Metaphor as a way to explore subtle elements of school culture: "a school unlike any other" in a student metaphor - research report

Abstract

Objectives Metaphor can be a tool of knowing the culture of the organization. It can be used to diagnose and improve the organization, including the school. Transferring ideas about the school to other objects allows researchers to reach subtle elements of school culture which resist quantitative approaches, hence the intention to include metaphorical analysis in scientific investigations focused on the culture of the school of alternative education. The article presents a fragment of research material collected as part of a team project aimed at empirical recognition and comparison of cultures of selected non-public primary schools – schools "other than all". Material and methods Using metaphor as a textual tool to study empirically elusive elements of school culture, an attempt was made to get closer to students' ways of reading and understanding school reality. The study was conducted in a non-public primary school, implementing an alternative education model in practice. The material was collected thanks to the tasks carried out by the eighth grade students. The task consisted of a text and a drawing part. The students' products obtained in this way were analyzed. Results As a result of the collected material analysis, five groups of metaphors were identified: (1) culture/climate, (2) hybrid, (3) catastrophic, (4) chaos, (5) prison. Conclusions The analysis of the data revealed a diversity of perception and interpretation of this reality, which allows us to conclude about a diverse, heterogeneous image of the studied school as an organization.

Keywords

• metaphor
• school culture
• school in student metaphor
• school "other than all"
• innovative school