Learning and development generally cannot be observed per se. As scholars we have to draw conclusions about such central psychological processes by making inferences from indicators of some kind. This implies that metaphors play a central role when we make such phenomena into objects of analysis. Dominant conceptions view learning as a means of achieving a pre-given endpoint understood in terms of mastery of fixed skills. In sociocultural and pragmatist perspectives such an interpretation appears as reductionistic, due to its finalizing character and the assumption of a closure of epistemological meaning-making. As an alternative, education, learning and development may be conceptualized metaphorically as increasing capacities of cultural and dialogic participation. We discuss and exemplify a number of significant learning metaphors, suggesting alternative and competing conceptions of learning and development, which contribute to dialogic growth as an element of education and everyday practices.