Metaphors Used by School Leaders for Globalisation in the Kingdom of Bahrain: Their Interpretations and Implications

Abstract

In both our professional and personal interactions, we sometimes use metaphors to bring home more clearly to our listeners what we are attempting to say or convey. Walter and Helmig (2008, p. 123) emphasise that metaphors serve as ‘surrogates for other words’, and they have great influence on the construction of our realities. What metaphors for globalisation are used by school leaders in Bahrain? How do these school leaders interpret these metaphors, and what implications can be derived from the use of these metaphors? Using data from group reports, individual interviews, and a focus group interview of school leaders undergoing an Educational Leadership Programme at the Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain, this study attempted to determine (1) the types of metaphors used for globalisation by the participant school leaders of Bahrain; (2) interpretations given by the participant school leaders for those metaphors; (3) possible implications of the use of those metaphors for the participants’ leadership roles in schools; and (4) the implications of globalisation, from the perspective of those metaphors, for education in Bahrain. The study found that school leaders in Bahrain described globalisation using metaphors that saw globalisation as unavoidable, as both positive and negative, and as a two-way process, among others. Implications were drawn for the role of the school leader and for education in Bahrain.