The Issue of Population and Map Information in the Perceptions of Social Sciences Teacher Candidates: A Metaphor Study

The aim of this study was to examine metaphorical perceptions of the social sciences teacher candidates about “the population issue” and “the map information issue” of the geography. As a research method “phenomenology” model, as one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The participants of the research were composed of 73 teacher candidates of the Department of Social Sciences Teaching, the Muallim R？fat Faculty of Education, the University of Kilis 7 Aral？k of the 2018-2019 Fall semester. In the analysis of the data, the content analysis was used. 141 metaphors were found in the responses of social sciences teacher candidates to the questions about “the map information” and “the population.” While 69 of the metaphors expressed were related to the subject of “the map information”, 72 of them were about “the population.” In the analysis of the question about the map information, it has been found that 66 of the metaphors have negative associations while 3 of them have positive associations. Some of the most recurrent metaphors for the question of map information are the snake (4), the season of winter (2), plumbing (2), and ivy (2). Social sciences teacher candidates produced 72 metaphors on the issue of “population” in geography in total. 67 of these metaphors had positive associations, while 5 of them had negative associations. On the issue of population, the metaphors that were repeated frequently by the teacher candidates were as chocolate (5), pomegranate (4), flowers (3), cars (3)