This study examines the relationship between epistemological beliefs and perceptions of practice through the analysis of teacher-generated metaphors. In a multilevel qualitative examination of the self-descriptive metaphors of 32 working teachers, the authors uncovered a dissonance between teachers’ metaphors and their epistemological positions. Metaphor topics initially seemed oriented toward participation-based instructional models, but deeper analysis revealed an overall defaulting to acquisition-based teaching models. Sharing these findings with participant focus groups resulted in the identification of a set of challenges to which teachers attributed these epistemological schisms. The results of this study call into question whether education is in fact making a move from the more traditional acquisition-based models of teaching and learning to more participation-based models, and more important, the discussion considers how the valuing of both models can be translated into the valuing of both practices.
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