Özet:

Early literacy skills are strong key skills that support the language development processes of children in the pre-school period, lay the foundations of academic success in primary school and subsequent years, and provide readiness for the literacy teaching process in the first grade. These skills are acquired by preschool teachers during the preschool education process in the first years of life. It is thought that pre-service teachers' perceptions of the concept of early literacy in their undergraduate years may have reflections on the preparation, processing and evaluation stages of the process in which they acquire these skills in the classroom environment in the following years. In this study, it is aimed to determine the metaphorical perceptions of pre-school teacher candidates towards the concept of early literacy. The study group of the research, which was carried out in a phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, consists of 52 pre-school teacher candidates who were determined based on the criterion of having taken the School Adjustment and Early Literacy Education undergraduate course. A form prepared by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. Demographic information and incomplete statements such as "Early literacy is like .....; Because….." were included in the form. The data obtained from the research were subjected to content analysis. As a result of the research, the metaphors that pre-service teachers created for the concept of early literacy were gathered under the themes of "The Backbone of Academic Success and Literacy: A Guide that Prepares and Supports", "3Z: Time, Difficulty and Toil” and “Content Richness". As a result of the research, it was determined that the perceptions of pre-school teacher candidates towards the concept of early literacy differ from each other. In addition, it was seen that the metaphors produced by the pre-service teachers were distributed to different themes according to the gender variable.

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