Investigation of metaphorical perceptions of secondary school students toward concepts of effective citizenship and legal rules

Abstract

The aim of this research is to reveal the perceptions of middle school students about the concepts of "effective citizenship"and "rules of law"through metaphors. The study group consists of 129 seventh grade students who are studying in a secondary school in Istanbul during the 2016-2017 academic years. The descriptive survey model was used in the study. The research data were gathered through a form that asked to complete the sentences: "Effective citizenship is like..... ; because...." and "Rules of law are like because ". The content analysis technique was used for analyzing and interpreting the data. According to the results of the research; Students developed 60 different metaphors for the concept of "effective citizenship" and they are named in five different categories as: "valuable and the source of life, protector and challenger, production and source of study, predatory and powerful, guide and guiding". Similarly, 62 different metaphors have been developed by students for the concept of "rules of law"and they are divided into five different categories as "protective, guiding, extraordinary power source and hero, life giving, justice and equilibrium" While the students developed metaphors such as "Ant, bee, cow, lion, poultry and eagle" for the concept of effective citizenship, they developed metaphors such as; "father, mother, Quran, tree, teacher, scales, wound band" for the concept of legal rules. It has been seen that the metaphors related to the concept of effective citizenship are included in the "source of production and work" category, and the concept of the rules of law takes more place in the "protective" category. As a result, secondary school students saw an effective citizen as a procreator, active and beneficial individual for own country, while they saw the legal rules as a protective role for people to continue their lives in a peaceful and healthy