Prospective Teachers’ Metaphoric Perceptions of “Student, Teacher and School”

This study aimed to determine pedagogic formation students' metaphorical images of “students, teachers, and schools.” The study sample consisted of 101 pedagogical formation students of Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University in 2019-2020 academic year. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling. Metaphors were used a means of qualitative data collection. Data were collected using a semi-structured metaphor form and analyzed using content analysis. Participants generated 48 different (80 in total), 45 different (86 in total), and 42 different (82 in total) metaphors for students, teachers, and schools, respectively. Conceptual categories concerning students, teachers, and schools were developed based on literature and participants' justifications for their metaphors. Conceptual categories were ranked based on their frequency. The categories for students were “Students as individuals who are molded, Students as information providers/receivers, Students as developing individuals, Students as obedient individuals, Students as unique individuals, Students as inhibited individuals, Students as individuals who are on their way/looking for a way, and Students as selfless individuals.” The categories for teachers were “Teachers as guides, Teachers as sources and transmitters of knowledge, Teachers as sources of love and trust, Teachers as sources of authority, Teachers as role models, Teachers as molders, Teachers as self-sacrificing individuals, and Teachers as sources of improvement.” The categories for schools were “Schools as sources of information, Schools as part of life, Schools as places of change, development, and maturation, Schools as places of trust and happiness, Schools as places of inclusion, Schools as places of inhibition, Schools as places of molding, Schools as places of guiding and leading, Schools as indispensable places, Schools as complex places, Schools as places of socialization, and Schools as places that have lost their purpose.”