A Socio-cultural Perspective on Understanding Learning as Experienced by Mature Students at University

The article introduces an analytical approach to understanding mature students’ stances on learning in an arts university based program. Focusing on the language and tools mature students employ in exploring in interviews their orientations, satisfaction and outcomes of learning at the university, this analysis proposes a socio-cultural perspective to forming an understanding of how they experience learning and form an understanding of themselves whilst at university. To this end, reference is made to the analytical tools provided by Davis and Harré’s positioning theory (1990) and Bloome's chronotopical analysis (2009) developed from Bakhtin's notion of chronotope (1981).