DETERMINATION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' METAPHORICAL PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the metaphor that Turkish university students have about the concept of "climate change". The research was carried out with the students at Necmettin Erbakan University, Ahmet Keleşoğlu Faculty of Education (Geography 17, Biology 26, History 47) and Faculty of Health Sciences (Nutrition and Dietetics Department 74) in the spring term of 2021-2022 academic year. The research group consisted of a total of 164 students (124 female, 40 male). The data of the research were collected by qualitative research method and the research was organized in a phenomenological design. To determine the perceptions of the students about the concept of climate change, a semi-structured form containing the expression "climate change is like............because........." was prepared and the students were asked to complete the sentence given in the form. The data obtained were subjected to content analysis. Tables were created by calculating the number of metaphors in each category, how many students repeated the metaphor (frequency), and percentage values. When the findings of the research are evaluated, it is seen that a total of 96 valid metaphors were produced by the students. These metaphors were coded by considering their common features and 8 different conceptual categories were formed. Some of these categories are "Climate change leading to uncertainty", "Climate change as a symptom of danger/worry", "Climate change as the beginning of change", "Climate change as the work of insensitivity", "Climate change as a factor forcing to get used to the new situation", "Climate change with a disruptive effect", "Climate change as a cause of despair", "Climate change as a source of different thoughts", and the number of metaphor and frequencies of these categories are calculated and given in tables. When the findings obtained are analyzed, it is seen that the most recurrent metaphor for climate change includes concepts such as human (f=5), mental state (f=4), life (f=3), a sick body (f=3), disappointment (f=3), cancer (f=3), extinction (f=4), moving (f=4), disaster (f=3), end of the world (f=3), and chaos (f=2). When the metaphor produced by the students in this study are analyzed, it is seen that the perceptions of university students about the concept of climate change are diverse and rich.  Article visualizations: