Metaphors describing teachers and teaching are separated into distinct philosophical perspectives: social order, cultural transmission, learner-centered growth, and social reform. Personal narratives about teachers written by students and teachers and perspectives of pedagogical theorists and methodologists were analyzed to determine prevalent metaphors. The resulting 14 metaphors are categorized into the four philosophical perspectives, e.g., the "teacher as manufacturer" metaphor is located within the social order perspective. The identification of metaphors for teachers and teaching has implications for language teaching methodologies, initiating a shift from metaphorical to scientific thought and settling disputes between common sense, science-of-education, and reflective-practitioner approaches to educational knowledge. (LLBA 1998, vol. 32, n. 5)