Comparison of Methaphoric Perception of Teachers and Pre-service Teachers About Curriculum

Abstract

This study was designed to determine and compare the in-service teachers and pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum through metaphors. The participants of the study are 101 in-service teachers and 174 pre-service teachers. In order to collect data, the participants were asked to complete this sentence “when the characteristics of the curriculum are considered, I liken it to ……….., because …………”. In the present study, opinions of the participants were described by means of a qualitative approach. Among the qualitative analysis methods, descriptive analysis technique was employed. The data collected were entered into MS Excel program and they were evaluated by calculating their percentages and frequencies. At the end of the study, it was found that the metaphors created by the in-service teachers mostly include negative perceptions; yet, the metaphors of the pre-service teachers have more positive perceptions of the education program.