Determining secondary school students' perceptions on Hacı Bektaş Veli: A metaphor study

Hacı Bektaş Veli, seeing humans as the most honorable beings among all creatures, has enlightened Anatolia with his teachings. He has provided the people with an implicit program through his teachings, guiding the way in raising generations who are moral, virtuous, and knowledgeable. The aim of this research is to determine the perceptions of 7th-grade middle school students towards Hacı Bektaş Veli through metaphors within the scope of values education. The research was designed with a phenomenological design, which is one of the qualitative research patterns. The phenomenological design aims to reveal an individual's experiences related to a concept or a phenomenon. The study group of the research consists of 239 students attending 7th grade in middle schools affiliated with the National Education Directorate in the city center of Niğde during the Spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. Of these students, 118 are male and 121 are female. The purposive sampling method of maximum variation sampling was used in determining the study group. A semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used as the data collection tool. Necessary permissions and documents were obtained from relevant institutions to collect the data. The research was conducted on a voluntary basis. The data analysis was performed using the content analysis method. As a result of the research findings, it was concluded that students produced metaphors related to justice, peace, scientificity, sensitivity, honesty, aesthetics, equality, respect, love, responsibility, altruism, and patriotism in relation to Hacı Bektaş Veli.