goals. Juans sense of teaching reflected his view of secondary school and life. Teaming is the way in which we help others reach their potential. As teachers we guide children, giving them the tools and hopefully the environment to fulfill their dreams and abilities. Juan clearly expressed the idea that other people are important in reaching ones potential e.g. teaming provides support; children need good care. Juans ideas are internally consistent: sense of teaching (teaming and guiding), ideal school (teaming and working together) metaphor of life (following a trail), and being a child (need good care for a good learning environment). Thus, for Juan, education helps prepare students for the path they select in life, and teaches them how they can deal with obstacles that will come their way and how to make wise choices when dealing with life problems.
Mahlios, M., Shaw, D., & Barry, A. (2010). Synthesis of metaphors: A review across three studies. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49-71. Publishers official version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060090347564 . Open Access version: http://kuscholarworks .ku.edu/dspace/. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
17 Juans first sample teaching scenario occurred during his student internship experience. It represents his attempts to match his metaphor of teaming to his instructional practice. Defining a team, each member belongs, each member has a role, the members learn to work together and support each other, and the team moves forward with a common goal. The class was American History and students were reviewing for a test to be taken the next day by playing the game Jeopardy. In a game format, two teams were formed with a common goal of reviewing information and answering questions correctly. Teammates were available to assist as a lifeline if a student on the team did not know the answer, and they also worked together to decide how much to wager for the final question. The game followed the sequence in which Juan asked a question to one team member and the student answered. Then Juan usually clarified or expanded the students answer. For example, Okay. Thats good. You were right. A lot of times, basically what the flappers did was to help try to change the perception of women. By doing that, they did things like smoking, drinking, driving. Not necessarily at the same times. Wearing short skirts, bobbing their hair. Through his actions, Juan sought to guide students to knowledge clarification and the creation of new knowledge. The game continued to be played and the students responded to Juan, and seemed to be enjoying the game review (e.g., Andrea is about to explode over there.). Throughout the lesson, Juan provided positive reinforcement with statements like good job or very good. He gave students the benefit of the doubt when possible, therefore encouraging engagement. Classroom interactions appeared to illustrate Juans belief that as a
18 teacher, he should provide students with a safe learning environment, improve their academic knowledge and abilities; and work together to achieve socially negotiated educational goals. The second sample-teaching scenario occurred during Juans first year of teaching social studies. Although the lesson portrays less teaming, Juan believed it still reflected his sense of guiding. The class period began with students and teacher talking about current events. During this time, students could share information they had heard on the news or questions they had about current events. Juan explained many events, which he characterized as guiding and scaffolding students to expand their knowledge and understanding. Next, Juan answered students homework questions. Juan discussed the homework assignment and students often were willing to read their answers. Juan typically responded with one of the following, Okay. Very good. That is correct, thus attempting to create a positive environment through affirmation of student work efforts. Students turned in their homework assignment after tallying their points. The main focus of the days lesson occurred when Juan gave the students a diary excerpt from a mother who had a son in war. Juan wanted the students to understand how this excerpt related to the war we are currently fighting with terrorists. He frequently related the past to the present. The context of Juans classroom also provides insights into understanding his teaching behavior. After two years of contact with Juan, it was evident that his typical lesson included questioning and discussion. Many students participated even though Juan rarely called directly on a specific student. Juan attempted to create a team-like atmosphere for Jeopardy and other class games and projects. However, he said that these interactions created management issues. Therefore, Juan said he resorted to more lecturing than he originally intended because it was easier to cover content with limited time and planning and maintain control of the class. His
19 goals for the following year were to make the curriculum more hands-on, with role-playing, and simulation activities, which would lend themselves to more collaboration. Juan spoke of the importance of being a good role model. He also said he tried to respect students and not single out any one of them. Juan named teaming and guiding as his life and school metaphors. Through his teaching, Juan attempted to establish a guiding environment by questioning students and discussing knowledge, such as chapter review, current events and new learning material. Juan frequently guided through scaffolding, clarifying and expanding on the information students provided. He said that his understanding of teaming meant that they should all work together toward the common goal of successfully learning course content. Juan also felt he was teaming with his students when he respected them and expected their respect for him and each other in return. In sum, it appears that our two preservice teacher beliefs remained similar after one year of actual teaching experience. In our data we found that the teaching context contributed to the reaffirmation of beliefs with only some slight changes in basic conceptualizations of teaching and children over the two years of study three. These beliefs and conceptual metaphors of both Svetlana and Juan stand in stark contrast to the findings of Cook-Sather (2003). It is her conclusion that the two metaphors that historically and currently still dominate U.S. schooling are (a) education as production with the school as a factory and (b) education as remedy with students as diseased individuals in need of a cure. Cook-Sather concludes that the school needs to become a more revolutionary site. Practices The purpose of the third study (Massengill, Mahlios & Barry, 2005) was to observe the ways in which metaphorical constructs influenced teachers' work with their students over the
20 first two years of teaching. We were interested in seeing whether modifications occurred in teaching metaphors as a result of changes in content taught, student characteristics, and the environmental context of learning. Of these two participants, Svetlana selected the metaphor of life as a tree growing, while Juan chose the metaphor of life as following a trail. Both participants viewed childhood as a flower blossoming, which indicates their belief that interaction with children should focus on nurturing, care, gentleness and innocence. In essence, these teachers felt it was their responsibility to create a student-centered environment that promoted growth. This idea is also reflected in their sense of teaching; which they perceived as a growing experience for themselves and their students. It should also be noted that both participants metaphor of life, childhood and sense of teaching remained fairly consistent over the two-year time period of this study. Juan (social studies, team, trail) believed that students should be guided to new knowledge and understanding. In his lessons, Juan typically began each lesson with a discussion of current events. As students mentioned news that interested them, Juan would supplement their knowledge and clarify misunderstandings. He incorporated team games like Jeopardy to encourage collaboration and keep questioning lively. If particular responses were disputed, students were told to find the answers in the book and he was flexible enough to accept responses that were reasonable but different from those given in the teachers manual. Juan also used study guides, note taking, visuals, (photos and video clips) and writing to learn via research papers. Multiple texts (e.g., primary source documents as well as texts and reference materials) were used to foster critical thinking. Another way Juan guided by scaffolding his students was in the grading of a homework assignment. Juan did not simply read the answers or indicate correct/incorrect responses. Rather,
21 he took the opportunity to discuss each question/answer, helping students to deepen their understanding of the focal idea. He provided students feedback on their first drafts of research papers with corrections and suggestions. Juan regularly asked students if they needed clarification and he shared his methods of problem solving via think aloud. Through these examples, Juan guided students to new knowledge and understanding. Svetlana (science, family, and tree) believed that teaching is a form of nurturing and it was her responsibility to create an environment that promoted student academic growth. Svetlana taught in block-schedule classes, and during her instruction, she frequently provided students opportunities for hands-on experience. For example, during lab, Svetlana interacted with students, answered questions, clarified science concepts, and gave students feedback. She realized science terminology was difficult, so she often reviewed terms with students to help them comprehend the vocabulary. Further, Svetlana used several analogies to help students learn concepts, (e.g., a spleen is a leech-looking object and trachea is like a hard washboard). Both case studies illustrate well-documented phenomenon of novice teachers attempting to match their beliefs and teaching style. Even though beginning teachers face numerous challenges, there is evidence that they seek to relate their beliefs and practices. As Richardson (1998) pointed out, I found that when a teacher tries new activities she assesses them on the basis of whether they work: Whether they fit within her set of beliefs about teaching and learning, engage the students, and allow her the degree of classroom control she feels is necessary (p. 2). Discussion The discussion examines our findings in light of the larger literature on the relationship of beliefs and practices as it relates to learning to teach and teacher education. To date, Richardson
22 (1996) provides the most comprehensive synthesis of research related to this topic. We have used her framework to interpret our findings and have categorized the discussion into three relevant areas: relationship of beliefs and practices in learning to teach, teacher education, and recommendations for future research. Relationship of beliefs and practices in learning to teach A belief is a proposition, or statement, accepted as true by the person holding the belief, but which actually does not have to satisfy a truth condition as knowledge does (Green, 1971; Munby, Russell, & Martin, 2001). In literature, related terms are often used interchangeably for beliefs and include the following: attitudes, beliefs, conceptions, theories, understandings, practical knowledge, and values (Richardson, 1996). In our research, we have used the construct of metaphor and assert that metaphors are psychologically held understandings that lead to beliefs about the world that are felt to be true. Teachers hold beliefs in clusters (e.g., life metaphors, schooling metaphors, childhood metaphors) and each cluster within a belief system may be protected from other clusters (Green, 1971). The clusters may not be necessarily parallel to one another and thus, incompatible beliefs may be sustained by an individual. Tacit belief clusters that are not examined explicitly may remain latent in the individual. It was our goal to look at the consistency of beliefs through profiles of metaphors, adjectives and sense of teaching, and the concept of entailment patterns among and between elementary and secondary preservice teachers. In comparing elementary and secondary participants responses, there are some differences among metaphorical beliefs and subsequent practice, yet far more similarities. For example, the participants idealized childhood and shared similar views of life (i.e., life is like a tree, ocean, mountain or trail). Differences were more noticeable with regard to adjectives
23 describing ideal adult roles. For example, secondary participants put more emphasis on intellectual qualities for both adult and student roles, whereas elementary teachers felt nurturing was a most desirable quality. Overall, elementary responses were more homogenous and positive than the secondary ones. In our studies, we did not find much differentiation between elementary and secondary preservice teachers. Therefore, our findings were incongruous with previous research (Richardson, 1996) that says there are clear distinctions between elementary and secondary preservice teachers. Perhaps, our data are different because our institutions teacher preparation program is highly competitive and selective. Writing samples are used in the selection process for prospective elementary and secondary students. It may be that faculty choose individuals who display nurturing, supporting and developmental dispositions, thus skewing our sample. Our analysis indicates that there are core metaphorical views that most teachers hold regardless of the grade level they teach: namely, that they idealize childhood and have a common perspective on life. The relationship between belief and action is interactive or bi-directional as Haney, Lumpe, Czerniak & Egan (2002) explain, and as such, one construct tends to influence the other (p. 181). Beliefs drive actions, and in turn, experiences and reflection of actions may lead to changes in beliefs. As Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1990) said, teachers beliefs and theories are sets of interrelated conceptual frameworks grounded in practice (p. 7). Further, Schubert (1991) described the operation of beliefs and actions as a union of theory and practice in reflective action (p. 214). We concur that the participants root metaphors and sense of teaching affected their conceptualizations and orientation toward classroom practices. It is also noted that the participants beliefs and their relations to practice showed no noticeable change over two
24 years of teaching. It appears that their practices reaffirmed their conceptualizations and beliefs and that the influence of perspectives and practices is indeed bi-directional. Beliefs, the proposition of truth, derive from three sources: personal experience, previous schooling, and formal knowledge. Richardson (1996) suggests that metaphors originated from personal experience like the model Connelly and Clandinin (1991) and Bullough and Knowles (1991) have used in their work. In our study, we found that the preservice teachers metaphors often originated from their own childhood and elementary schooling experience. Above all, the findings for metaphors of life and childhood suggest that beginning teachers see the school as an environment that needs to nurture children. The data show that students believe the schooling experience should be like a family and or team. In the American culture, the concepts of family and team are both built upon notions of caring, support and interdependency of their members. The selected adjectives similarly describe these functions for adult roles. The emphasis that teaching should be grounded in interpersonal relationships was predominant among the secondary preservice teachers, which is consistent with previous studies (e.g., Brookhart & Freeman, 1992). The nurturing conceptualization appears to be common among many elementary and secondary teachers, including preservice ones and has been documented by several prominent researchers including Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Combs, 1982; Heck & Williams, 1984. The feminist literature also reports that nurturing has typically been related to the caring professions like teaching (Johnson, Bruce, Graham, Oliver, Oppong, Park, & Mansberger, 2005). This perception may create a dissonance between student ideals and teacher preparation programs, especially when the education program emphasizes the primacy of academic content knowledge
25 (Korthagen, 1995). There is a notion that well conceived teacher education programs have a clearly expressed definition of good teaching and thus specific goals for beginning teachers. Research has shown that the ability to change beliefs of preservice teachers is more difficult than for in-service teachers. Change usually occurs when the context of a classroom experience powerfully influences teachers beliefs and knowledge (Richardson, 1996). Therefore, it appears that teachers beliefs change with practice and experience. We, however, did not see any modification of their thinking. When asked to re-evaluate their sense of teaching and metaphors of life, school and childhood, the participants chose not to make changes. This indicates the persistence of ideas (i.e. metaphors, beliefs and overall sense of teaching) that teachers-to-be bring to their university preparation program and that those beliefs extend into actual classroom practice after one year of classroom teaching. Professional growth may have its roots in the resolution of conflict between held-beliefs and the reality of teaching and schooling. When the opportunity comes for novice teachers to implement their metaphorical beliefs and sense of teaching in their classroom, they are often faced with unforeseen challenges, which result in dissonance between the ideal and real. These discrepancies are not unanticipated and have been noted by other researchers (e.g., Argyris & Schon, 1974; McCarty, Abott-Shim & Lambert, 2001). In this study, both Svetlana and Juan struggled with this disconnect. When questioned, both participants readily expressed the challenges that limited their ability to fully display their beliefs in action. Certainly, some of these challenges stemmed from their contexts, including the numbers of students in their classes who struggled with reading and learning or who were labeled at risk. Svetlana had 16 and Juan 5 such students in their classes. Nevertheless, they asserted their metaphors remained
Mahlios, M., Shaw, D., & Barry, A. (2010). Synthesis of metaphors: A review across three studies. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(1), 49-71. Publishers official version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354060090347564 . Open Access version: http://kus cholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
26 unchanged. Svetlana and Juan appeared to be cognizant of the dissonance, but believed internal coherence between beliefs and actions would someday come together if they held to their beliefs. Richardson (1996) raised the question whether changes in beliefs and practices are actually growth. Oftentimes, growth implies that changes have occurred in a positive direction. Kagan (1992) defines professional growth as changes over time in the behavior, knowledge, images, beliefs, or perceptions of novice teachers (p. 131). In our research, Svetlana maintained her original beliefs after one year of teaching, yet she felt her roots were growing and she was feeling stronger and sturdier (the tree metaphor). Teacher education These three studies of preservice teachers beliefs about teaching, schooling and how metaphors guide their teaching and learning with students offer educators some ideas about the types of beliefs candidates may bring with them to their preparation program and classrooms. Coupled with our finding that those beliefs do not show much change after one year of teaching experience suggests that teacher educators should seek to understand candidates beliefs and to design teacher preparation programs that help preservice teachers understand their beliefs and how they relate to program conceptualization and varying school contexts. Beginning elementary and secondary students come into teacher education programs with fairly consistent, yet vague, views of schooling and children. Our research reveals something of the nature of these views and how these characteristics interact with the dominant elements of classroom practice. It may be that the failure of some of our students to 'learn' program concepts is a result of the clash between views within themselves and those contained in our preparation programs. This general phenomenon has been reported by Bullough, Knowles and Crow (1992). More recently Inbar (1996) found a discrepancy between teachers and students on their view that
27 schooling is like prison, and Martinez, Sauleda and Huber (2001) discovered differences between experienced and prospective teachers on their views of behaviorism and constructivism. This may explain some of the frustration faculty feel when students do not adopt professed program views of schooling, teaching and learning (e.g., a constructivist approach, which at a root level, strikes a contrast to the preeminence of "organic" metaphors). As Pajares (1992) points out, it may also be the reason why some teaching practices continue despite the fact that they are ineffective and counterproductive. This 'clash' may also explain research results showing little effect for program design on student's acquisition of the extant knowledge of learning to teach (Tabachnick & Zeichner, 1984). One way to reduce the negative consequences of such a clash and the resultant loss of student professional learning would be to provide entering students feedback on their held beliefs, surfaced through techniques like that used in this study (cf. Yonemura, 1982), and discuss how these contrast with dominant program concepts and orientations. As noted earlier, other avenues for allowing students to express beliefs may be life-history interviews and narrative accounts (Kelchtermans, 2005); matching images of themselves with drawings of other occupations, e.g., animal keeper or entertainer (Ben-Peretz, Mendelson & Kron, 2003); portfolio essays (Parsons, Brown & Worley, 2004); questionnaires and surveys (Minor, Onwuegbuzie, Witcher & James, 2002), or open-ended responses (Bozlk, 2002). By providing students with prior information about possible points of disagreement between their ideas and those of faculty and program elements greater congruence and accommodation may be achieved and more optimal outcomes attained. Because many faculty in teacher education programs operate with little knowledge of who their students are and what dominant beliefs they hold upon entry into teacher preparation
28 programs, we recommend that faculty in teacher preparation programs incorporate the fundamental views of their students into their professional programs of study. By incorporate, we mean to acknowledge and show relation between students' metaphors, beliefs and those upon which the teacher preparation program rests. For example, given that students entering elementary education programs believe that teaching should be based upon a caring and nurturing relationship with children these qualities must become a starting point for selecting and orienting students to professional education programs. These characteristics should become a central element in the dialogue of core education courses that serve to guide and reinforce the content of the professional experience. Such dialogues will enable students to better bridge their held beliefs with the core concepts and responsibilities they will assume as they enter teaching. We also recommend that faculty directly challenge student-held beliefs where they determine them to be inappropriate or dysfunctional. This faculty role may need to continue once students enter the classroom. For example, in a study focused on Sarah, a high school science teacher, Tobin (1990) explained how Sarahs management role as comedian elicited aggressive, uncooperative students behaviors that disrupted learning. With guidance, Sarah was able to reflect on her practice and reconceptualize the management component of her teaching role in terms of being a social director. This metaphorical role allowed Sarah to invite students to learn, as guests are invited to a party as long as students were courteous to the teacher and each other and did not disrupt learning. Students misbehavior, according to Tobin, which was previously widespread, disappeared almost overnight (p. 125). It is through metaphors that teachers can be stimulated to explore new conceptual territories in a safe, alternative way (Martinez et al., 2001). When educators become critically aware of their students metaphors
29 they are able to increase the rigour and precision of their analysis of education and schooling, (p. 90). Conclusion This research, in relation to previous research, presents several important concepts for teacher educators. First, the combination of personal experience, previous schooling, and student teaching are more influential in building conceptions of teaching than the teacher education programs (Richardson, 1996). Second, teacher education programs, with the exception of student teaching, have minimal effects on teachers beliefs and practices. Previous life experiences and actual teaching experiences are the two most potent influences on beliefs about teaching, children, and schooling. Third, it appears that change in metaphors and beliefs is easier to achieve at the in-service level than at the preservice level (Richardson, 1996). In fact, the use of metaphor may be an ideal starting point from which in-service teachers can take stock of their professional selves. The current climate of reform may actually force such reflections. In this way changes made can be harmonious with ones own goals and philosophies. Gillis and Johnson (2002) even suggest exercises for using metaphors as a tool to explore personal attitudes and beliefs. Researchers like Goldstein (2005) recognize the difficulties some preservice teachers may have in constructing their own metaphor and therefore suggest a procedure for providing students with a pre-selected metaphor with which to connect their nascent teaching lives. Recommendations for future research We believe it is important to better understand the processes by which students' root metaphors and subsequent beliefs change over time and the factors which influence them to change. For example, some of these views change as a result of interaction with the program
30 design or program materials (see Fradd, Lee, Sutman & Saxton, 2001). Others view change as a result of maturation and some as a result of experience with children, teachers, schools, and parents (Richardson, 1996). Clearly metaphors are complex and overlapping. Growth and experience may allow preservice teachers to see the complexity of their metaphors. Nonetheless our knowledge of how these views are developed, sustained and or changed over time needs additional attention, and constitutes an important path for future scholarly inquiry. Implications for future research also include a need to further investigate the relationship between program conceptualization and student metaphors and their images of teaching and schooling. The situation in our studies is fairly prevalent in many teacher preparation programs. It is often assumed that a conflict between student views and program conceptualization does not exist, or that if a conflict does exist then preservice teachers discount their ideas and adopt those of their preparation program. An important avenue for future research is to further analyze the alignment of student beliefs and program framework, using the students metaphors as active elements in helping preservice teachers learn how to teach, as exemplified by the program at the University of Louisville (Price, 2002). A second implication is to explore which category of metaphors is more likely to lead to more effective instruction. Tobin (1990) suggests there are qualitative differences between metaphorical viewpoints and the quality of ones teaching. While our studies did not gather data on the relationship between metaphorical view and teaching competence, it does point to needed further inquiry. Third, there is a continued need for longitudinal studies, like those conducted by Bullough & Baughman, 1995, e.g., Changing Contexts and Expertise in Teaching: First -Year Teacher after Seven Years. Changes in beliefs and practice in these studies resulted from working with students who had special needs like Downs Syndrome and behavior disorders.
31 Bullough and Stokes (1994) found preservice teachers are more open to change at critical events in their experience. In their seminal work, Becoming a Student of Teaching, Bullough & Gitlin (1995) provide longitudinal descriptions of beginning teachers, principally focused on how the beginning teacher forges personal systems of meaning within the bounds of a particular context (p. xv) Additional studies need to be conducted on metaphors chosen by gender, especially in light of the work of individuals like Mills who argue that misogyny is demonstrated by the ways in which teaching, especially in the early years, is associated with caring, and with the presumption that caring is womens work (Mills, 2004, p. 32). However, there may be some cross-cultural qualities to these gendered assumptions about teaching. The beliefs of our male and female case study participants aligned with the categories of beliefs of the males and females in the study done by Saban, Kocbeker, & Saban (2007) at Selcuk University, Turkey. Teacher education females (N= 687) generated more growth-oriented metaphors, like Svetlana (teacher as gardener). Turkish males (N=455) in teacher education at Selcuk generated more cooperationoriented metaphors like our male case study participant, Juan. In fact, in terms of cultural comparisons overall, Saban, et. al. concluded, there are major cross-cultural similarities in teachers conceptualization of teaching and learning (p. 134). Nevertheless, all areas of diversity and disability need to be considered in future research. Examination should continue into the images teachers hold about their classroom and learning, about how these beliefs and images are modified, and about the reasons for such change.
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37 Pintrich, P.R. (1990). Implications of psychological research on student learning and college teaching for teacher education. In W.R. Houston, M. Haberman & J. Sikula (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 826-857). New York: Macmillan. Price, C.G. (2002). Exploring teaching metaphors: How they shape beliefs, professional knowledge and emergent practice of first through fifth year teachers. Paper presented at the Association of Teacher Educators, Denver, CO. Provenzo, E.F., Jr., McCloskey, G.N., Kottkamp, R.B., & Cohn, M.M. (1989). Metaphor and meaning in the language of teachers. Teachers College Record, 90(4), 551-573. Richardson, V. (1996). The role of attitudes and beliefs in learning to teach. In J. Sikula (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 102-119). New York: Macmillan. Richardson, V. (September, 1998). How teachers change. In Focus on Basics, 2, C. Newsletter of World Education/NCSALL. Saban, A., Kocbeker, B.N., & Saban, A. (2007). Prospective teachers conceptions of teaching and learning revealed through metaphor analysis. Learning and Instruction, 17(2), 123139. Schubert, W. (1991). Teacher lore: A basis for understanding praxis. In C. Witherell & N. Noddings (Eds.), Stories lives tell: Narrative and dialogue in education (pp. 207-233). New York; Teachers College Press. Tabachnick, B.R., & Zeichner, K.M. (1984). The impact of the student teaching experience on the development of teacher perspectives. Journal of Teacher Education, 35(6), 28 - 36. Tobin, K. (1990). Changing metaphors and beliefs: a master switch for teaching? Theory into Practice, 29(2), 122-127.
38 Yamamoto, K., Hardcastle, B., Muehl, S., & Muehl, L. (1990). Metaphorical images of life in young and middle adulthood: An exploration. The Journal of Psychology, 124(2), 143154. Yob, I.M. (2003). Thinking constructively with metaphors. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 22, 127-138. Yonemura, M. (1982). Teacher conversations: A potential source of their own professional growth. Curriculum Inquiry, 12(3), 239-256.
39
Appendix A Interview Questions
1. Why the interest in, and the decision for, teaching as a career? 2. Which level of schooling do you intend to teach? Why? 3. Under the most ideal circumstances, what sort of school organization and school climate would you prefer? 4. What is your main approach to teaching? 5. What are the important matters in your classroom? What do you think is the most critical thing that you have to focus on, control, assess, or establish? 6. Name three books that have most profoundly affected you in your life? Explain. 7. Name two people who have most profoundly affected you in your life? Explain. 8. As a teacher, how will you use your summers? 9. Describe/elaborate on teaching. In your survey you filled out for us you talk about your sense of teaching as (answer from instrument inserted here). Any additional thoughts on teaching now that you have completed student teaching? Anything that you would change? Any different feelings? 10. What is the difference between teaching students who are at-risk (for failing or dropping out) and those who are not at-risk?
40 Appendix B Instrument WHAT WAS SCHOOL LIKE? Name: ______________________ Age:___ 22 or younger School: ________ Major: _______ ___ 23 to 30 Class: (circle) __Fr Soph Jr Sr ___ 31 to 45 ___Grad Other (specify)___ ___ 46 to 65 Current Job: __________________ ___ 66 or older Todays Date: _________________ Sex: (circle) F M__ ___ ___ Elementary ___ ___ ___ ___ Heritage: ___ Anglo ___ Hispanic ___ Black ___ Indian ___ Oriental Other (specify) __________ ___ ___ ___ Secondary ___ ___ ___
Size of School Attended .. 100 or less .. .. 101 to 300 .. .. 301 to 500 .. .. 501 to 1,000 .. .. 1,001 to 2,000 .. .. 2,001 or more ..
Type of School Attended ___ .. Public .. ___ Elementary ___ .. Parochial .. ___ Secondary _________________ Other (specify) _________________ Elementary ___ Number of School Attended ___ Secondary Your Overall Experience Was ___ .. Positive .. Elementary ___ .. Neutral .. ___ .. Negative .. ___ .. Mixed .. ___ ___ Secondary ___ ___
The School Experience May Be Best Described As ___ .. in a family .. ___ ___ .. on a team .. ___ ___ .. in a garden .. ___ ___ .. at a circus .. ___ Elementary ___ .. in a prison .. ___ Secondary ___ .. in a zoo .. ___ ___ .. on a stage .. ___ ___ .. in a crowd .. ___ ___ .. in a factory .. ___ _________________ other (describe) ________________ _________________ ________________ _________________ ________________
41 Why Do You Describe Your Experience So? Elementary ___________________ __________________ Secondary ___________________ __________________ ___________________ __________________ ___________________ __________________ ___________________ __________________ ___________________ __________________ ___________________ __________________ What Should Your School Experience Have Been Like? ___ .. as in a family .. ___ ___ .. as on a team .. ___ ___ .. as in a garden . ___ ___ .. as at a circus .. ___ Elementary ___ .. as in a prison .. ___ Secondary ___ .. as in a zoo .. ___ ___ as on a stage .. ___ ___ .. as in a crowd ___ ___ .. as in a factory .. ___ __________________ other (describe) ________________ __________________ ________________ __________________ ________________ Why Do You Say That Above? Elementary ________________________ ______________________ Secondary _______________________ _______________________ _________________________ _______________________ _________________________ _______________________ _________________________ _______________________ _________________________ _______________________ _________________________ _______________________ ***************** How Would You Describe Yourself? Please read the following statements about yourself carefully, and indicate your reaction to each of them by circling one of the five choices, provided, namely, SA (strongly agree), A (agree), D (disagree), or SD (strongly disagree). Needless to say, there are no right or wrong answers just your own feelings about yourself. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself SA At times I think I am no good at all I feel that I have a number of good qualities ... I am able to do things as well as most other people SA SA SA A A A A D D D D SD SD SD SD
42 I feel I do not have much to be proud of . I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on On an equal plane with others . I wish I could have more respect for myself ... All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure ... I take positive attitude toward myself . ***************** Thank you for your cooperation! SA A A A A A A D D D D D D SD SD SD SD SD SD
I certainly feel useless at times SA SA SA SA SA
43 THINKING ABOUT LIFE, ETC. Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he. (Syrus) Time the devourer of all things. (Ovid) Sleep is a death (Sir Thomas Browne) One finds this kind of expression everywhere such a way of description somehow gets to the core of a given human experience, captures its flavor, and communicates its essence. Now, if you were to come up with some expression that grasps your sense of life, what life is all about to you , what would that be? Pick one of the provided options below, or use your own descriptions. LIFE is____ Following a trail ____ The ripples across water ____ Going down a river ____ Chasing a rainbow ____ Climbing a mountain ____ A bird flying ____ A tree growing ____ An ocean with waves coming in and out ____ (in your own words) __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Why do you look at life that way? ____________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ In a similar manner, if you were to capture your sense of childhood, the essence of being a child to you , what would you say? BEING____ A bubbling spring ____ A wind free to come and go A ____ A trapped animal ____ A cloud in the sky CHILD____ A flower blossoming ____ A dark night with no moon or stars IS ____ (in your own words) __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Why do you look at childhood that way? ______________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ How would you describe your sense of teaching? ______________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Why? __________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
44 DESCRIBING PEOPLE A. Think about student you are going to work with. Suppose you can choose your IDEAL types at will how would you describe such youngsters? Please pick eight adjectives that, to you, best capture the features, traits, manners, and characteristics of your ideal students. 1) ________________________ 5) ________________________ 2) ________________________ 6) ________________________ 3) ________________________ 7) ________________________ 4) ________________________ 8) ________________________ B. Now, think about your IDEAL teacher. What would you best characterize such a person? Please choose eight adjectives for her/him. 1) ________________________ 5) ________________________ 2) ________________________ 6) ________________________ 3) ________________________ 7) ________________________ 4) ________________________ 8) ________________________ C. Next, please think of you IDEAL school administrator, say, a principal. What would you see in such a person? Select eight adjectives that seem to describe her/him the best. 1) ________________________ 5) ________________________ 2) ________________________ 6) ________________________ 3) ________________________ 7) ________________________ 4) ________________________ 8) ________________________ D. Finally, think about your IDEAL parents, those whom you would love to have as parents of your students and to work with. Please choose eight adjectives for such people. 1) ________________________ 2) ________________________ 3) ________________________ 4) ________________________ 5) ________________________ 6) ________________________ 7) ________________________ 8) ________________________
The Qualitative Report 2013 Volume 18, Article T&L 3, 1-8 http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/pitcher3.pdf
The Metaphors That Research Students Live By

Rod Pitcher
The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia In this paper I report a study of the ways in which research students think about their research. I took a unique approach by using metaphor analysis to study the students conceptions. The research students in this study were recruited for an on-line survey at an Australian research-intensive university in which they answered questions relating to their conceptions of research. Five categories of metaphors for research were arrived at which I have labelled metaphors of space, metaphors of travel, metaphors of action, metaphors of the body and metaphors of ordeal. These metaphors provide useful information about the ways that the students visualise their research and their conceptions of what it entails. Keywords: Research Students; Conceptions; Metaphors; Metaphor Analysis Introduction There are a number of ways of finding out students conceptions of their work. I chose to use metaphor analysis of the responses to an on-line survey. In responding to the survey the research students at an Australian research-intensive university were asked to describe their work as they would to an undergraduate student who had some interest in pursuing a doctorate at some time in the future. In this way I was able to collect the metaphors that the students used to describe their work and hence to be able to ascertain their conceptions of it. There has only been a limited number of studies about the conceptions of research amongst different groups of university people such as academics (kerlind, 2008; Brew, 2001), supervisors (Bills, 2004; Kiley & Mullins, 2005), postgraduate students (Meyer, Shanahan, & Laugksch, 2005, 2007) and postdoctoral researchers (Pitcher & kerlind, 2009). These studies used various methods such as phenomenography, participant-observation, focus group conversations, surveys, and questionnaires to explore the participants conceptions of research. I argue that providing another perspective on students conceptions of research can give the reader another view of an important area of research and broaden his or her understanding of the topic. There has been no general agreement as to how conceptions of research should be named or described. All the studies that have been performed to date have produced different descriptions and categories of conceptions of research. In this paper I offer a set of descriptive labels that illustrate the participants conceptions as well as telling us something about their approaches to research. The research reported in this paper was conducted under the rules of the Ethics Committee of the Australian National University, Australia. Ethical clearance was sought and approval was granted before the research was undertaken. All the research described in this paper was conducted solely by the author, who gathered the data and also undertook the analysis of the responses. The use of MIP to find the metaphors in the text, as described below, removed the researchers bias as to what might, or might not, be considered a metaphor. This method removes the need for the analyst to rely on his or her intuition and provides a more reliable way of identifying the metaphors.
The Qualitative Report 2013
Review of the Literature Students Conceptions of Research The literature on postgraduate students conceptions of research is limited. As far as I have been able to ascertain there have been only two studies, by the same researchers, that specifically examined postgraduate students conceptions of research. In their study, Meyer et al. (2005) aimed to produce an empirical model from the results of their analysis of the material gathered from 154 Australian and South African postgraduate students about their conceptions of research. The authors state that their aim was to find variations in how research is done and conceptualised to find out how postgraduate students learning can be related to their research outcomes. The authors suggest that the outcomes of students research were influenced by the ways in which students think, which in turn was likely to be dependent upon a number of factors internal and external to the student, such as motivation and knowledge of the subject acquired before the research begins. The students were likely to perceive their research in ways influenced by these factors, so they must be taken into account when analysing the data (Meyer et al., 2005). In the questions provided by Meyer and his group, the postgraduate students were asked to describe, from their own point of view, how they would explain research to a stranger, how research is seen in their discipline, why research is done, what successful researchers actually do, and what constitutes good research (Meyer et al., 2005). The students answers to these questions provided the data which the authors then qualitatively analysed. On the basis of the initial qualitative analysis the authors formulated eight categories relating to conceptions of research (Meyer et al., 2005): (a) research as information gathering, the emphasis being on collecting as much information as possible to solve a problem; (b) research is about discovering the truth searching for and establishing the truth or validity of a topic through research is important; (c) research is about insightful exploration and discovery and is a way for researchers to seek new insights into existing knowledge; (d) research is about analytical and systematic enquiry, the process of research is systematic and directed at a particular purpose; (e) research is about incompleteness; research is seen as never ending in that there is always something new to be determined from new or old data and facts; (f) research as the re-examination of existing knowledge, research into old topics is useful in that it can produce new insights or conclusions or be a check for the validity of old ones; (g) research is problem based (e.g., the process of research is to identify problems, study the problems and solve them); and (h) misconceptions about research (Meyer et al.) In discussing the results of their study of postgraduate students conceptions of research, Meyer and his co-authors note that it is clear that the sample that they substantively constitute does not exhibit a uniform approach to conceptualizing research or the research process (Meyer et al., 2005, p. 236). This finding was understandable since the students bring their own cultural backgrounds and previous knowledge to their research and they will thus show the variations in personality and outlook that make them individuals. The authors set out to test whether the findings presented in the first study could be empirically verified by examining a new group of postgraduate students and experienced and inexperienced researchers. The second episode of research was based on that new set of collected data and continued their investigation of students conceptions of research as described in their first article (Meyer et al., 2005). The second investigation used quantitative methods rather than the mixed quantitative and qualitative methods of the first study. The new investigation was found to confirm the previous findings. The authors add that the
Rod Pitcher
categories found by the new investigation were conceptually virtually identical to the ones reported in the previous article (Meyer et al., 2007, p. 429). The two articles discussed above by Meyer, Shanahan, and Laugksch (2005, 2007) appear to be the only ones that investigate postgraduate students conception of research, although there is some literature on other types of students conceptions of research. As they point out, they were unable to find any literature on postgraduate students conceptions of research prior to writing their articles. They state that no such acknowledged literature . . . appears to exist (Meyer et al., 2005, p. 229), and they add that they are not aware of any other empirical studies on this topic (Meyer et al., 2005, p. 230). Metaphor Analysis Although there is not a great deal of literature specifically on students conceptions, there is literature on the use of metaphors to investigate various types of conceptions (for more discussion on this point see Andriessen & Gubbins, 2009; Martin & Lueckenhausen, 2005; Moser, 2000; Schmitt, 2005; Steger, 2007). Many of these writers make the point that metaphors are often unconsciously generated. It is for that reason that metaphors are a useful way of investigating peoples conceptions. Since the metaphors are often unconsciously generated they will reflect the persons underlying feelings and understanding, which they may be unable or unwilling to express consciously. As the name implies, metaphor analysis is a systematic method of analysing the metaphors that people use to express themselves. It is a means of gaining understanding of a persons often unconscious motives and reasons for doing something or of their conception of the process involved in doing it. It can reveal the thoughts behind the action. Martin and Lueckenhausen (2005) add that metaphor analysis as a method can be used by the researcher to focus on what individuals say and think about what is happening to them. The text to be analysed by metaphor analysis may be a body of literature, the response to an interview, or other written material. Written material is used so that it may be conveniently examined a number of times to ensure that all the metaphors are found. Indeed, the search for, and finding of, all the dominant metaphors is of the utmost importance for the following analysis. The material has to be examined closely then examined again and again to ensure that all the metaphors are found. This step is particularly important as some of the metaphors might be obscure and might be missed on the first, or even second, reading. Metaphors We Live By, as written by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980, is the seminal work on metaphor analysis. Although the authors do not provide a method of analysis, they do show how metaphors can be grouped into metaphorical concepts which are important for any method of analysis of metaphorical terms. The metaphorical concept is an important feature of the work. It relates the target and source domains of the metaphor in the statement, target domain is source domain. Thus, if a person uses the metaphor of a journey to describe his or her research then the concept might be research is a journey. In this example, research is the target domain and journey is the source domain since research is the subject of investigation and journey is the domain to which it is linked by the metaphor. Part of the metaphor analysis process involves forming metaphors into concepts, which illustrate the relationship between the target domain and the source domain (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The metaphors found do not occur by chance, says Schmitt (2005), but are parts of a limited number of concepts that have the target and source areas in common. The metaphors, when found, should be grouped into their metaphorical concepts. The formulation of metaphorical concepts requires a creative, synthesizing approach, notes Schmitt (p. 372).
In discussing the validity of metaphor analysis and the means of obtaining it, Schmitt (2005) suggests that in using metaphor analysis researchers must provide the possibility of testing their accuracy and credibility. The ways in which the work is to be validated should not be merely applied to the actual analysis but should be applied throughout the whole investigation including the data collection and reporting of results. It is important, he says, that the whole process should be documented. To satisfy this requirement I provide a full explanation of the approach taken in this study. Moser (2000) presents a number of arguments why metaphor analysis should be considered an important research method and why it can provide useful interpretations of a persons thoughts and attitudes. She argues that metaphor analysis offers a multifaceted research perspective (p. 4). Metaphor analysis can become either a quantitative or qualitative method by associating metaphors with topics, Moser argues. However, she states that it is qualitative metaphor analysis that is the most important since it brings out the full potential of the method. A persons actions and thoughts may be characterised by the metaphors he/she uses in describing them. The use of qualitative analysis allows those metaphors to be placed in their correct context and related to the topics with which the person associates them (Moser). Martin and Lueckenhausen (2005) say that metaphor analysis is able to show how the individual feels about something. Further, they go on to say that the individual does not use only a single metaphor but uses a number of different ones to express different ideas and feelings, that [t]here is a range of cross-mapping between abstract thought and concrete objects (Martin & Lueckenhausen, p. 392, emphasis added). Thus the proper and complete analysis of the material necessitates that the researcher be open to the thoughts and feelings of the speaker or writer (Martin & Lueckenhausen). From the above discussion, metaphor analysis can be seen as a useful tool with which to investigate the motivations and attitudes of people. The metaphors that people use to express themselves are largely unconscious and indicate a great deal about the persons hidden thoughts and emotions. Thus metaphor analysis is a useful way to investigate the conceptions of research held by doctoral students. Methodology To find the metaphors in the responses I used a method called MIP, the Metaphor Identification procedure, formulated by the Pragglejaz Group (2007). The analysis described by the Pragglejaz Group (2007) provides a prescriptive method of finding the metaphors in a transcript or other written material. As such it provides a way of finding all the metaphors without the risk of the investigators sensitivity to metaphors, or the lack of it, being an influential factor. The method described is almost mechanical in its application in that each word is checked against a dictionary definition. The dictionary provides the literal meanings of the words. Thus, if the meaning in the material is not identical to the literal definition given in the dictionary it can be taken that it is a metaphor. For the purposes of this paper I used The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2007) as my reference source. The Pragglejaz Group (2007) describe five basic steps in their method of finding metaphorical words and phrases. The first step is to read the entire text to gain a general understanding of the context in which the metaphors appear. The next step is to mark out the lexical units within the text. In general a lexical unit is a single word. However, there are some compound words, such as power plant and of course that require analysis as a single unit. The next step is to take into account the meaning of the lexical unit in the context of the whole. Next there is the need to determine if the lexical unit has a meaning that is more
Rod Pitcher
concrete, relates to a bodily action or is historically older. If this step is true, then one must decide whether the meaning in the text contrasts with the basic meaning from the dictionary and can be understood in comparison with it. If the answer to the above is yes, then the lexical unit is metaphorical. (Pragglejaz Group, 2007, p. 3). They then work through an example in detail, using an extract from a newspaper article, to show how their method should be undertaken. They show how the text to be examined is broken down into individual words and then each words contextual and dictionary meanings compared. This results in a table from which a decision can be made as to whether or not the word is used metaphorically. I used the same table form as a working layout for my own work using MIP The reporting of the results is an important part of the analysis, according to the Group, and should be undertaken with care. It should provide as much detail about the analysis procedures as possible. The report, they say, should include information on the text studied, the lexical units found, the resources used for checking the status of the lexical units and any decisions made along the way (Pragglejaz Group, 2007, p. 13). I first read all the responses through a number of times to get a feel for the text and the ways in which the respondents described their conceptions. This stage was very tentative but it later helped in describing the contextual meanings of the words in each response. It must be remembered that the most important factor in the investigation is the students conceptions and that those conceptions can only be derived from the words the students use in describing their conceptions in their responses to the survey. Thus understanding the context of the words used in the responses is of vital importance in the analysis. Each response was divided up into its constituent words. The words were listed in the order that they appeared in the response to simplify looking back at the response to refresh my memory about the context during a later stage of the examination. In the first few cases every word was examined. However as my experience grew I was able to eliminate conjunctions, the definite and indefinite articles, pronouns and some prepositions since these were found never to occur as metaphors. The words were listed in order and then looked up in a dictionary to find their literal meanings. This part of the examination is very demanding and time consuming, but it is necessary to do it with care and concentration for it will greatly influence the later decision on whether or not the word is used metaphorically. The next step was to again examine every word and establish its contextual meaning. Care must be taken to place the word in the context of the whole response or the final decision on whether or not the word is used metaphorically may be affected. As part of the decision making process it is necessary to look back at the whole response to establish the context for each word. Although this stage can also become tedious it is enlivened when some of the words almost jump out from the page and announce themselves as metaphors. However, the decision for or against the word being a metaphor must wait until the next stage. The final step is to again examine the words and decide whether each is a metaphor or not by comparing the basic and contextual meanings. This step must also be done carefully since it will influence the number of metaphors found in the response and influence the later analysis. If any metaphors are missed the later analysis may be skewed and invalid. Results There turned out to be five types of metaphors used in the survey responses. The types should not be taken as absolutely clear cut and independent, as most of the responses tended to overlap two or more categories to some degree.
Metaphors of Space The largest group of metaphors found in the responses related to space. The largest single metaphor that occurred was field followed closely by area. Metaphors of space suggest that the students using them see their research as opening up or developing into new areas of knowledge. They refer to their research as being in a particular field or area which is part of overall knowledge. Other metaphors that appeared in this category included regions, frontiers, and byways, all of which relate to areas and give the impression of openness and somewhere into which to develop the work. This type of metaphor gives the reader an image of research being an investigation of a space, like a field is an open area of land. Thus there is a feeling of openness and space. Metaphors of Travel The largest single metaphor referring to travel was steps which occurred multiple times in nine responses. Similar metaphors are journey, path, and track. Metaphors of travel suggests that the student sees her or his research as a movement, as travelling towards some goal. Other metaphors that appeared in this category included flow, wading, embark, and sprint all of which indicate a movement. The destination may not be clearly known but movement in some direction is part of the research. This type of metaphor gives the reader the idea of exploration, of opening up new areas of research, of heading off into the distance to find new knowledge. It suggests a sense of movement involved in research, that research requires a lot of action to bring it to fruition that nothing is found by sitting still, only by moving into the unknown. Metaphors of Action There was a large variety of metaphors for action. These varied from descriptions of research as constructing knowledge, from research seen as struggling, to research seen as scratching for results. All these metaphors refer to actions that might be taken to conduct research. Similar metaphors that appeared in this category included working, delve, reap, and combing, all which refer to some action involve to make the research develop in the desired direction. The metaphors of action give the reader a much more earthy feeling about research. It seems that the person undertaking it has to get their hands dirty and actually work hard at it. Metaphors of the Body There were a number of metaphors that related to a human or animal body. There was body itself and corpus. Also in this category might be virgin and drown. This type of metaphor suggests that the student sees his or her research as manipulating a body of material as a body of a person or animal might be manipulated. Other metaphors that appeared in this category included infancy, struggling, and grasp all of which refer to some bodily function or action. This type of metaphor gives the reader the idea of research being constructed in some way like a body, where many different parts come together to achieve some outcome. There is a sense that research is not a simple isolated field but is related across and between
Rod Pitcher
disciplines as one might consider the parts of a human body to be a composite of interrelated parts. Metaphors of Ordeal There were a number of metaphors that referred to research as an ordeal. One student twice referred to research as a marathon with its intimations of a struggle against the odds and the persistence required to complete the ordeal. Another referred to the struggle of research. Other metaphors that appeared in this category included crushing, drown, fighting, and safety net all of which give the impression that the research is not easy and involves suffering to make progress. The metaphors of ordeal give the reader the impression that the student is struggling with the research, that the research is like a marathon race which tests the staying power of the student to the limits, and that the ordeal of the research is something overpoweringly strong that has to be overcome to achieve the doctorate. Conclusions It is plain from the above results that research students show a wide range of conceptions of their work. Their attitudes vary from the more or less positive view of those who see their work as travelling to some destination to the more negative view of those who see it as an ordeal to be suffered. I suggest that this attitude might also be reflected in the students approach to his or her work and commitment to completing the doctorate. It is my intention to add another perspective to the growing literature on conceptions of research, and add to the literature on doctoral students conceptions of research. It is important that doctoral students conceptions of research be understood, particularly by those who supervise the students. A mis-match between the supervisors and the students conceptions of research may lead to problems with the supervisor/student relationship and thus to the student having problems with his or her research and/or not completing the Ph.D. (Bills, 2004; Lee, 2008). If the supervisors are aware of their students conceptions of research then steps can be taken to reduce the risk of complications arising from a mis-match. Therefore, my results should be of interest to both supervisors and students and may help to raise the level of understanding between supervisors and students. If that understanding can be increased, then the possible problems for the relationship and the student might be avoided. References kerlind, G. S. (2008). An academic perspective on research and being a researcher: An integration of the literature. Studies in Higher Education, 33(1), 17-31. Andriessen, D., & Gubbins, C. (2009). Metaphor analysis as an approach for exploring theoretical concepts: The case of social capital. Organization Studies, 30, 845-863. Bills, D. (2004). Supervisors conceptions of research and the implications for supervisor development. International Journal for Academic Development, 9, 85-97. Brew, A. (2001). Conceptions of research: A phenomenographic study. Studies in Higher Education, 26(3), 271-285. Kiley, M., & Mullins, G. (2005). Supervisors conceptions of research: What are they? Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 49, 245-262.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: The Chicago University Press. Lee, A. (2008). How are doctoral students supervised? Concepts of doctoral research supervision. Studies in Higher Education, 33(3), 267-281. Martin, E., & Lueckenhausen, G. (2005). How university changes teachers: Affective as well as cognitive challenges. Higher Education, 40, 389-412. Meyer, J. H. F., Shanahan, M. P., & Laugksch, R. C. (2005). Students conceptions of research I: A qualitative and quantitative analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 49, 225-244. Meyer, J. H. F., Shanahan, M. P., & Laugksch, R. C. (2007). Students conceptions of research II: An exploration of contrasting patterns of variation. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 51, 415-433. Moser, K. S. (2000). Metaphor analysis in psychology Method, theory, and fields of application. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Article 21. Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1090/2388 Pitcher, R., & kerlind, G. S. (2009). Postdoctoral researchers conceptions of research: A metaphor analysis. The International Journal for Researcher Development, 1, 42-56. Pragglejaz Group, (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1-39. Schmitt, R. (2005). Systematic metaphor analysis as a method of qualitative research. The Qualitative Report, 10(2), 358-394. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, The. (2007). (6th ed., 2 vols.) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Steger, T. (2007). The stories metaphors tell: Metaphors as a tool to decipher tacit aspects in narratives. Field Methods, 19, 3-23. Author Note Rod Pitcher is a Ph.D. candidate in Education at The Centre for Higher Education, Learning and Teaching at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. The focus of his study is the metaphors that researchers use when describing their work. He uses metaphor analysis to arrive at an understanding of the conceptions. He may be contacted at The Centre for Higher Education, Learning and Teaching; Chancelry 10T, Ellery Crescent; The Australian National University; Canberra; ACT 0200 Australia; Phone: +61 2 612 50838; Fax: +61 2 612 54023; Email: RodPitcher@australia.edu Copyright 2013: Rod Pitcher and Nova Southeastern University. Article Citation Pitcher, R. (2013). The metaphors that research students live by. The Qualitative Report, 18(T&L3), 1-8. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR18/pitcher3.pdf

D) Studies Conducted On Metaphor

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D) Studies Conducted On Metaphor

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STUDIES CONDUCTED ON METAPHOR

What? I am a golden finger? Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language

Fion Ho Yan Lau

The University of Hong Kong

LCOM Papers 2 (2009), 77 99

78 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 79

2. Metaphor, language and culture

2.1 Meaning and metaphors

80 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 81

2.2 Language, culture and thinking

82 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 83

84 Fion Ho Yan Lau

5.1 Recognition of English Metaphors

5.2 Accounts for Correct Interpretation

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 85

5.3 Accounts for Incorrect Interpretation

5.4 Enhancements of English Metaphoric Awareness and Understanding

86 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 87

88 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 89

90 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 91

Number of people (%)

Number of people (%)

Number of people (%)

Number of people (%)

Number of Danes (%)

Total (%) 25(62.5) 23(57.5)

English proficiency is self-rated by the subjects.

92 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Appendix 2: Assessment form (Danish subjects)

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 93

Golden finger Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No

Eating lemon Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Danish expression: No

94 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 95

Appendix 3: Assessment form (Hong Kong subjects)

96 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Cucumber-like face Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: No

A pumpkin Interpretation: Yes Remarks: Reason: Equivalent Cantonese expression: No

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 97

98 Fion Ho Yan Lau

Compass, 1(2), 154 170. Retrieved on 16 September 2008 from

Denmark. Retrieved on 21 February 2009 from

Interpreting metaphors of a foreign language 99

Tools, and Multimedia in the Making. Retrieved on 2 January 2008 from

Links & Letters, 7, 145 161. Retrieved on 21 February 2009 from

Positioning Education Research, Melbourne. Retrieved on 2 January 2008 from

Kong Journals Online. Retrieved on 2 January 2008 from

Collection. Retrieved on 16 September 2008 from

EUROSLA Doctoral Workshop. Retrieved on 16 September 2008 from

Making sense of teaching through metaphors: a review across three studies

Making sense of teaching through metaphors: a review across three studies

Appendix A Interview Questions

I certainly feel useless at times SA SA SA SA SA

The Metaphors That Research Students Live By

The Qualitative Report 2013

The Qualitative Report 2013

The Qualitative Report 2013