The examination of international students’ metaphorical perceptions on multicultural education

The purpose of this study is to examine the metaphorical perceptions of international students in Turkey about multicultural education. The study group is composed of 117 international students who are studying in different cities in Turkey. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and electronically. Descriptive analysis with a qualitative approach was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicated 76 metaphors produced by international students. These metaphors were grouped under six conceptual categories in terms of their common characteristics. For the definition of multicultural education, the metaphors of “rainbow (n=17)”, “garden (n=7)” and “sea” (n=5) were mostly used. Additionally, it has been identified that metaphoric perception of both general and some demographic variables such as gender and educational level are compatible.