Metaphoric Perceptions of Pre-Service Primary School Teachers on Reading and Reading Disability

There is widespread acknowledgement that importance of reading skill is increasing day by day. Reading is the first step to learning and revealing something new. Beyond the primary grades, it plays a vital role in keeping up with the requirements of the age. Individuals who read, understand, question, think and produce develop societies. Thus, it is inevitable that individuals who have difficulties in acquiring reading skill will encounter difficulties both in school life and in society. To remove barriers of people presence in academic and daily life, students with these difficulties should be identified as early as possible and the difficulties they experience should be eliminated. The proficiency of primary school pre-service teachers regarding the concepts of "reading'' and "reading difficulty'' gives clues for identifying and remedying individuals with reading disabilities. It is aimed to determine the metaphorical perceptions of primary school pre-service teachers towards the concepts of "reading'' and "reading disability'' in order to help address this issue. The study group of the research consists of 89 4th-grade primary school pre-service teachers who continue their education at a state university in the Black Sea Region in Turkey in the fall semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The model of this research is phenomenology which is one of the qualitative research methods. A questionnaire developed by the researchers was used as a data collection tool. Content analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. Five different categories related to reading skills and reading disabilities emerged as a result of the analysis of the data. Categories related to the concept of reading skills are 'Discovering Something New', 'Fun Source', 'Embarking on Adventure', 'Decoding' and 'Other'. The categories related to the concept of reading disability are 'Difficulty', 'A problem in itself', 'Visual impairment', 'Deficiencies' and 'An insurmountable problem'. [This study was presented as an oral presentation at the 17th International Primary Teacher Education Symposium 11-14 April 2018/Ankara.]