Ortaokul Öğrencilerinin Vatan Kavramına İlişkin Metaforik Algıları

It is important for the individuals to realize moral values included in the concept of homeland and to gain love of homeland. One of the important ways for them to gain this consciousness is based on the education given from the early ages within the family and the school. The aim of this study is to determine metaphorical perceptions of the fifth, sixth and seventh grade secondary school students of the concept of homeland. We determined the conceptual categories of the metaphors related to the concept of homeland created by the students by taking their common features of the metaphors. Study group included 188 fifth, sixth and seventh graders enrolled at Doğukent, Tevfik Yaramanoğlu and Mezre Secondary schools located in Elazığ city center. Convenience sampling was used to select the participants of the study. Volunteer students were included in the study. Of the 188 secondary school students, 97 were female and 91 were male. Data of the study were collected through the use of the prompt “Homeland is like because ”. The metaphor sheets were handed the participants in their classrooms and were collected in the same way. The students were asked to write the first metaphor that they came up with. Upon completing the metaphor sheet, all the participants were asked to write the reasons of the metaphors they developed regarding homeland. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Eight categories were identified based on the 54 metaphorical images toward the concept of foreign language. Students’ metaphors of homeland were divided into three categories named “trust and solidarity”, “being important”, and “carefulness”. “Home” and “family” are among the most used metaphors. The study results revealed that the students had positive ideas toward the concept of homeland, they felt themselves in security in their homeland and they were aware of the necessity of importance and protection of homeland