Metaphors of knowing, doing and being: Capturing experience in teaching and teacher education

In this article, Bateson's idea of human beings thinking with metaphors and learning through stories is examined as it played out within accumulated educational research studies. Five storied metaphors illuminating knowing, doing and being are highlighted from five investigations involving different research teams. In the cross-case analysis, the importance of narrative exemplars emerges, along with the significance of metaphors serving as proxies for teachers' experiences. The plotlines of the metaphors, the morals of the metaphors and the truths of the metaphors are also discussed. In the end result, the value of metaphors in surfacing teachers' embedded, embodied knowledge of experience is affirmed as well as the deftness of the narrative inquiry research method in metaphorically capturing pre-service and inservice teachers' storied experiences.