Rhizomatic mapping: spaces for learning in higher education

Philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari's figuration of the rhizome describes structures that are non-hierarchical and open-ended. Rhizomatic analyses are increasingly being adopted in educational research to challenge traditional power structures, give voice to those previously unheard and open issues in messy but authentic ways. Rhizomatic mapping involves depicting a number of points that elaborate, shape and disrupt each other, encouraging readers to draw their own interconnecting routes or separating chasms between them. In this paper, I adopt rhizomatic mapping techniques to open up issues of learning spaces in one Australian university, in order to problematise the mass university's approaches to student learning. In this mapping, I give voice to two of the least powerful groups in the university, first-year students and sessional tutors, alongside educational academics and administrators.