The Discontinuous Learning Journey. The Hero's Journey as a Discontinuous Learning Metaphor
Beiträge zu Bildungstheorie und Bildungsforschung, Bd. 11
Felix Penzias
ISBN 978-3-8325-4855-1
169 pages, year of publication: 2019
price: 35.50 €
This book relates two domains to each other via metaphor. One is the theoretical conception of discontinuous learning experiences from the philosophy of education. The other domain is a certain literary genre called the Hero's Journey, that stands as a model and analysis tool for the construction of what counts as a 'good' story. The combination of these two areas comes from the underlying assumption in this book, that what fascinates people about a story are the connections they make to their own learning experiences. This specifically addresses learning experiences where people are confronted with unexpected difficulties.
Therefore it is important to describe what counts as 'good' story criteria, as well as to problematize how to suggest a model for a process, that is per definition unpredictable. Seeking the possible solution via metaphor means to also take a closer look on the concept of metaphor in general and to put the idea of metaphorical methodology up for discussion in philosophical scientific context. This is accompanied with the insight, that the concept of understanding metaphor holds many parallels to the conception of discontinuous learning experiences, enabling new perspectives on the topic as the usual ones.