An investigation of pre-school teachers’ creativity perceptions through metaphors

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study is to investigate pre-school teachers’ creativity perceptions through metaphors. This study is a pheno-menological study that is qualitative in nature. The participants were 250 pre-school teachers who worked in the central towns of Adana/Turkey. Data were collected through the Metaphor Questionnaire about the concept of creativity. The data were analyzed using qualitative analysis methods. Results showed that the teachers produced 78 metaphors about creativity. An analysis of the findings in terms of creativity concepts showed that the teachers tried to explain creativity through metaphors about freedom and imagination, which are necessary for creativity. The metaphors produced by the teachers about creativity perceptions were collected under 7 conceptual categories. An analysis of the metaphors used by the teachers, as well as the explanations they provided, indicated that the pre-school teachers did not perceive creativity necessarily including originality.

KEYWORDS:

• Pre-school teachers
• creativity
• creative child
• creative teacher
• metaphor

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers in Pedagogies: An International Journal for their helpful suggestions and comments. We would also like to thank the preschool teachers who kindly helped us with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ayten İflazoğlu Saban

Ayten İflazoğlu Saban is a Professor in the Elementary Education Department, Faculty of Education, University of Çukurova, Adana, TURKEY. Her particular interests lie in the areas of the teaching and learning strategies in teacher education and cooperative learning, multiple intelligence, preschool and elementary education, curriculum development, assesment and classroom management.

Şule Erden Özcan

Şule Erden Özcan, is an assistant professor at the Cukurova University Faculty of Education, Preschool Education Department. Her interests include attachment theory, Executive function, sociocultural and historical analysis of development, gender, creativity, discussion, STEM education, child and family research on a multicultural and intercultural basis. She can be reached at [email protected].