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Understanding the Black Teacher Through Metaphor

The Urban Review volume 50, pages 284–299 (2018)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 10 April 2018

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Abstract

Teacher education scholars have long used the literary device of metaphor to describe the work of teachers. Metaphors offer colorful descriptions about the teacher and the profession of teaching. What also undergirds the use of metaphors about teaching is the underlying philosophies about the purpose of the teacher and teaching. We argue however, that race and culture inform the kind of metaphors one might use to describe the teacher . In this sense, racialized sociohistorical forces (Omi and Winant, Racial formation in the U.S., 3rd edn. Routledge, New York 2015) envelope the discourse of the teacher—particularly when deconstructing the metaphoric meaning of the “Black Teacher.” In this paper, we show how four metaphors took shape within historically situated contexts and have endured over time.

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  • 10 April 2018

    Please note that in the 3rd paragraph under the heading “Black Teacher as Role Model”, there is a sentence that needs correction.

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  1. University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA

    Anthony L. Brown, Mary E. Dilworth & Keffrelyn D. Brown

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  1. Anthony L. Brown
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  3. Keffrelyn D. Brown
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Correspondence to Anthony L. Brown.

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Brown, A.L., Dilworth, M.E. & Brown, K.D. Understanding the Black Teacher Through Metaphor. Urban Rev 50, 284–299 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-018-0451-3

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Keywords

  • Black teachers
  • Metaphors
  • Racialized discourses