Chapter 2: Schooling and Literacy Metaphors of Teacher Candidates

Acknowledging that the transition from collegiate classroom to full-time teaching may be a time of uncertainty as novice teachers search for identity (Buchanan, 2015), we solicited metaphors of teacher candidates (undergraduate students preparing to be teachers) during student teaching (their final semester when they are teaching full time in a classroom supervised by a certified teacher). We wanted to capture teacher candidates’ metaphors at this juncture of completing college and beginning a career because it gave us the opportunity to see a “two-way mirror” (Buchanan, 2015, p. 33) of teacher candidates’ looking backward and forward.

This research informs teacher educators how teacher candidates experienced their own personal elementary and secondary school (looking back) and how they believe elementary and secondary schools should be (looking forward). Further, literacy is the foundation of schooling. Elementary and secondary students’ abilities to read and write affects their academic and life-long learning.