Constructions of learning in higher education: metaphor, epistemology, and complexity

Abstract

This chapter sets out to explore the ways in which learning in Higher Education is discussed by a group of learners, as opposed to how it is discussed by theorists and policy makers2. This will be done through examining metaphors in the talk of a group of mature students who are about to embark upon a university access course. Questions will then be raised about the type of analysis which underpins this discussion, and an alternative analysis will be explored which will attempt to look at description and metaphor from a different epistemological perspective, that of complexity and non-linear/dynamic systems theory (Cilliers, 1998; Bosma & Kunnen, 2001).