Since the 1990s Poland has launched major changes into its socio-political and educational systems. Our goal is to investigate the impact this may have had upon learners’ and teachers’ educational concepts. Employing guidelines offered by Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), data were collected from English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and learners and classified according to coherence patterns. The data from both groups reveal a dynamic character of the concepts in question. The stage of ontogenetic development (i.e. time of entering the learning/teaching system) influences the static/dynamic character of educational metaphors. This questions validity of claims treating metaphors as static signs rather than dynamic sign-processes. Via an inductive approach to CMT, one can capture conceptual changes within individuals, whether learners or teachers, which may serve teacher education.