METAPHORICAL PERCEPTIONS OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS FOR ACCOUNTING EDUCATION: B？LEC？K ？EYH EDEBAL？ UNIVERSITY FEAS (FACULTY OF ECONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES) CASE

Metaphors are defined as “the language of experiences/ the language of concepts” since they put meaning on individuals’ personal experiences. Accounting encompasses not only numbers that measure the results of business activities but also texts that interpret these numbers in a systematical perspective. Accounting, thus, is known as the “financial language of businesses”. This study aims to examine the perceptions of accounting students about the concept of accounting through numerous metaphors like color, animal, food, season, game, flower and object. In 2017-2018 spring semester, in order to achieve this goal, 377 students in Bilecik ？eyh Edebali University Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, enrolled in the accounting course, from departments such as Business, Finance, Finance and Management Information Systems were asked the survey question: “If accounting were a (color, animal, food, season, game, flower, object), it would be….”, because ….”. Content analysis for the data gathered was performed. The qualitative analysis of the results revealed that the most commonly used metaphors for each category were “black, cat, broccoli, winter, hide-and-seek, cactus and calculator”, respectively. When metaphors for both categories were divided as positive and negative; positive metaphors were “green, dog, bread, spring, chess, rose and calculator” while negative ones were “black, cat, broccoli, winter, hide-and-seek, cactus and calculator”, respectively. It was observed that about 47% of the participant students wanted to work in accounting business. According to the Chi-square analysis between the students’ ideas about choosing the job and the meanings they attached on metaphors, statistical difference was found p≤ 0,05 on all the color, animal, food, season, game, flower and object metaphors. Furthermore, the conceptual category with the highest number of metaphors concerning accounting by the participant students was “accounting as a challenging, boring and complicated course” and the second category in rank was “accounting as a necessary, beneficial and important course”