Perceptions of Preschool Teachers About Their Role in the School Context (Use of Metaphors and Literal Language)

Abstract

This article examines the perceptions of preschool teachers in reference to their role in the school context. In recent years teachers have been obliged to take on additional roles. Except for solving problems related to the pedagogical process, they should be able to solve general issues related to the operation of the school unit. The qualitative method was followed for the design of the research tool and its analysis. The research involved 47 preschool teachers of public kindergartens in Western Greece. In order to study the perceptions of preschool teachers about their role in the school context we, used an open-ended question. For greater validity of their answers, preschool teachers are asked to answer in two questions. In the first question, the participants describe their role using literal language while in the second question the participants describe their role using metaphors-metaphorical images. The results of the study as far as the first question is concerned, which regarded preschool teachers’ perception of the use of literal language, recorded sixteen (16) categories. The second question, regarding the perceptions of preschool teachers about the use of metaphors-metaphorical images resulted in eight (8) categories. The NVivo-8 qualitative analysis software was utilized for data analysis.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0951/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>