Life-Metaphors Among Colombian Leadership Students: Core Values and Educational Implications

The present study utilized metaphor analysis to explore the core values of Colombian college students in a leadership program. The entire class of 60 students was invited to respond to a structured questionnaire. It asked participants to state their preferred life-metaphor, whether they had always preferred this metaphor since childhood or adolescence, and if not, what had caused it to change; and how it guides their actions. Participants were also asked to indicate which 2 of 17 different life-metaphors they most and least preferred. The questionnaire was completed by 51 students (age range: 17-30 years old). The most preferred metaphor was overwhelmingly "Life is like a journey or voyage" and least preferred was overwhelmingly: "Life is like a war." Qualitatively, students' life-metaphors were mainly active, individualistic, and affectively positive. Students predominantly reported that their life-metaphor strongly impacted their motivation and decision-making.