DETERMINING TRNC PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS' METAPHORICAL PERCEPTIONS REGARDING THE CONCEPT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Abstract

Climate change can be defined as the long-term change in the general average of the climate due to various reasons. This study, it was aimed to determine the metaphors (mental images) of primary school teachers regarding the concept of climate change and to contribute to the shaping of environmental education studies in this direction. People's perceptions are very important in shaping attitudes. Attitudes shape individuals' behaviors. However, determining teacher attitudes is very important for pre-service and post-service training studies on the subject. Determining the metaphorical perceptions of teachers at this level on climate change will make significant contributions to shaping environmental education activities on the subject. Within the scope of this study, an answer was sought to the question of what primary school teachers' mental images of "climate change" are. The research was prepared with a qualitative method. The study was based on the phenomenology pattern. Easily accessible case sampling was used in the study. The participants of this study were those who worked in public schools affiliated with the Primary Education Department of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Ministry of National Education in the 2022-2023 academic years; It consists of 100 primary school teachers. Within the scope of the research, data was collected digitally through a worksheet created in Google Forms, one of the online data collection tools. After teachers fill in demographic information on the created digital worksheet; Climate Change………………. Similar/Like; They were asked to complete the sentence because……………………………………………. The data were analyzed with the help of content analysis. 100 different teachers evaluated within the scope of the research stated 38 different metaphors regarding the concept of climate change.