Abstract:

This study aims to reveal how secondary school students and teachers conceptualize their school and ideal school through the help of the metaphors. Participants are 576 students and 55 teachers who attend to 6 secondary schools selected from various districts of Ankara. Interviewing technique was employed to collect the data. Descriptive data analysis was utilized to analyze the data. Results demonstrated that the participants hold negative feelings towards their school; they conceptualize school as a place for hindering the development, highly disciplined and authoritarian. Many students used “prison” metaphor to describe their school. They stated that there wasn't freedom and democratic environment at their school. It was also found that majority of the participants perceived school as a loving, care-giving and a home like place. They used “family/home” metaphor to describe the positive atmosphere they had at their schools. Results concerning the ideal school indicated that both students and teachers described the main functions of ideal school as giving entertainment and reassuring places. Participants also described their ideal school as a place of knowledge and enlightment.

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