Abstract:

A person who perceives the meaning of a concept or phenomenon and expresses them by using similes. Metaphor is a way of thinking and seeing. Metaphors give opportunities for comparing two things, drawing attention to the similarities between two things and explaining one thing in terms of another. Recently “metaphors” that drew the attention of educators have become the subject of both national and international literature. This research was carried out to put forward the metaphors produced by geography teachers’ towards “environment” concept. The study group of the research is 116 geography teachers that attend in Istanbul. Following questions were searched to answer: 1-Which metaphors do geography teachers use to explain the perceptions about “environment” concept? 2-Under which categories do these metaphors conduct in terms of their common features? The research data was gathered by completing “Environment is like ... because ...” statement. The analysis and interpretation of the data was done with the phenomenological science design, and content analysis technique of qualitative research method. According to the findings of the research, geography teachers have created 49 different and acceptable metaphors related to environment concept. These metaphors were classified under 5 different conceptual categories after studied carefully in relation with their common qualities. At the end of the research, It was understood that 34% of the geography teachers perceived environment as a way of “importance”, 32% as a way of “reflectivity”, 22% as a way of “sensibility”, 8% as a way of expressing “peace”, and 3% perceived it as a way of expressing “variation”. As a result, metaphors can be used as a strong research tool in understanding and explaining the perceptions of geography teachers towards environment.

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