Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

This paper invites participants to consider how a focus on metaphor in the classroom which might help develop collaborative student thinking about social and community issues. We will first explore a questioning technique that sensitizes diverse learners to the metaphors that underlie their chosen problems. Next, we examine how student-generated metaphors can either encumber or enhance their critical analysis of an issue. Finally, and, most significantly, we investigate how metaphor can be a useful tool to guide groups of diverse learners to collaboratively generate creative and novel ideas to tackle enduring social and community problems. This tool shows promise in helping student groups co-construct a more inclusive learning space as they work to bridge their varied experiences and perspectives and move together to make collective decisions.