“That’s Me as an English Teacher”: Using Metaphor Drawings to Assist Secondary English Teachers to Explore their Identities

Abstract

Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore Korean Secondary English teachers’ professional identities by using metaphor drawings.
 Methods A total of 15 secondary English teachers participated in this study and their metaphoric drawings at the beginning and the end of the course were collected as data. Furthermore, their reflective presentations and inter-view excerpts were transcribed for data analysis using a qualitative approach.
 Results The results showed that exploring their identities using metaphors allowed them to reflect on a wide range of issues such as their teaching practices, relationship with students, and burdening factors. They were also able to address issues that were unclear prior to the course by means of depicting their identities using metaphors and sharing them with others.
 Conclusions The findings of the study are in line with other studies that regard metaphors as an effective cognitive tool in shedding light on the teachers’ identities. The analysis of their metaphors also showed that they were able to reflect on how knowledge and experience gained from the teacher program have impacted their thoughts and beliefs.