Analysis of 8th Grade Students' Viewpoints to the Concept of Democratic Citizen through Metaphors

Abstract

In this study, it is aimed to determine the view of the 8th grade students on the concept of democratic citizens through the metaphors. In the research towards the general objective, one of the qualitative research designs phenomenology was used. The participants of the survey are 160, 8th grade students in the Körfez district of Kocaeli province in the academic year of 2016-2017. Of the 8th grade students who participated in the survey, 85 are boys and 75 are girls. Data have been reached with semi-structured forms. The metaphors and explanations written by the students were used as the basic data source in this research. Data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings from the research show that 8th grade students perceive democratic citizenship in eight categories: freedom, justice, unity and solidarity, participation, equality, patriotism, diligence and responsibility. When the opinions of the students are analyzed, it is seen that the metaphors they produce concentrate on the categories of freedom and justice. In this context, with 13 students the most widely used metaphor is "fair citizen". Besides the students produced metaphors mostly in the category of freedom. With "tree" and "free bird" metaphors they emphasized dimension of freedom of democratic citizenship. Students have also mentioned the distinctive characteristics of democracy, such as decision-making, election, voting, and having a saying in the country's administration when they are explaining what they do with democratic citizen.