Özet:

The study aims to identify and analyze the preschool teachers’ thoughts and views about inclusive education, through the use of metaphors. The study is structured around the qualitative research pattern, and is carried out 42 preschool teachers, who served in Izmir’s Aliaga district in the employ of the Ministry of Education during the academic year 2019-2020, who did not receive any training on inclusive education, and who volunteered to take part in the study. The data was gathered through the semi-structured online form designed by the researcher, and containing the question “Inclusive education is like ..........., because ............ .” Content analysis was employed to identify categories based on the metaphors, followed by the frequency and percentile analysis of the metaphors. In the context of the study, preschool teachers developed a total of 36 valid metaphors. These were then categorized in five distinct groups. The study revealed that preschool teachers’ perception of inclusive education mostly revolved around the concepts of adoption, combination, vital, unity, and last but certainly not least, equality. Yet another finding of the study is that preschool teachers have mostly positive perceptions of inclusive education, even though they often have different perspectives towards the concept.

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