Metafory w badaniach edukacyjnych – propozycja metodologiczna

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present a methodological approach of implementing metaphor analysis in educational research. Having characterised some examples of pedagogical empirical projects, including the research conducted by the author of the article, three levels of the metaphors’ epistemological conceptualisation are described. The first of which is the dimension of fairly individualistic nature called the cognitive dimension that outlines the fact that cognitive processes are very much metaphorical in nature, as well as strengthens the difference between the cognition of literal and metaphorical phrases. The second level of metaphor analysis is connected with intersubjectivity of metaphors which are collectively shared and distributed within a given culture. They are not, however, simply something that characterise a given group of people but predefine the relations and, as a consequence, influence the acts and behaviours of social actors. Critical metaphor analysis, being the third described perspective, shows that metaphors can be treated by the researchers as a form of tacit knowledge redistributed and mediated culturally and therefore might be explored in the search for hidden mechanisms of social positioning and disclosing power relations in given structures.