Under‐standing: The ‘sleeping beauty’ of educational metaphors

Abstract In this article, we argue that the term ‘understanding’ may be best understood as a ‘sleeping’ or ‘dormant’ metaphor, its metaphoricity ‘slumbering just below the surface’, waiting to be awakened. By engaging in a process of re‐etymologisation, we re‐establish the metaphorical character and potency of ‘understanding’ and explore some of the key implications for education. As a metaphor, the term ‘understanding’ highlights the relational and positional nature of what it might mean to understand and enables us to better describe the relationships between the subject and the object of understanding.