Özet:

In the current study, pre-service special education teachers’ metaphorical perceptions of children with severe and multiple disabilities were examined. The participants of the study, which was designed with phenomenology, one of the qualitative research methods, consisted of 133 pre-service teachers attending special education undergraduate programs in different universities across Türkiye. The research data were collected electronically for 12 days after obtaining the necessary ethical permissions. The data obtained through an online questionnaire were analyzed using content analysis, one of the qualitative research analysis techniques. As a result of the study, a total of 76 different metaphors were developed by pre-service teachers. These metaphors were divided into eight categories. These categories were 1) complexity, 2) preciousness, 3) mysteriousness, 4) difference, 5) difficulty, 6) developability, 7) purity/innocence and 8) other. Pre-service special education teachers generally produced positive metaphors for children with severe and multiple disabilities and preferred metaphors that emphasized the definition characteristics of the concept in question. The findings of the research were discussed within the framework of the literature, and suggestions were made for teacher training practices and future research.

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