The role of conceptual metaphors in novice teachers’ developing curricular knowledge: a case from second language writing

The importance of teacher cognition in curriculum implementation and the role of conceptual metaphor in teachers' thinking are equally well documented, yet the role conceptual metaphor might play in teachers' knowledge of curriculum has received less research attention. Drawing on a range of qualitative data, this study examines how five novice teachers used metaphor in concept-mapping tasks to make sense of an unfamiliar curriculum. The results show that the majority of the teachers spontaneously used conceptual metaphors to depict their curricular knowledge. Moreover, detailed case studies of two teachers' developing curricular thinking show that the conceptual metaphors they used functioned as psychological tools assisting in structuring their developing knowledge of the curriculum and in integrating new insights gained during teaching. These results indicate that analysis of teachers' curricular metaphors may yield insights for curriculum designers and that metaphor construction may be a valuable tool to promote teacher curricular knowledge development.