Teachers’ metaphors of literacy: Do we need new metaphors?

Proponents of metaphor research argue metaphor is no longer regarded as merely a poetic flourish, but instead forms a part of our regular meaning-making repertoire. This article critically considers the literacy metaphors spontaneously generated by teachers participating in three New Zealand literacy projects. The most prevalent literacy metaphors found rely largely on the experiences of visual perception and embodied experiences of space. I argue in light of the rapidly changing literacy landscape, researchers, teacher educators and teachers should make explicit their metaphors of literacy and engage in dialogue to augment our literacy metaphors.