Metaphorical percepsions of secondary school students about root values

Abstract

This study aims to determine secondary school students' perceptions of the root values of justice, friendship, honesty, self-control, patience, love, respect, responsibility, patriotism and benevolence, with metaphors produced by students. For this purpose, the phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the data collection and interpretation process. The research was carried out in three secondary schools in the central district of a province located in the west of the Eastern Anatolia Region in the 2019-2020 academic year. The study group was determined by stratum sampling, one of the probability-based sampling methods. The study group of the research consists of a total of 500 students studying in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of secondary school. The research data were obtained through a semi-structured questionnaire containing open-ended questions prepared by the researcher. Content analysis method, one of the qualitative data analysis methods, was used in the process of analyzing and interpreting the data collected in the research. Common codes and categories were created for each root value, and the findings were interpreted. According to the findings obtained from the research, the value that secondary school students produced the most metaphors was friendship; The value in which they had the most misconceptions and had the most problems in producing metaphors was the value of self-control.