Metaphors used by the teachers in the processes of educational change from a gender perspective

Résumé

In this study, we try to know and understand the emotions that teachers experience in the process of application of the First Plan for Equality between Men and Women. We study the metaphors that teachers use to make sense of their experiences in the application of this plan in their schools. For that, we use a qualitative methodology based on the performance of five focus groups, involving 35 teachers from Secondary Education, who were in charge of the plan for equality during the course 2006/07 in their schools. The results show that teachers in their discourse on equality issues display a great variety of emotional and strategic metaphors, which are related to different dimensions such as the role of the coeducation at school (I am an adornment, the coeducation is a cultural activity), the language as a strategy of the Plan of Equality (up in arms, to burn your bridges, thereabouts the shots go) with the climate of reception of the Plan of Equality (a topic that raises people’s hackles, to hit a raw nerve), the social selfperception of the coordinators of coeducation (lab bug, to have the stigma), the role of the Plan of Equality in the centers (free letter, legal weapon) and the forms of work to obtain an egalitarian curriculum (to make little holes, to put hand). The choice of these metaphors in the debate reveals those that teachers consider are the most valuable in two senses: to build shared knowledge on equality at school and to promote this equality in formal educational settings.