Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers' Perceptions of Teacher-(Vice)Principal Relationship Using Metaphor Analysis: Focusing on the Educational Community Perspective

The purpose of this study is to examine prospective early childhood pre-service teachers' perceptions of the teacher-(vice)principal relationship using metaphor analysis, and to provide implications regarding the desirable teacher-(vice)principal relationship that prospective early childhood pre-service teachers should form from an educational community perspective. For this purpose, data were collected from November 30 to December 22, 2023, targeting 135 students majoring in early childhood education and child studies at a 4-year university located in G Metropolitan City. The collected data were analyzed according to an 8-step metaphor analysis procedure and the results were presented. As a result of the study, childhood pre-service teachers' perceptions about the teacher-(vice)principal relationship were characterized into three categories and eight subcategories. The three categories are: ‘Relationship between leader and follower walking the same path’, ‘Relationship of cooperation based on trust and respect’, ‘Relationship of imbalance of power’. The eight subcategories are: ‘relationship of providing and receiving support for the driving force of educational implementation’, ‘relationship of cooperation as a member of the early childhood education community’, ‘relationship of suggesting and following direction’, ‘relationship of giving teaching and receiving learning’, ‘relationship between the strong and the weak’, ‘relationship in which we are emotionally embraced and supported’, ‘relationship in which we trust and respect each other’, ‘relationship in which we are different but must maintain a balance’ This study is expected to provide basic data for education and research to establish an educational community culture in the early childhood education field.