Metaphors of the professor´s role in the Agrarian University System of Argentina

Abstract

This paper presents partial results from a research project on the academics in the Agrarian University System in Argentina. The results are based on a questionnaire that was responded by 793 professors. We identified metaphorical concepts that teachers chose from a selection of options to define the role of university teachers in general, and secondly, open metaphorical expressions the teachers coined to refer to
their own roles. As a conclusion, we identified an idealized representation that coincides with the most usual metaphors in education. On the other hand, these idealized representations we identify as an “ethos”, contrast with other representations that result from the formulation of their own metaphors to allude to a tension between the ethos and the realization of their own roles.