Abstract
INVESTIGATION OF METAPHORIC PERCEPTIONS OF PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
The aim of thisstudy is to examine the perceptions of pre-service primary schoo lteachers towards
environmental problems through metaphors.The research question determined for this purposes,
“How are perceptions of pre-service primary schoo lteachers towards environmental problems?”
The research is structured in accordance with the qualitative research approach. In the research,
phenomenology was used in qualitative research designs. The study group of the study consisted
of 45 pre-service teachers in the primary school education of a university in 2018-2019 academic
year. In this study, metaphor form was used to examine the perceptions of pre-service teachers
about environmental problems. The metaphor form is “Environmental problems is like / similar
to.........................Because.............................”. Content analysis was used for data
analysis. 45 pre-service teachersd eveloped 38 different metaphors. Metaphors with the highest
frequency; virus, bacteria, boomerang, dominoes, disease, germ, war concepts. The metaphorsand their reasons for the concept of “environmental problems” in developed by the pre-service
teachers were examined and classified under five categories. Categories formed as a result of
the analysis of metaphors; environmental problems are “spread / advances”, “the end of life”,
“global”, “returns to people”, “has irreversible results”. The majority of the pre-service teachers
(57.8%) have a perception that environmenta lproblems are spreading and progressing.
Approximately 29% of prospective teachers see environmental problems as the end of life. Two
pre-service primary school teachers perceived environmental problems globally, stated that
environmental problems returned to people and stated that environmental problems had
irreversible consequences.
Keywords
Environmental education, metaphor form, pre-service primary school teachers, environmental problems