Teacher and CEO Job Ads: Metaphor and Framing Analysis

According to the Critical Discourse Analysis, language use reflects the power dynamics in various social circumstances. Also, underlying metaphors in the discourse reveal the similarities and differences between the ideas, attitudes, and values of different groups and individuals (Cameron et al., 2009). In this paper, we compare job ads for teachers and CEOs, looking for metaphors and metaphorical frames used to describe perfect candidates. Before that, we provide an analysis of similarities between these two professions and a review of literature discussing the metaphor research on teachers and managers. A couple of interesting conclusions arise. First, there are differences in the self-assumed metaphorical identity of teachers and the metaphors students and works of literature use to describe them. Secondly, in the public discourse, managers’ identity is set in the war metaphor frame, whereas in the leadership theories, they are described either as charismatic or transformational leaders (Storey, 2004a). Finally, our research shows that job ads for CEOs portray the ideal candidates within the charismatic leader frame, leaving out the WAR frame, whereas teacher ads leave out many metaphors that constitute the identity of successful and passionate teachers. This poses the question of why ‘employer branding’ (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004, p. 501) is not applied to the educational setting and whether this points to the status of these two professions in society.