Abstract:

This study aims to examine primary school students who may or may not know a special needs person's perceptions about “Individuals with special needs” by using the metaphor analysis method. In this study, case study design was used by the nature of qualitative research. The participants of this study consisted of 50 students studying in primary schools in Eastern Turkey. The criterion sampling method was used to determine the participants. Within the scope of the study, necessary permissions were obtained by observing ethical rules. During the data collection process, the participants were given a form asking about the variables class, gender, and having a relative with special needs. On the same paper participants were asked to complete the following sentence “Individuals with special needs are like ….. Because…”. The collected data were analyzed and the metaphors were examined under seven conceptual categories: "Weakness, Uncertainty, Beauty, Creativity, Contrast, Uniqueness, and Other". According to the studies,”. It was determined that there were individuals with special needs in the immediate environment of nine students participating in this study. Considering the metaphorical perceptions of these participants towards individuals with special needs, it was seen that the students produced metaphors mostly in the category of “Weakness”. To add more it has been revealed that the other most associated conceptual category following this was the “Beauty” category. On the other hand, primary school students mostly associated the concept of "Individuals with special needs" with the category of "Weakness". It was revealed that the most associated conceptual categories following this were “Uncertainty” and “Beauty”. Examination of metaphors according to the class variable showed that the 3rd-grade students produced metaphors mostly in the categories of Weakness (5) and Uncertainty (5), and the 4th-grade students' metaphors mostly in the categories of Beauty (4) and Creativity (4). Distribution of the metaphors according to the gender variable revealed that female students produced metaphors mostly in the “Beauty” category. It was observed that male students produced metaphors mostly in the category of “Uncertainty”. Regarding the results of this study, the reasons for these findings can be investigated in future studies. It is hoped that this study will be helpful for further research.

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