Preservice Teachers' Metaphors of Teaching in Relation to Literacy Beliefs

Metaphors are the constructs under which people organize their thinking and from which they plan their actions, including their teaching and work with students. One area of study that has not been investigated is the relationship between preservice teachers' metaphors of teaching across differing academic majors and their content area beliefs. The purpose of this study was to examine preservice elementary and secondary English and foreign language teachers' metaphors and relate their metaphorical images to conceptions of literacy. Specifically, 66 participants completed a questionnaire that solicited their sense of teaching. We employed a type‐case model to analyze the metaphors. Results indicated that the preservice teachers' beliefs could be categorized into nine themes including nurturing and guiding. An association was found between four metaphors and literacy beliefs. We believe the metaphor will continue to be a powerful conceptual means and future research should solicit preservice teachers' metaph...