An investigation of primary school teacher's and and primary school teacher candidates' metaphorical perceptions towards special education

The importance of education is felt in every aspect of life and studies in the field of education are increasing. The fact that the constituents of the society are different from each other requires the individualization of the education to be given to the individuals. At this point, the role of teachers who are practitioners of educational activities is undoubtedly very important. For this reason, this study aimed to reveal the perceptions of classroom teacher candidates and classroom teachers towards special education. The study was conducted through qualitative research techniques with phenomenology design. The sample of the study is a total of 70 classroom teachers who provide education in the schools in Amasya province center during the 2015-2016 academic year and 150 class teacher candidates in the 3rd and 4th class which are studying in the department of Elementary Education of Amasya University Education Faculty during the same period. In the study, as a means of collecting data, the "Metaphor for Special Education Questionnaire", which was organized by researchers and consisted of two parts, was used. The data obtained in the study were analyzed and interpreted by the content analysis technique. In the findings, the metaphors that reveal the perceptions of the teachers about the special education are collected under the categories. Metaphors created for special education include nine categories of nursing, need, plant, deprivation, treatment, education, craft, a life style and guide; metaphors related to children who need special education have been collected under 6 categories as art, deprivation, plant, potential owner, extraordinary and needy. In the light of findings, the perceptions of classroom teacher candidates and teachers about special education were analyzed according to the years of service, gender and whether receiving special education course factors it was understood that the perceptions related to children with special education and special education were changed according to sex and wheter receiving special education course. In order to increase the awareness level of special education teachers and class teacher candidates in the study, it is proposed to prepare in-service programs related to special education, and to increase the number of lesson hours related to special education during the teacher education and to organize activities for implementation.