Metaphors We Teach By

Metaphors We Teach By helps teachers reflect on how the metaphors they use to think about education shape what happens in their classrooms and in their schools. Teaching and learning will differ in classrooms whose teachers think of students as plants to be nurtured from those who consider them as clay to be molded. Students will be assessed differently if teachers think of assessment as a blessing and as justice instead of as measurement. This volume examines dozens of such metaphors related to teaching and teachers, learning and learners, curriculum, assessment, gender, and matters of spirituality and faith. The book challenges teachers to embrace metaphors that fit their worldview and will improve teaching and learning in their classrooms.

Ken Badley is Professor of Education and teaches in the doctoral program in education at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. He is the author of several social studies and religious studies textbooks.

Harro Van Brummelen is Executive Director of Christian Studies International and Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the School of Education at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia