Rewriting Teacher Metaphors of Censorship Worries

United States secondary English teachers face censorial pushback about their curricula from external others, which in turn, influences the choices they make in selecting materials and determining instructional approaches. This study is framed through Lakoff and Johnson’s argument that everyday language is replete with metaphors that shape both how we understand and respond to our world. It describes the survey responses of 3,298 teachers who drew repeatedly upon metaphors to express their worries about censorship. Participants envisioned censorship through metaphors of war and destruction, predator and prey, games and tools, restriction, and destabilisation. Collectively, these metaphors position censors as powerful and teachers as weak. We envision and share examples of alternative metaphors of war and destruction that disrupt teachers’ roles in ways that have the potential to shift the framing, conversation, and distribution of power that influence how teachers might conceive of and respond to censorship.