Understanding the connection between pre-service teachers’ emotions and identity through metaphor: a qualitative study into six candidates from a Chilean university

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study, based on semi-structured interviews, analyses the emotions of six (n = 6) pre-service teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a Chilean full-year education programme through metaphors they used to describe the process by which they became professionals. Findings suggest that pre-service teachers understand emotions as burdens, tools, and sources for self-knowledge. Metaphors also indicate that teacher training might be experienced as a shifting and hostile proof that challenges their self-conceptions, impelling personal adaptation and learning. Accordingly, this study shows that candidates employ metaphors to create professional knowledge, review past experiences, and develop identities. Lastly, it is also suggested that integrating metaphor-based work during the training might help PSTs to build narrative agency and gain valuable insight into their processes.KEYWORDS: Pre-service teachersmetaphorsemotionsteacher identitytrainingteacher education Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Ethical StatementI hereby confirm that this study meets national and international human research guidelines. Ethical approval was given by the Ethical Committee for Arts and Social Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (project number 190,326,004). Further information may be requested at eticadeinvestigacion@uc.clNotes1. In Spanish, lit. ‘con la calculadora en mano’. This metaphor is based on an idiom that journalists coined in the Chilean sports culture to describe the difficulties that the Chilean National Football Team had to face in South American World Cup Qualifiers, especially in a context of dependence on external results for succeeding.Additional informationFundingThis work was funded by the National Agency of Research and Development of Chile (ANID)/Scholarship Program/DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE/2017 – Grant Nº 21170197.