How Metaphors Make Sense of Crisis: The Case of South African #FreeHigherEducation# Movement

Abstract

Public universities in South Africa are embroiled in an era of unplanned radical change driven by violent student protests between 2015 and 2018 to ask for free higher education for poor students and overcome past inequalities amidst a broader, unstable economic climate. This paper uses a discourse dynamics approach to metaphor analysis to contextualize how higher education leaders experience and respond to a crisis. The power of metaphor analysis lies in the fact that it can help organize, interpret, and make sense of matters that are difficult to verbalize, particularly under constant pressures from many directions. Data were collected through 37 semi-structured interviews with senior managers from different portfolios within 16 public universities during a violent student protest and the instant implementation of free higher education policy in South Africa, which are combined and called #FreeHigherEducation# movement. The findings from this study advance the literature of leadership language in crisis by subtly understanding leaders' emotions via the way they use metaphors to convey what is truly felt and develop a framework of crisis adaptation. They also suggest recommendations for policymakers and higher education managers to steer change better.