More than a Journey: ‘Learning’ in the Metaphors of Chinese Students and Teachers

Abstract

In this chapter we aim to get an inside picture of learning from the perspectives of Chinese participants by analysing large numbers of metaphors given by students and teachers in China. Our analysis leads to a complex cultural model of learning but here we focus particularly on one strand of this, which is that ‘learning is a journey’. We ask the research question of how Chinese university students represent learning in terms of metaphors and we investigate the major example of how learning is envisaged as a journey, its nature and features, and about the necessary qualities needed to succeed in learning. We show how the picture presented by university teachers in China complements that of students.