School administrators metaphorical perceptions of special education and children with special needs

Children with special needs are included in educational system more day by day. In this case, it is not only the task of the teacher to offer the right education environment to the student with special needs, but school administrators also have a very important role in this process. At this point, the approach and attitudes of school administrators to the concept of special education and individuals with special needs will affect school management practices. For this reason, we aimed to determine the metaphoric perceptions of school administrators about special education and children with special needs. The research designed with qualitative research methodology and 108 school administrators were included in the research. Research findings emphasized that some of the school administrators are approaching children with special needs with their strong aspects, while some emphasized the sensitivity and passive aspects of individuals with special needs and special education. In this direction, the most common metaphors were “flower, sun, baby…”. These metaphors are similar to the findings of other metaphor research aimed at determining approaches to individuals with special needs.