Some Inferences for Educational Programs from Primary School Children's Family Drawings and Verbal Metaphors

Abstract

This study, which was conducted to make inferences for educational programs by determining the family speeches and drawings of primary school students, was designed employing the understanding of the basic qualitative research. The study included 126 primary school students. The family verbal metaphors and family drawing (draw-narrate) techniques were used to gather research data. The data was analyzed using techniques for content and document analysis. It was observed that the primary school students' family linguistic metaphors could be categorized into six themes: nuclear family, extended family, fight, cooperation, enjoyable action done together, and love. The first graders produced more metaphors for the theme of enjoyable action together and fourth graders produced more metaphors for the theme of love. Following an analysis of the family drawings, it was found that the drawings revealed details about the development, emotions, sorts of families, and interactions between family members. It was also observed that children mostly drew family structures consisting of parents and children. The said family drawings contain more information than verbal metaphors. Only six of the 126 metaphors produced are negative. It was determined that the family discussions and family drawings both accurately expressed and reflected the positive values of the educational programs. Future studies should, as was advised, study both family drawings and potential family drawing-related issues.