Reframing the Cultivation Metaphor in Education by Reflecting on CLIL Professional Development Through a Forest Gardening Lens

Abstract Cultivation metaphors that compare teachers and students to gardeners and plants, respectively, have a long presence in the field of education. While such metaphors can be used to represent learner-centered pedagogies in which a teacher fosters the growth of their students, there is also a darker side to cultivation metaphors. For instance, Zipory (2020) argues that characteristics of agriculture’s grain economy—like repetitiveness, coercion, and lack of diversity—can be imposed onto education. Following Zipory’s call for the forest to serve as a more apt metaphorical trajectory for education, I propose using the forest garden as a middle ground between the traditional garden and the natural forest. To highlight the potential usefulness of the forest garden metaphor in education, I explore its application as related to teacher professional development (PD), specifically content and language integrated learning (CLIL) PD. By reflecting on the design and outcomes of Project SCILLA, a CLIL PD program for Kazakhstani university instructors, as well as CLIL PD more broadly, I demonstrate how the forest garden metaphor conceptualizes the relationships and power dynamics between and across various stakeholders in education in response to global rhetoric, national and local policies, and interpersonal interactions. By emulating the sustainable forest garden’s principles of planning and intentionality, localization, interconnectedness, diversity, creativity, and growth from decay, stakeholders can (re)shape the policies and practices of multilingual, multicultural education systems. In addition, education researchers can use a metaphorical forest garden lens to better appreciate the complexities at play within dynamic educational landscapes.