Emerging Trends in Metaphoric Images of Curriculum Reform Implementation in Schools: A Critical Literature Review

Abstract

Curriculum reform is often difficult to conceive, disseminate, and implement, resulting in the use of metaphors to make sense of how changes initiated at national level are enacted in schools. This theoretical paper, which employs Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), constructs an account of emerging trends in metaphoric language to unlock the complexity of reform implementation. A deductive critical review of literature was adopted as the qualitative design to glean insights into how metaphors have been used to shape mental images of curriculum reform across time and space. Findings indicated converging and diverging trends in metaphoric semantics. While some studies have equated curriculum change to a battlefield and a ghost of control, others have likened reform implementation to driving through the fog or wearing a donated gown of the wrong size. School reform has also been portrayed as a journey, a jigsaw puzzle, and a gardening project demanding meticulous planning and concentration. The unique contribution of this research is the clustering of reform metaphors into a three-tiered spectrum of pessimism, ambiguity, and optimism, thereby extending insights into the dynamics of curriculum enactment. Strategic implementation is recommended so that curriculum reform may be couched in metaphors of hope instead of anger and confusion.