Reflective practice through a metaphor evaluation task: Should multicultural society be a melting pot, a mosaic or something else?

Abstract This article reports an investigation into how a procedure to enhance their metaphor awareness assisted a group of university students in Canada in reflecting on multicultural society. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with 50 students who were invited to (a) express their views of Canadian multicultural society, (b) evaluate metaphors used for this topic and (c) reconsider their own metaphors. For most of the students, the metaphor evaluation task led to a better understanding of the implications of the metaphors, which helped them to assess their appropriateness. Through evaluating the metaphors, these students reflected on the matter of cultural diversity in Canada and on the characteristics of a truly multicultural society. The study illustrates how raising students' metaphor awareness can contribute to their reasoning about societal issues.