ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we identify and critique a linguistic mode that is found in educational research pertaining to teacher education. We identify it as ‘Aristotelian’, and argue that its principles and methods captivate researchers. This linguistic mode has become very seductive, as it promotes the unification of teachers’ consciousness with the objective world of their practical actions. The attraction to this mode is inspired by a drive to reduce the status of teachers’ development to the level of a rational science. Important aspects of this academic project include the privileging of certain theories of language. Through a brief historical sketch, we show how figurative speech has been suppressed in favour of clear, rational explanation. This historical quest for rational, logical clarity is maintained in analyses of teacher education. We explain by outlining a theoretical argument on metaphor and dialectical reasoning before concluding with an alternative perspective rooted in Nietzsche. His perspective may offer the possibility of theorizing practice without relying upon theoretical mediation either of metaphor or of the confining path of dialectical reasoning.
