Humanity used to have a harmonious relationship with nature for a very short period of civilization history. However, the tendency to dominate nature has been the common denominator of all cultures in thought and action for thousands of years. In environmental literature, there is a common consensus that natural balances have changed due to more human activities following the industrial revolution. The environmental problem, defined as "global warming" in recent years, has developed as a result of human activities. This problem affects humanity with its economic, social and cultural dimensions as well as many other living species. Over the past decade, living has increasingly become harder for many living beings on the planet. Policies are being developed at national and international levels to cope with this problem and various opinions and practices are put forward. Most of these practices are based on individual local measures. However, studies show that individuals have misconceptions about this issue. For this purpose, this study aims to understand the perceptions of 87 participants, 65 women and 22 men living in the TRNC, about global warming through a "metaphor analysis". Since the study was conducted within the covid-19 period, it was conducted among the participants who can operate through a digital space. The essence of the study is based on determining how the participants express the concept of global warming, make sense of it and characterize it visually. The study was conducted using a qualitative phenomenology design. With this method, the study aimed to make sense of the phenomena that the participant described depending on their experiences. The data obtained were evaluated by content analysis method. Semi-structured forms were distributed for data collection. The first part of the form is based on demographic information, and the second part is to determine the perceptions of the participants about global warming. In order to do this the question of “If you were to compare global warming to something (abstract, concrete, alive, non-living), what would you compare it to? Why?” was asked to the participants. Lastly, the participants were required to answer the question in the sentence format of; “Global warming is like…. Because ………..). In the study, 87 metaphors about the concept of "global warming" created by the participants were evaluated. The analyzed metaphors were gathered under 13 different conceptual categories. The expressions were interpreted and categorized by looking at how often the metaphors formed by male and female participants were used. Since this study does not consist of an equal number of male and female participants, gender differences should not be taken into account in the findings.
Primary Language | English |
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Subjects | Studies on Education |
Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | January 31, 2021 |
Published in Issue | Year 2021 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 |