Metaphors and Values in Higher Education

m^^ hophands? Prophets? Working in a ^ factory? Living in a family? The ^^^^ metaphors with which we describe our■ W selves and our enterprise offer fascinating ^^^^ insight into higher education organizations as living, changing cultures that reflect values and aspirations. This essay is based upon analysis of eighty-three transcripts of extensive interviews conducted during the 1983-84 academic year, with administrators, faculty, and departmental secretaries at a large state university, situated within an urban area and responsible for providing education primarily at the baccalaureate level for over 30,000 students. The analysis of metaphors in these transcripts was not anticipated at the outset, nor did anyone interviewed know that such an analysis would occur. In this sense, the over three hundred metaphors derived from these transcripts should be considered as unintended cultural artifacts from