Conceptual metaphor analysis of teacher’s social images in pre-service teachers

Abstract

This article presents a conceptual metaphor analysis of teacher’s social images in a group of Chilean pre-service teachers. The theoretical framework is based on conceptual metaphors. The aims of the study are to describe the metaphoric categories per cohort of students, to establish similarities and differences, and to determine the stability of the obtained metaphoric categories. From 2012 to 2014, a written prompt was administered to first year pre-service teachers, and in 2015 this instrument was also given to fifth year pre-service teachers to whom a focus group interview was run to deepen the information provided by the written prompt. A scale was given to them afterwards to classify the metaphoric categories, according to their level of representation. The results show that social and professional context factors have an impact on the configuration of the concepts with which the participants think teachers are represented by society.