The media uses metaphor to subtly suggest how we should think. Children take years to understand metaphors the way adults do, how can we help them to notice when metaphor is used to influence them?

“The war on drugs”, “immigrants flooding into the country”, “fighting Covid-19”: the press, politicians and social media use metaphor to convince us of their point of view. Research shows that metaphor is difficult for children and takes years to understand the way adults do. This talk discusses how helping young people to engage with and critique metaphor can foster their critical literacy skills. The talk will introduce metaphor and why it is difficult for children, cover metaphor’s role in education and persuasion, and present our research into how well children can notice and pull apart metaphors that are intended to influence them.

Dr Sarah Daniel is a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. She has previously worked in the translation industry and taught English as a Foreign Language.

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