Abstract:

The main purpose of this study is to determine teachers’ mental images about concept of student via metaphors. This research is significant as it attempts to explore teachers’ perceptions of their students according to the school socio economic status in their professional year and conduct necessary studies. The research is a qualitative research and designed as phenomenological pattern. This research was carried out with participation of 83 teachers working at various schools which have different socio economic status, in Şehitkamil district of Gaziantep, in 2012-2013 academic year. The participants were chosen using maximum variation sampling method which is one of the purposive sampling methods. The research data were collected with open-ended questionnaires. Content analysis technique which is a qualitative research method was used to analyze the data. Teachers explained the concept of “student” via some metaphors such as dough, mirror, family, mud, teacher’s invisible face. The metaphors created by teachers were collected under eight categories: Student as produced/formed asset, Student as reflective asset, Student as aimless asset, Student as recipients of knowledge, Student as valuable asset, Student as need to guidance asset, Student as limited asset, Student as striving asset. Explained metaphors related to the categories varied according to the school socio economic status. According to the findings, some suggestions were drawn such as conducting motivating studies via school guidance services to change the perception of teachers’ who have negative perceptions of the students.

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