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Recognising the authoritative de/legitimising power of education systems, this paper contributes to studies concerned with the ways in which new entrants to higher education experience the positioning of their inherited identities as they negotiate their transition to campus life. The findings emerged during a broader psychosocial study of the transitions of seven first-generation students at a technical university in South Africa. The nature of their self-positioning was explored through an analysis of the positioning statements they articulated during photo-elicitation interviews. The university was positioned as a powerful institution, with conditions for both opportunity and alienation. Participants strongly identified with the professional community of practice in Art and Design. However, in relation to the urban campus context, the majority of participants positioned aspects of their home communities as deficit. A case is made for creating conducive conditions that enable self-reflection on students’ transitional experiences and develop collective critical consciousness.

Dina Zoe Belluigi, Andrea Alcock, Veronica Farrell and Grace Idahosa reflect on figurative imagery in their research practices to expose the “hidden curriculum of higher education”. Their reflection recounts discursive processes in an attempt to “make sense” of “the modes of politics” in which they engage.   How to cite this reflective piece:  BELLUIGI, Dina Zoe; ALCOCK, Andrea; FARRELL, Veronica; IDAHOSA, Grace. Mixed metaphors, mixed messages and mixed blessings: how figurative imagery opens up the complexities of transforming higher education. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. v. 3, n. 2, p. 110-120, Sept. 2019. Available at:  https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=105&path%5B%5D=50   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/