Abstract:

With the increase in the importance attached to individuals with special needs and their education both in Turkey and the world, inclusive education has come into prominence. Inclusive education is defined as educating the students with special needs in the regular classrooms with their peers by making use of supportive special education services. The biggest role in creating a positive educational environment for inclusive education is played by the teachers. Within this context, the students with special needs primarily participate in preschool education after the diagnosis process. Considering the cognitive characteristics of preschoolers, preschool teacher has an important role in the inclusion of students with special needs into education process. Like other teachers, preschool teachers start their careers with some perceptions, attitudes, and thoughts. Therefore, it can be expressed that their perceptions, attitudes, and thoughts have an effect on their behaviors as teachers. Most of these perceptions are constituted during their bachelor education and continue for the rest of their professional life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the preservice preschool teachers’ perceptions of “inclusive students” through metaphors. The data were collected from preservice preschool teachers studying at a state university in Central Black Sea Region during 2017-2018 academic year. Within this scope, the data were analyzed through metaphor analysis technique. The results revealed that the participants produced a total of 74 metaphors. 52 of these metaphors were positive while 22 were negative. The metaphors were classified into 6 categories based on the explanations of participants. 

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