Early Childhood Preservice Teachers’ Metaphoric Perceptions of Child in Turkish Culture

The purpose of this study is to investigate early childhood preservice teachers' perceptions of the “Child in Turkish Culture” through metaphors. The study group consists of 117 undergraduate students enrolled in the early childhood education program of a state university. The research data are based on the Personal Information Form and the participants' statements “In Turkish culture, a child is like... because...,” which were obtained by filling in the blanks in the expression. The data were analyzed using the content analysis method. In the research, a phenomenological study was conducted as part of the qualitative research approach. As a result, 99 valid metaphors, 76 of which were different, were examined in terms of their common features and classified into 11 categories. According to the findings, the most frequently produced metaphors were joy, flower, gold, dough, tree, and puppet. The categories in which the most metaphors were produced are, respectively, “a precious asset”, “the future of society”, "manipulable and moldable", “natural and source of happiness”. Freshmen preservice teachers mostly produce metaphors belonging to the “natural and source of happiness”, while the metaphors created by senior preservice teachers intensify in the categories of “a precious asset” and “the future of society”.