¿Padres o gendarmes? Conceptualizaciones metafóricas sobre profesores/as en estudiantes de enseñanza media

Resumen

This research analyzes conceptual metaphors about teachers that are made by students at high schools in Chile. The theoretical grounds of the research comes from the literature on conceptual metaphor and cognition. A survey was made to collect metaphorical ideas of individuals. The collected metaphors were analyzed according to the proposal made by Saban (2004), who classifies them in metaphors centered on the teacher and metaphors centered on the student. The method reveals that the individuals produced metaphors about the teachers, generally in accordance to Saban’s (2004) classification. Furthermore, the results revealed that students conceptualized teachers in most of the cases in an affective way, i.e. as parents. Therefore, no pedagogical aspects are highlighted, but the role as caregivers and guides within the process of educating students. Also, teachers are seen as authority figures, who must apply norms and correct disrespects.