Phd Students’ Metaphoric Perceptions on Doctorate Education and Instructors

The aim of this study is to determine Phd students’ perceptions on ‘doctorate education’ and ‘instructors’ by means of metaphors. The study group consists of 63 students actively attending their doctorate education at various departments of some universities in Turkey. This group was chosen using criterion sampling method which is one of the purposive sampling methods. The current study was designed as a phenomenological study one of qualitative research methods. The data was analyzed through content analysis. To collect the data a semi structured form which was developed by the researchers was utilized. The results showed that participants totally produced 56 metaphors and 52 of them were different. When the metaphors were grouped based on the reasons put forward; 29 of the metaphors reflected positive perceptions, 25 of them reflected negative perceptions and two of them reflected neutral perceptions. Participants produced 58 metaphors for instructors and 43 of them were different. When these metaphors were grouped based on the reasons put forward, 38 of them reflected positive perceptions, 12 of them negative perceptions and one of them neutral perceptions. As for 7 metaphors, they reflected positive and negative perceptions simultaneously