The Illumination Metaphor frames knowledge and learning in terms of visibility and clarity. Perhaps most commonly encountered in phrases such as “I see” – meaning, “I understand” – the Illumination Metaphor tends to be coupled with either the Acquisition Metaphor’s version of knowledge (i.e., there’s an object to be seen) or the Nativism’s version of knowledge (i.e., there’s an inner truth to be pulled into the light).
Learn More...“Learning as acquisition” – the Acquisition Metaphor – is probably the most commonly invoked learning metaphor in English. It is evident in such phrases as “grasping the point,” “taking things in,” “getting it,” “picking things up,” “hard to swallow,” “remember this stuff,” and “cramming for the test.” It is not theoretically sophisticated, relying on the assumption that knowledge comprises externalized objects, and asserting that learning is a process of moving those objects from the outside to the inside.
Learn More...The Attainment Metaphor is prominent in current discussions of formal education. It frames knowledge as existing in discrete regions (e.g., fields, areas) to be traversed, and learning is typically framed as progressing across (and sometimes dwelling in) those regions. Learning is cast in movement-based sensibilities –e.g., as “getting there.”
Learn More...Folk Theories exist within every realm of human engagement. They are, in effect, uncritical and often-indefensible principles of action and interpretation that are woven through everyday language and broad cultural sensibilities. In effect, most of the past 150 years of research into learning has been focused on exposing Folk Theories and exploring more conscious and scientifically robust alternatives.
Learn More...Focus
Trusting more in what has been revealed than what has been discerned and interpreted
Principal Metaphors
- Knowledge is … ideal or factual truths that are “out there,” resident in the universe
- Knowing is … one’s mastery/awareness of knowledge
- Learner is … a receptacle; incomplete being
- Learning is … acquiring; attaining
- Teaching is … relaying, shaping shepherding, illuminating
Originated
Ancient
Synopsis
Western Mysticism- & Religion-Aligned Discourses, while diverse and varied, tend to embrace and perpetuate some rather specific beliefs about learning and teaching. In particular, there is a pervasive assumption that all truth is pre-existent and present out in the universe – resident in an ideal realm, or in a creator’s mind, inscribed in material forms, and so on.
Commentary
That assumption about knowledge calls forward the most prominent and resistant metaphors on learning in English, including the Attainment Metaphor, the Illumination Metaphor, and the Acquisition Metaphor, which it sets the stage for a grab back of Folk Theories and many, somewhat-more-formal theories that are, in the main, in attentive to their uncritical embrace of metaphors tethered to Mysticism- & Religion-Aligned Discourses.
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Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2021). “Mysticism- & Religion-Aligned Discourses” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.
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